Summary: This a full guide to external SSD not recognized on Mac issue, which includes both reasons and solutions to this issue, as well as how to recover lost data when external SSD is not showing up on Mac.
You can't access a Sandisk, Crucial, or Samsung T3 when the external SSD is not recognized or detected by Mac, whether the external SSD was working for a long time or it's a new SSD you bought recently. However, this issue is so prone to happen even when you unplug the external SSD from the Mac and later on plug in the SSD again. It's definitely frustrating, especially when you have important files stored on it.
How can you fix the unrecognized external SSD and access your files stored on it? You will find the answer and troubleshoot this problem in this post.
Why is external SSD not recognized on Mac?
Various reasons are leading to external SSD not showing up issue on Mac. Here we conclude four main causes as below:
1. The SATA to USB 3.0 adapter/Dock is malfunctioned.
Usually, you need to buy an additional dock, disk case, or SATA adapter to access an SSD drive. During this process, if the externally connected SSD is not recognized by your Mac, it's likely that the adapter is not compatible with the disk's SATA interface, or the dock/drive caddy is faulty.
2. The external SSD is new and uninitialized.
This happens when users externally connect the SSD to backup or transfer files on the internal hard drive. But many newly bought SSDs are not initialized with a file system, which means there is no entrance for macOS to recognize and communicate with this SSD, and for sure, the external SSD won't show up.
3. The external SSD has a file system that can't be recognized by Mac.
Possibly, the SSD that you try to access is formatted with a file system. However, it's not a file system that your Mac can recognize. For example, it is formatted with a Linux file system. In this case, your macOS can't recognize the external SSD surely.
4. New software or firmware needs to be updated.
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This happens frequently for Samsung portable SSD T5/T3, because you need to install Samsung portable SSD Software to unlock disk's password and update certain firmware for this SSD. And if the necessary software and extension are not downloaded, you may receive 'No Samsung portable SSD is connected' from its software.
5. The external SSD is not set to show up on Mac.
Sometimes, your external SSD actually is recognized by the Mac, but some setups stop the SSD from showing up in the Finder, on the desktop, or even in the Disk Utility.
6. The external SSD is corrupted.
Another possible cause is that you have unsafely ejected your SSD, which makes the external drive corrupted after some core data like partition table or file system is damaged. Also, you need to be clear that the life span of an SSD is limited depending on how frequently you use it.
7. Other Hardware problems.
How to fix external SSD not recognized on Mac?
Solution 1: Check whether the external SSD is properly plugged in
Since all SSDs use SATA interface, so when an external SSD is not recognized by Mac, the first and foremost solution is to check whether the external SSD is properly plugged in. So simply do these checks:
Check if the cable is working by connecting the external SSD with a different cable.
Check whether your SSD is using SATA Ⅰ, Ⅱ, or Ⅲ so that your adapter/dock/case is compatible with your external SSD.
Try a different SATA to USB adapter and make sure it works by plugging in a different drive.
Try to connect the external SSD directly to your Mac if it's a type C drive, rather than accessing it via a USB-C adapter.
Tips: If the unrecognized external SSD is a Samsung T5/T3 SSD, and you got the 'System Extension Blocked' and 'No Samsung Portable SSD is connected' messages when executing Samsung Portable SSD Software, simply go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > choose Allow button next to the message: System software from developer 'Samsung Electronics' was blocked from loading.
Solution 2: Reboot your Mac computer
Sometimes, Mac externalSSD not mounting issue is caused by the system issues. But you easily fix them by restarting. The restarting process will refresh your macOS's memory and starts it up fresh, which works efficiently especially when the USB port is busy. Simply choose the Apple menu and click Restart.
If you are interested in, you can learn what happened inside when Mac doesn't recognize an external drive with details.
Solution 3: Find the unrecognized external SSD in Disk Utility
When an external SSD is not showing up on Mac, the most necessary step is to check whether the external SSD can be found in Disk Utility. If the external SSD can be found in Disk Utility, you make sure that the drive doesn't have any hardware problems. But if you can't find it listed in Disk Utility, the external SSD might be physically damaged.
So simply Go > Disk Utility > View > Show All Devices to check the external SSD.
If your external SSD is using Windows NTFS format, macOS won't mount the drive in writable mode. To write to an NTFS drive, you need to download a free NTFS for Mac driver.
If you have used this external SSD on other computers for some time and now it is unrecognized by macOS, the file system of the SSD is either unsupportable or corrupted, you need to recover lost data from this external SSD and reformat the drive.
If you newly bought this SSD and it is not initialized, you can't see the partitions of the external SSD in Disk Utility but receive an error message 'the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer'. In this case, you need to make sure you don't have any data on this drive and then initialize it in Disk Utility by erasing.
Solution 4: Repair the unrecognized external SSD with First Aid
If your external SSD shows up in Disk Utility but not mounted, you can right-click the drive and select Mount menu and then the SSD will show up on Mac. If the Mount button is grayed out or you fail to mount the external SSD, try running First Aid to verify and repair disk errors.
Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.
Step 2: Choose the grayed out external SSD from the left sidebar.
Step 3: Select the 'First Aid' tab on the top.
Solution 5: Reformat the unrecognized external SSD without data loss
If all solutions above don't work, the external SSD might be corrupted and you need to reformat it. The thing is, reformat will cause data loss. But actually, whether the external SSD is not recognized due to logical disk errors or hardware problems, the most important thing is your files on the drive. So, to prevent data loss, you need to get your files off this external SSD first if you forget to back up. Hopefully, you can recover lost data from the external SSD with the help of professional Mac data recovery software.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is highly recommended here to recover lost data from unrecognized external SSD. It's a free and professional data recovery tool, which can recover lost data from corrupted, formatted, unreadable, and unmountable SSD. This software works on macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Moreover, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac supports main storage devices including hard drives, external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, memory cards, etc. and multiple file formats such as documents, audios, pictures, videos, emails, etc.
Tutorial to recover lost data from unrecognized SSD on Mac with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
Step 1: Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Step 2: Select the unrecognized external SSD and click 'Next' to scan lost files on the drive.
Step 3: Preview the scanning results, choose files we need, and click 'Recover' to get lost files back from the unrecognized external SSD.
Step 4: Have a check to ensure we have recovered all lost files.
After your important data is recovered, you can go ahead to fix this issue by reformatting without data loss.
Tutorial to reformat the unrecognized external SSD
This operation will remove all data on the external SSD, please make sure you have recovered all useful files with iBoysoft Data Recovery.
Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.
Step 2: Select the external SSD on the left part of the window.
Step 3: Click 'Erase' on the top of the Disk Utility window.
Step 4: Complete related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase.
Solution 6: Send the external SSD to a local technician for help
If unfortunately, the external SSD can't show up in Disk Utility or the solutions above failed to fix external SSD not recognized issue, the drive might have some hardware problems. You need to contact the manufacturer for technical support or product replacement.
Jun 08, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
Can Data Be Recovered from SSD?
My Samsung Portable SSD T3 suddenly stops working. I wanna get the stored files. Can I recover them from the Samsung external hard drive?
Samsung SSD is a reliable and portable external hard drive for many of us to store important data and take with us in case we need them. The downside is that sometimes the external disk might get corrupted or formatted. Consequently, we will lost all the important data we have stored them over the years. However, positively, it is likely to recover data from SSD drive if we utilize a hard drive data recovery program, for example, Recoverit Data Recovery.
Part 1. How to Recover Files from Samsung Portable SSD T3
Part 2. Overview of Samsung Portable SSD T3
Part 3. Troubles of Samsung SSD Data Recovery
Part 4. Tips for Samsung External Hard Drive Data Recovery
Part 1. How to Recover Deleted/Lost Files from Samsung Portable SSD T3
1. Recoverit Performs SSD Recovery with Data Intact
Now, we can discuss the process of Samsung external hard drive data recovery. Recoverit Data Recovery is the best free data recovery software out in the market. It will help you do Samsung external hard drive data Recovery. You can also use this best hard disk recovery software on any other external hard drive, such as Toshiba, Seagate, Western Digital, Lacie and many more.
It recovers many files like documents, image files, video files, audio files, e-Mails, and archives. And the best part is that it can recover all formats of the above files. So this is the best recommendation for external hard drive data recovery. A Few people think that this software might be huge in size and will occupy so much space on your hard disk. So let us clear you one thing that this software needs only 100MB of hard disk space.
Your Safe & Reliable Samsung SSD Data Recovery Software
Recover lost or deleted files, photos, audio, music, emails from SSD Drive effectively, safely and completely.
Supports data recovery from recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera and camcorders.
Supports to recover data for sudden deletion, formatting, hard drive corruption, virus attack, system crash under different situations.
2. Video Tutorial on SSD Hard Drive Recovery
Watch the 1-minute video and you can easily grasp how to recover deleted or lost files from Samsung Portable SSD T3 within a few minutes.
3. How to Recover Deleted/Lost Files from Samsung SSD
With the best external hard disk data recovery software, you can recover deleted or lost files from Samsung Portable SSD T3 hard drive easily and effectively. Download and launch the Samsung external hard drive data recovery tool on your Windows PC, and then follow the next simple steps to perform hard disk data recovery.
If you're using Mac computer and want to perform external hard drive recovery on Mac, this page, How to Recover Data from External Hard Drive on Mac OS X, can help you do the job successfully.
Select the recovery scenario
To recover lost files from external hard drive, you need to select the option 'External Devices Recovery' to start hard drive data recovery.
Choose external hard drive for SSD recovery
Here, your Samsung Portable SSD T3 should be selected to recover the lost files originally stored on it and click the 'Start' button to scan lost data.
Scan Samsung SSD hard drive
a) Recoverit will start a quick scan on your Samsung external hard drive immediately. It will just take you a little bit while.
b) After it, the results are not desired? You can turn to the 'All-Around Recovery' mode to deeply search more files, while longer time is required to finish the deep scan.
Restore Samsung SSD Data
Once the scan on Samsung external hard drive is done, you can preview the deleted or lost files from external hard drive. Select the wanted files and click 'Recover' to get all data back.
Here is the end of the guide to Samsung SSD data recovery. However, we also provide some basic information on Samsung Portable SSD T3 to help you have a clearer understanding of Samsung SSD recovery and retrieve deleted or lost files from it more smoothly.
Part 2. Overview of Samsung Portable Drive SSD T3
Portable Solid state drives are more popular these days. But if you need the best one, then you can move with Samsung Portable SSD T3 hard drive. If you are searching for portable solid state drives which are compact in size and have heavy data transfer speeds. Then you can buy Samsung T3 portable solid state drive.
It is 2inches in size. So this shows it is compact in size and easy to handle.
The best part is its data transfer speed. Samsung T3 portable solid state hard drive gives 450MB/S data transfer.
Samsung T3 SSD’s has all sort of connectivity options like USB type c and USB 3.0, 2.0. hard drive is rugged proof. So in case you drop, you are safer from damage of the Samsung SSD’s.
In short, Samsung T3 portable solid state drives are best in design and even they are best in specs on paper. You can even put a password on Samsung external hard drive.
Part 3. Troubles of Samsung SSD Data Recovery
If you have the best solid state drives in your pocket. That doesn’t mean your data in that SSD’s are safe. There are many situation where you can lose your important data. And then you need Samsung hard disk recovery.
First let me explain why you need Samsung external hard drive data recovery. For some instances, you have so many important files, photos or some important documents. But, by mistake you delete those documents or you format the Samsung hard drive. Now you need a process of external hard drive recovery so that what you value can come back and you can stay away from permanent data loss.
There are tons of software for the process of Samsung external hard drive data recovery. There are many free Samsung data recovery software in the market. In fact we have discussed the best free data recovery software which will do Samsung External Hard Drive Data Recovery. That is Recoverit Data Recovery. Download it and follow the above simple steps to get your imporant data back.
Part 4. Tips for Samsung External Hard Drive Data Recovery
We have discussed the process of Samsung hard drive data recovery with free data recovery software. Now let me help you on how to avoid data loss.
Data Backup - I would recommend you to back up your data using data backup tool. With files backup, once you lose the files, you can restore the lost data from the backup which you earlier did.
Antivirus Program - There can virus in your PC or laptop. And then the hard drive to the same PC or laptop. Now, it results in losing the data which is on hard drive. So would recommend you to use a good antivirus program on your PC or laptop to ensure data safety.
Safe Removal - Most people use to directly remove the USB connected to your pc. Actually, we should not do that. And that results in data loss. The best practice is to safely remove the Samsung external hard drives.
To conclude
With the article coming to a close, maybe you have manged to recover lost files from Samsung external hard drive with Recoverit Data Recovery. If yes, congratlations and please take good care of your data on the SSD external hard drive in case of another data loss. If not yet, try it now and recover data from external hard drive right away.