USB Flash Drive is Not Recognized on Windows and Mac: How to Fix

Fortunately, they seamlessly work on both Windows and Mac computers. However, USB flash drives also face a number of challenges and you could easily lose data from them too. One major challenge you could experience with them is the failure to show up on Mac or Windows. Or simply put, Mac Won't recognize it, Windows won't recognize it too and you can recover lost data from flash drives!

Some of these situations can be so daring especially if you are using the USB flash drive to store or transfer very crucial high value business data. In this article, we have prepared some of the key messages you will not want to miss about USB flash drives that fail to show up on Mac and Windows. You can also read about how to recover files from this USB drive. We bet you will be glad to learn a few fixes from this guide.

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Why is My USB Flash Drive not Showing up on Windows and Mac?

Usually, the problem can either be the flash drive, or the computer. You may also be dealing with a broken flash drive. Below are some of the likely causes and signs to look out for.

Indications of a Connection

Whenever you connect a USB Flash drive to Windows or Mac computers, you should be able to hear some notification as a sign of successful connection to the system.

If you have inserted the drive but won't hear any sound or notification, then you should know straight that the drive is not connected or not recognized. This is the same case with both Mac and Windows systems.

Causes of Flash Drive not Recognized

There are several likely causes to this problem. Below are just some of them:

1. USB formatting issue
2. USB port related issues
3. Hard drive related issues
4. OS related issues

How to Fix USB Flash Drive not Recognized on Windows and Mac

There are many ways to fix the unrecognized USB flash drive on Mac and Windows. In this section, we will show you a few fixes you can implement to get yourself out of trouble without losing a dollar.

There are several possible fixes for USB flash drives not recognized on Mac or Windows. We will give you some of the top fixes. However, you may have lost data in the process and need to get back your files as a matter of urgency. If that is the case, Disk Drill by Cleverfiles is the go-to data recovery solution for both Mac and Windows. Download, install, and recover your files like a pro!

Method 1: Fix the Connection

Many times, like we already explained above, USB flash unrecognized is contributed to by connection issues. Before you know it, the flash drive may be broken too! Try to restart your computer or Mac and check again if the error is fixed. If not yet fixed, follow the steps below to implement further fixes.

Step 1: Pull the flash drive out from the port where it is currently connected.

Step 2: Attempt to connect the flash drive in all the other available USB ports on the computer.

In case you are using a USB connector or USB connecting cable, remove them and try connecting the drive to the USB port by itself.

Also, if you have a different Windows or Mac PC next to you, you can try connecting the USB to it and check if the drive is accepted on it.

Either of these attempts should fix the USB not recognized error and help you perform flash drive recovery on Mac. Otherwise, you may need to keep trying with a different method until you fix the problem.

Method 2: Change Desktop Settings

In some cases, the Mac could be detecting the USB flash drive but just not showing it on the desktop. Where this is the case, you need to go to the Finder, check preferences and General, then click to tick the 'External disks' option.

If that was the cause of the problem, you should now see the USB drive appearing on your Mac.

Method 3: Change the Finder Settings

Finder helps you check external drive information on Mac easily. You need to launch Finder, go to the Sidebar, and tick the 'External circles' appearing under Locations.

If you successfully do that, you should see the connected external hard drive appearing in the Finder.

Method 4: Check the Flash Drive in System Information

If you are still not able to find the USB flash drive in the desktop or Finder, you need to try searching for it in the System Information. This is basically a secret spot for Mac users.

Open Applications then navigate to Utilities followed by System Information. Once there, check if your system distinguishes the USB flash drive. Tap on the USB icon on the left and check the USB drive information.

Method 5: Update USB Drive Drivers

If you are on a Windows system and the drive is not showing up, updating the USB drive drivers could just get you out of the problem. Follow the steps below to fix it.

Step 1: Link the drive to PC, right-click on This PC, and select Properties.

Step 2: Choose Device Manager then expand Disk drives.

Step 3: Find and right-click the problematic pen drive then choose the Update driver.

Step 4: On the screen that appears, click on the Automatically search for driver software.

Wait for the driver to get updated. Once the process ends, you will need to reboot the computer before reconnecting the USB flash drive to check if the issue is resolved. If that happens, data recovery will be much easier.

Method 6: Create New Partitions

The methods above may not have worked for you because the USB flash drive shows up as unallocated space in the Disk Management after the driver is updated or reinstalled. In this case, it is recommended that you create a new partition. This will make it ready for data storage.

In order to create a new partition, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Right-click on 'This PC' then select 'Manage' followed by 'Disk Management.

Step 2: Right-click on the unallocated space then select 'New Simple Volume.'

Step 3: Now follow the Wizard to be able to complete the process.

Lesley Montoya

Update 12 March 2024