MyBookfor Mac Not Responding When Plugged Into Computer

I have a WD My Book for Mac. I plug the USB into my MacBook Air and you can hear it running, but nothing shows up on my desktop screen for the external hard drive. I checked in my Finder and there is nothing about external hard drive. I checked in my “About This Mac” and then “Storage” and nothing shows up. I checked the cords and everything is plugged in correctly. Any suggestions on why this is suddenly happening?

Whenever you connect an external drive to your mac, the storage drive may not show up on Desktop, Finder or even on Disk Utility due to various reasons:

  1. USB connectivity problem
  2. MacOS preference settings
  3. Partition map damage
  4. Device incompatibility
  5. Physical damage on a drive

However, to fix the issue, you can try the below methods:

  1. Check the USB connectivity
  2. Enable visibility of external hard drive
  3. Update macOS
  4. Repair external hard drive by using Disk Utility
  5. Repair external hard drive by using Terminal
  6. Erase the external hard drive
  7. If none of the above works, then the drive needs replacement

Further, you can also check the below link for steps to be followed in each method mentioned above:

Hope it helps!

Thank you for this information. I am going to try with the easiest first and that is to replace the USB cord. Maybe it is defective. I am also going to make an appointment with Apple to see if they can help troubleshoot for me. I know my USB ports on my MacBook Air works because I am able to plug in a different external hard drive and it comes up without issue. I just hope I did not lose all my files on that external hard drive.

Hello Jose -

I feel like an ■■■■■. I completely forgot to launch the software on my Mac when I plugged in my external hard drive. That is why I was not seeing anything on my Mac. It works completely fine now. Thank you for your help though.

Robert