MacOS – Fixing USB Flash Drive Not Mounting Issue

external-diskmacosusb

Some months ago I bought a USB flash drive 16 GB, and I have used it on my Windows machine with no errors or bugs, whatsoever.

Since that I need to move some files from my Mac, the flash drive does not
appear to be mounting in OS X at all.

When I run in diskutil list in Terminal, the flash drive does not appear, not even in Disk Utility.

I am starting to think that maybe something is wrong with the stick? However, the strange thing is that it's working just well in Windows. How can that be? Other flash drive (have tried with a 256 MB) works well on the mac, except the 16 GB.

Any suggestions or thoughts?
I am running Mavericks on a MacBook Pro (older one).

Best Answer

Based on the answers you've given in the comments.

  • The device doesn't show in Disk Utility
  • It doesn't show in System Information under USB
  • It works in other computers
  • Other USB sticks work in this computer – Changing USB ports makes no difference
  • The device is getting warm – It also doesn't work in another OS X system

I would suggest that there is an incompatibility between this USB stick and OS X, it could be there is some kind of damage to the sticks Firmware or a wider issue with the product that you've not been able to trace down other reports of.

Short of opening up USB Prober and understanding more about how USB communications happen, I would suggest the stick is defective and you try to get a replacement from the retailer.

Related Question