So I have a My Passport drive that I had back before my mac computer killed itself. It has pretty much every bit of information I really hold dear, and on any mac computer I can find everything on it. Trying to use it on my girlfriend’s computer is a completely different matter. It doesn’t register that the drive even exists, though the device connected noise sounds. It doesn’t give me. Since the unlocker will not show up, the hard drive will remain unseen by the mac. I have a WD My Passport and this problem does not exist. The WD Unlocker starts just after I plug the My Passport. The solution which i did to mount the MyBook is to manually start the WD Unlocker (I kept a copy on the Desktop), then use it to unlock the MyBook. This video will introduce 6 effective solutions on how to fix the external hard drive not showing up on mac issue. Text tutorial for reference: http://bit.ly.
The defect is probably in the WD My Passport Ultra controller. These all in one drive and controllers from WD, Seagate, etc. Are notorious for 'crapping out'. Often they have controllers that have the USB and SATA interfaces in one circuit board so if they die, both the drive and the circuit board, are useless. Equipped with USB-C technology, the My Passport Ultra for Mac portable drive offers an easy way to expand your storage. Learn more: https://www.wdc.com/produ. There's an important difference between these WD drives apart from formatting and colour, which theluggage alluded to - My Passport for Mac works with USB 2 and 3; My Passport Studio works with FireWire 800 and USB 2. So if you want to use USB 3 you need the silver Mac version.
Summary: WD My Passport for Mac is not showing up Mac? Follow the tutorial in this article to fix WD My Passport not working issue and recover data from unrecognized WD My Passport for Mac.
Everything has flaws, even the WD My Passport for Mac drive that you used for years.
It happens frequently that:
- WD My Passport won't show up when connecting to your Mac computer
- WD My Passport is greyed out in Disk Utility
- WD hard drive's light is on but not working after macOS Big Sur update
- My Passport WD external drive won't open the password application on M1 Mac
- Mac didn't unlock the My Passport WD drive but asking for WD Drive Unlock application
- My Passport WD becomes encrypted or unreadable on your Mac
Either way, your important data on this drive will become inaccessible and concerns you a lot.
If the WD My Passport is not showing up on Mac desktop, Finder or Disk Utility after connecting to your Mac, how to find it and make it work? If you can't see files from WD external hard drive on Mac, how to access data? You'll get answers here.
Troubleshoot WD My Passport not showing up on Mac issue
Usually, malfunctioned USB port or Mac computer, the broken USB cable and some hardware problems could make WD My Passport not showing up.
You can do the following basic checks before go further troubleshootings.
- Safely remove the WD My Passport and reconnect it to the USB port. Try quickly plug and slowly plug, which sometimes just works for no reason.
- Check whether the USB cable or USB port is bad by connecting other hard drives to this USB port or cable and see if that makes a difference.
- Reboot your Mac computer to see if your WD My Passport drive is not showing up in Disk Utility/Finder or not.
- Connect the WD My Passport to another Mac computer or Windows PC, which will find out if it is the incompatible file system of the drive that makes this WD My Passport undetectable.
How to fix WD My Passport not showing up on Mac issue?
If the WD My Passport for Mac still does not work or not show up on Mac after the basic checks, go ahead to try out the solutions as below to make it show up on Mac.
Solution 1: Check Finder Preferences
If your WD My Passport is not showing up in Finder and desktop, it's possible that the configuration of the Finder Preferences is stopping your WD My Passport drive showing up.
In other words, you didn't allow the connected hard drives showing up in the Finder or on the desktop.
Now, follow the guide below to set Finder Preferences and make the WD My Passport for Mac show up in Finder or on the desktop.
- 1. Go to Finder > Preferences > General tab.
- 2. Tick the 'External disks' option to show the WD My Passport for Mac on the desktop.
- 3. Go to Sidebar tab, tick 'External disks' under 'Devices' to show your WD My Passport for Mac in Finder.
Solution 2: Check My Passport for Mac in Disk Utility
If the WD My Passport for Mac drive is still not showing up in Finder or on the desktop, you can see whether it is showing up in Disk Utility or not.
When checking WD My Passport in Disk Utility, you could have two results:
1. Your WD My Passport drive is detected and showing up in Disk Utility, but it is greyed out or not mounting.
2. Your WD hard drive is not recognized, so it's not showing up in Disk Utility at all.
Here, we'll show you solutions to case 1.
Method 1: Mount WD My Passport for Mac in Disk Utility manually
Sometimes, hard drives cannot be automatically mounted in Disk Utility, even though Mac has detected the hard drive. So it's possible that you'll see the WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting in Disk Utility. In this situation, you can manually mount the hard drive.
- 1. Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
- 2. Click 'Show All Devices' in View option at the left corner of Disk Utility.
- 3. Select your WD My Passport for Mac drive from the left sidebar and click the Mount button on the top of Disk Utility window.
Instead, you can also click on the mount icon beside the drive to mount it immediately.
Method 2: Repair WD My Passport for Mac drive with First Aid
If you can't mount the WD My Passport for Mac manually, there should be some file system problems in this drive.
But don't worry. There is a native repair tool called First Aid in your Mac computer's Disk Utility, which is able to analyze and repair basic hard drive problems especially with file systems and catalogs, extends, volume bit maps. You can follow the instructions to fix this problem.
- 1. Go to Disk Utility.
- 2. Select the WD My Passport for Mac.
- 3. Click First Aid on the top of the Disk Utility window.
- 4. Click Done when the reparation finishes.
Solution 3: Install the Latest WD Utilities
This has been discussed a lot that Western Digital hard drives not working after Big Sur update or when connecting to an Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Air.
Typically, you'll receive a similar message as follows and you can't open or unlock your WD drive (My Passport):
If you have used WD Utilities or have created a secure password to keep others from accessing the files on the drive, you have to password unlock the drive (unless you enable auto unlock for this computer) each time you:
- Shut down or restart your Mac
- You disconnect and reconnect the WD My Passport
- Mac wakes up from sleep mode
And you have to unlock it with passwork though you have uninstalled the WD My Passport software from your Mac.
To fix that Western Digital My Passport hard drives not working or unlock (only if you know the right password) after Big Sur update, simply download, update, and install the latest WD Discovery Utilities for macOS 11 Big Sur.
2.2 definition of derivativeap calculus. If unfortunately,you can't remember the password, you can only reformat the WD drive (My Passport for Mac) to make it work again, at the expense of data loss.
Solution 4: Erase/Reformat My Passport for Mac
If First Aid was unable to repair the errors in the WD My Passport, meaning the disk file system has been damaged, which is quite common, then you have to fix the WD My Passport for Mac not showing up on Mac problem by reformatting.
The situation is, reformatting will assign a new file system but will erase all your data on this drive as well.
To avoid the loss of important data, please make sure you have a backup copy of data. Without a backup? It's not necessarily the end of the world. You can at first recover lost data from the WD My Passport for Mac with professional Mac data recovery software, like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is free hard drive data recovery software for Mac that is able to recover deleted files on Mac, recover lost data from formatted, inaccessible, corrupted, unmountable, unreadable hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, memory cards, etc.
It's compatible with macOS Big Sur 11/Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra/Sierra 10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7, on both Intel- and M1-based Macs
1 Recover lost data from My Passport for Mac with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
- 1. Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.
- 2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- 3. Select My Passport for Mac and click 'Next' button to scan all data on this drive.
- 4. Preview the searching results, choose files you need, and click 'Recover' to get them back.
2 Reformat My Passport for Mac in Disk Utility
After recovering data from this drive, you can now courageously proceed to erase your WD My Passport for Mac drive with no fuss.
- 1. Go to Disk Utility.
- 2. Select the WD My Passport for Mac drive in the left sidebar.
- 3. Click Erase on the top of the Disk Utility window.
- 4. Complete the information for your drive (such as new format, partition scheme, and so on) and click Erase.
What to do if the WD My Passport drive is not recognized/detected?
If My Passport for Mac hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility at all, it means the WD hard drive is not recognized. Very probably, your My Passport for Mac may have some hardware problems. It's better to send it to a local reparation center.
Wd My Passport Ultra Mac
Understanding why My Passport drive not showing up on Mac
Sometimes, an external hard drive not showing up on Mac just because the USB cable or the USB port on your Mac is bad. In addition, the following reasons may also lead to WD My Passport for Mac not showing up or not working.
- Recent macOS update issue
- System failure
- Virus infection
- Motherboard issue
- WD My Passport drive damage or corruption
Bonus Maintenance Tips for WD My Passport drives for Mac
Apparently, most hard drive not showing up issues are caused by unsafe ejection and sudden power outrage. In order to maintain your WD My Passport for Mac in good condition, you should pay attention to:
- Make sure that your WD My Passport doesn't become physically damaged.
- Always safely and properly eject the WD My Passport for Mac drive after using it.
- Don't just unplug the USB cable, on the contrary, unmount your drive by right-clicking (control-click) on the icon on the Desktop or in the Finder and choose Eject.
- Properly use WD software like WD Drive Utilities, WD Backup software ( to back up important files to your My Passport drive), and WD Discovery ( to organize and share your files to the My Passport drive to backup your online social life).
Summary: This article analyzes why the WD My Passport for Mac drive is not mounting/working on Mac and how to fix this issue. If you worry about losing data, you can recover data from the WD hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac at first.
This page will analyze why WD My Passport drive won't mount on Mac, and provides 7 possible solutions to this issue.
- 1. Show the mounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive on Mac destop
- 2. Force Mount the WD Mac hard drive in Disk Utility
- 3. Run First Aid to fix WD My Passport for Mac not mounting error
- 4. Check the power supply of the WD My Passport for Mac drive
- 5. Check the USB cable
- 6. Check the USB port of your Mac
- 7. Check for driver update
What is meant by mounting a WD My Passport drive on Mac?
The WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is specially designed for Mac mini computers, iMacs, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. You can access My passport for Mac drives only when macOS recognizes the format of the drive. This process is called mounting.
However, once your computer fails to recognize that format (also known as file system), the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting on Mac computer.
Why is WD My Passport for Mac not mounting?
WD hard drives, including My Passport and Easystore, won't mount on Mac when the disk format is not recognized. Such error could be caused by virus infection, sudden power failure, sudden power outage, unwanted interruption during transferring data, etc. If the external hard drive won't mount, you can't open this WD My Passport for Mac drive and access your important files.
Here is one typical case from forums:
WD My Passport for Mac hard drive (2 TB) won't mount on my MacBook Air, grayed out in Disk Utility. I have 1 TB family photos on this hard drive, which are very precious for me. How to fix if WD My Passport for Mac not working on Mac? Any data recovery solution? Thanks a lot!
If you haven't got an effective workaround when WD My passport hard drive fails to mount in Finder or Disk Utility, this page will help. You'll know how to mount the Western Digital my passport drive on Mac again.
How to fix the unmounted WD My Passport hard drive on Mac?
The connected WD My Passport drive should be automatically mounted on the desktop, in Finder and Disk Utility. When it won't mount on Mac as you expect, you can try these methods.
1. Show the mounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive on Mac destop
Sometimes, the My Passport drive is recognized and mounted by the Mac, and you just don't see it. You can go to Finder > Preferences and confirm if the 'External Disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' is selected. This will ensure if the external drives connected to this Mac are allowed to show on the desktop.
But if your WD My Passport drive is not even showing up, it's reasonable that you can't see it mounting on Mac. Then, you shoud check the connections and some hardware issues.
2. Force Mount the WD Mac hard drive in Disk Utility
You can go to Utility and see if this hard drive appears in the left sidebar. If your WD My Passport for Mac drive for Mac is not mounting but grayed out in Disk Utility, you can right-click and select the 'Mount' button to force mount the hard drive. However, if this external hard drive is corrupted, the 'Mount' button will not be available and you need to try the next solution.
But sometimes, you can't mount a hard drive on Mac because of internal disk errors like file system corruption, partition table lost, the directory is corrupted, etc. You WD My Passport for Mac drive won't be recognized by your Mac in these cases. Fortunately, you can fix the hard drive not mounting issue with the native disk repair tool, First Aid.
3. Run First Aid to fix WD My Passport for Mac not mounting error
First Aid is a Mac built-in tool to verify and check minor problems of a hard disk. Whenever you can't mount a WD hard drive or My Passport for Mac is not working, First Aid should be a good disk repair tool.
- Step 1: Go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/, then click Continue.
- Step 2: In the sidebar, select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.
- Step 3: Click the 'First Aid' button.
- Step 4: Click Run.
If Disk Utility reports that the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive appears to be OK or has been repaired, you're done. Otherwise, this WD My Passport drive has been corrupted. You have to retrieve your data from this corrupted hard drive as soon as possible.
When those methods didn't make any difference and the WD My passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting still, you need to check some hardware issues that get involved in the disk connection.
Let's start with some basics factors.
4. Check the power supply of the WD My Passport for Mac drive
It's well known that insufficient or no power supply in USB ports could also lead to hard drive not mounting issue. Therefore, you should make sure the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is getting the appropriate power. If the drive came with a Y-cable, use both USB connectors. Moreover, do not connect the drive through a USB hub, connect it directly to the Mac. Make sure the power adapter is connected directly to a wall outlet, not to an extension cord.
Wd My Passport Ultra Mac And Pc
5. Check the USB cable
Wd My Passport Ultra Mac Driver
When external hard drive is not showing up on Mac, ensure the cable is properly connected to both the drive and computer. Then try connecting your WD My Passport for Mac hard drive with a new USB cable if you can fetch another one.
6. Check the USB port of your Mac
If the problem still continues, try using a different USB port. Perhaps your Mac has two USB port - the back and front ones. Assuming the My passport driveis plugged in the front USB port, try to insert the drive to the back USB port.
7. Check for driver update
If the hardware seems to be OK, let's check the software that related to this disk problem. The My passport disk driver, a software component, bridges the operating system and the drive to communicate with each other. But the files of My passport driver could be deleted, outdated, or corrupted for virus invasion or misoperation.
So, when the WD My Passport drive is not working or the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, check the disk driver.
- Step 1: Click the Apple icon and select 'App Store…'
- Step 2: Click Update (NOT UPGRADE!) to install a specific update or Update All to install all available updates.
Sometimes, WD My Passport for Mac driver, software, and WD disk tool are needed, especially when you want to open a WD My Passport for Mac drive that is locked. You can go to WD official website and download software for WD My Passport troubleshooting and for WD My Passport driver update.
How to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error without losing data?
Western Digital My Passport Ultra Mac
However, if WD My Passport for Mac hard drive still won't mount on Mac, the last solutions is to reformat the hard drive. But reformatting will delete all data stored on the hard drive, and most of the time, many important files are stored on the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.
If you haven't backed up important files, how can you recover files from the WD My Passport drive? It's high time to recover lost data from the unmounted hard drive first.
Step 1: Recover lost data from unmountable hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
As for Mac data recovery, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is highly recommended as it's a free Mac data recovery software. It can easily retrieve files from WD Passport drives. This software can recover lost data from corrupted hard drive, unreadable hard drives, formatted hard drives, unrecognized hard drives, unmountable hard drives, inaccessible hard drives, and recover lost data from uninitialized hard drive.
You can use this hard drive data recovery software on macOS Big Sur 11/Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/10.12 Sierra and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
- 1. Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- 2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac and select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.
- 3. Click 'Scan' to search for all lost files on this drive.
- 4. Preview the listed scanning results, choose files we want, and click 'Recover' button to get them back.
Hopefully, you'll get all your files off after the WD My Passport is not working nor mounting.
Step 2: Fix WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting error by reformatting
After getting lost files back, you can fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error by reformatting without worrying about losing data. This will reset the WD My Passport hard drive.
• Guide to reformat WD My Passport for Mac external hard drive
Conclusion
WD My passport for Mac hard drives always offer quick and easy way to expand the storage space of your computer. It has amazing features like cloud storage, password protection with hard drive encryption, and compatiblity with Apple's Time Machine backup software, so that you can store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents.
But the WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting issue will call a halt on all these good things. You need to repair the WD My Passport for Mac that is not working or corrupted first, and recover data with the assistance of iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
For any questions or suggestions, please email us below.
External hard drives are not only renowned for their data storing capability but also for their portability function. Whenever you connect your external hard drive to the USB port of your Mac computer, it shows up not only on the desktop but also in the Finder menu on the left-hand side under Locations or Devices.
Due to various reasons which are mentioned below, you might find your external hard drive not showing up on Mac. If you have saved all your crucial backup on the external drive, MacBook not recognizing external hard drive can lead to a data loss scenario.
In this article find out:
Why is my external hard drive not showing up Mac?
- External hard drive corruption.
- Physical damage to the external hard drive.
- Faulty USB connector.
- Problem with Mac USB ports.
- Hidden external drive.
- Improper formatting on the external hard drive.
- Recent macOS Big Sur or Catalina update issue.
Before you move on to find proven ways to troubleshoot external drive not showing up on Mac, let us first know how to recover data from it.
How to Recover Data from External hard drive not showing up on Mac?
Download Remo Recover Mac, a user-friendly tool to recover data from internal and external storage devices like external HDD, SSD, USB, SD card, etc. The tool supports recovery of more than 300 file types such as photos, videos, PDF files, audio files, raw images, Office files. Using this tool, you can easily restore data from MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, WD MY Passport, Seagate external hard drive, and many more.
Steps to Recover data from External hard drive not showing up on Mac:
Download and install Remo Recover (Mac/ Windows)> Launch the tool and click on Recover Volumes/ Drives option > Choose Volume Recovery and select the external hard drive that is not showing up on Mac to restore data from it > Click on Advance Scan button to start data recovery process > After scanning completes, select the files which you want to recover from your external hard drive not showing up Mac > Finally, click Save button to restore the selected files to any location of your choice.
How to Fix External hard drive not showing up on Mac?
1. Connect the External Hard drive Properly
The first and foremost thing to do if your external hard drive not showing up on Mac is to check if the external hard disk is properly connected or not. Once, it is confirmed that the external hard drive is properly connected to your Mac device, then your Mac should easily recognize the external hard drive and the data saved on it.
If your Mac not recognizing external hard drive due to any hardware issues, you can plugin the unrecognized external hard drive into a different USB port of your Mac. It might look like child's play but inserting an external hard disk to another or healthy USB port can help you understand whether the issue is pertaining to the hard drive failure or USB cable.
2. Fix issues with the USB cable
Your external hard drive not showing up on Mac can be due to the USB cable or HDMI cable connecting the external hard drive to your MacBook Pro or Air.
- Accessing data from an external hard drive on Mac is dependent on the USB cable. If the USB cable is not properly connected to your device then, Mac won’t recognize the external hard drive.
- If your USB cable is damaged, then fixing it becomes a priority to access your external hard disk on Mac. Hence, make use of a different USB cable to connect the external hard drive to a Mac computer.
Quick Note: If your MacBook is having USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 ports, then use USB-C to USB adapter to connect the external hard drive to your Mac.
3. Reset Mac computer
Resetting a Mac machine can reboot a few system settings to its default and ensure any issue with respect to it is resolved. This can also help you fix the external hard drive not booting issue due to Mac operating system. To Restart your Mac;
Go to the Apple menu and click Restart. (or) Press and hold the power key until a dialog box displays and hit the Restart or press R key.
4. Change Preference Settings
One of the reasons why the external hard drive does not show up on Mac is due to Preference settings. If you have not allowed your Mac to access the external hard disk in the preference setting, then Mac won’t show up external hard disk on the desktop. To allow your Mac to show up the external hard drive, edit the preference setting using the below steps;
- Open a Finder window.
- Go to Preference and select General.
- Under “Show these items on the desktop”, check the External disks option.
In most cases, this method will resolve your issue of external hard drive not showing up on Mac desktop or Finder menu.
If your Mac not recognizing external hard drive despite performing the above steps or if this preference setting is already set up, then move down to the below section.
5. Use different Mac or Windows PC
If you still find your Mac not recognizing hard drive then, try connecting the external hard disk to a different Mac system, sometimes there might be a problem with your Mac computer itself.
Can't See My Wd External Hard Drive On Mac
Connect your external hard drive to a different Mac to find out whether it is mounting on it or not. If the external HDD is mounting on the new or different Mac, then the problem is with your old Mac. In case, if the external hard drive not showing up on both Mac devices, then connect it to a Windows computer.
Quick Note: If your external hard drive is accessible on Windows 10 but not on Mac, then the external hard disk is formatted for Windows computers and not for Mac systems. Check out this article on how to make an external hard disk compatible with Mac.
6. Use Disk Utility
Once you find out that the Mac device is not responsible for the external hard drive not showing up issue. Follow the below steps to run the first aid utility to fix external hard drive corruption.
Wd Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac
- Navigate to Go > Utilities > Applications > Disk Utility
- If your external hard drive appears in the Disk Utility, right-click on the drive and select Mount. This will make your external hard drive option available on the desktop and in the Finder menu. Thus, you can access all your files present on the external hard drive.
(Note: If the Mac has already mounted your external hard drive (volume) then, the option Unmount will be displayed.) - If the drive is not accessible then, the Mount option will be greyed out.
(Note: To repair your inaccessible or not showing external hard drive Run First Aid.) - Now, choose the First Aid option and click Run.
- After running the First Aid, if the Disk Utility detects any issues or errors on the external hard drive then, click Repair Disk.
Using this method, you can easily repair minor corruption and access an unrecognized external hard drive on Mac. In case, if the first aid utility fails to repair the external hard drive or SSD, this indicates the following 2 reasons;
A) Your external drive is severely corrupt or broken: If First Aid Disk Utility fails to repair the drive, it could be due to the RAW or broken drive. The file system registry that holds the information of the data present on the drive gets broken or damaged then, Mac does not recognize the external hard drive.
B) The external hard drive file system is not compatible with Mac: External hard drive or USB is formatted using a file system that your Mac cannot read. For example, if an external hard drive is formatted using the NTFS file system then, no Mac computer can read or write the external hard drive. In the same way, if the external hard drive or USB is formatted with the HFS+ file system then, no Windows operating system can support it.
ExFAT and FAT32 are the two most common file systems that can be easily supported by both Windows and Mac operating systems.
Wd Easystore Not Showing Up On Mac
Now, the last thing to do to fix the external hard drive not showing up on Mac is to format it using the compatible Mac file systems like exFAT, FAT32, HFS+, or APFS.
7. Format unrecognized External hard drive
Formatting the external HDD on Mac leads to a data loss scenario. Before you format your external hard drive to exFAT, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), FAT, or APFS file system, it is suggested to recover data from it using Remo Recover Mac.
Remo Recover (Mac/ Windows) is designed with advanced scanning algorithms to effortlessly recover files from corrupt, unrecognized, formatted, or inaccessible external hard drive on Mac. This tool is compatible with all the versions of Windows and Mac operating systems including the latest Windows 10 or Mac Big Sur.
To format external hard drive not showing up on Mac:
- Navigate to Disk Utility
- Select the external hard drive not showing up on Mac and click the Erase option
- Now, give a new name to your external hard drive (optional)
- Click the Format button to choose the format type you want to perform on it. (Select exFAT if you want to make sure it's compatible with PC and Mac, otherwise, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is probably the best option)
- Click on the Erase optionand wait until the Disk utility function removes all the files present on the external hard disk and then reformat it with the selected file system.
Conclusion
In most cases, editing the Preference setting to show the external hard drive on the desktop fixes the issue. However, if the external hard drive is corrupt then, you should repair it using First Aid utility or format it with compatible Mac file systems like exFAT or APFS.