We often connect various USB peripherals to our Macs – External hard drives, secondary monitors, USB mice, and so on and so forth. However, establishing a connection between a Mac and an external device might not always be a smooth process. For instance, many users often run into situations where their USB keeps disconnecting. This can become extremely frustrating in situations when you are transferring important files or if an application is using your USB.
Regardless of the issue, here we are going to discuss some of the best things you can do if your USB or external hard drive keeps disconnecting. Do stay with us till the end since we have a nifty trick for you that will help you steer clear of unwanted files.
5 Things To Do If USB Devices Keep Disconnecting On macOS
Solution No. 1 – Restart your Mac
Before jumping on any other step, here is a simple thing you can do. All you need is a quick Restart and you might just be able to connect your USB device to your Mac.
Solution No. 2 – Check If Your Mac Is Able to Recognize The USB Drive Or Not
Even if after restarting your computer, your external hard drive still keeps disconnecting, you might want to ensure it is being recognized by your Mac in the first place. To do that follow the steps mentioned below –
Step 1 – Click on the Apple icon located at the top-left corner of your screen.
Step 2 – Click on About This Mac.
Step 3 – Click on the Overview button and then further click on System Report.
Step 4 – Double-click on the Hardware to expand System Information.
Step 5 – On the next screen, check if the hard drive you have plugged in can be seen or not.
If you can’t see your hard drive in the list, plugin your external hard drive onto some other device and see if you can locate the hard drive there. If you can’t there is some problem with your hard drive. If you can see the external hard drive, try plugging it in in a different port on your Mac.
Solution No. 3 – Reset SMC
SMC stands for System Management Controller. It manages multiple hardware-related aspects such as keyboard lighting, thermal management, battery, and many other things. So, in case your external hard drive or any other USB device keeps disconnecting, you can reset your SMC. If you are unaware of how to do that, fear not! Here is a step-by-step guide to reset the SMC and even PRAM.
Solution No. 4 – Relaunch Apps That Are Using The USB
Sometimes we use apps that engage USB. For example. There are many media or editing apps that try to read and write your Mac’s drive. One of the troubleshooting steps that has worked for many users is to Force Quit all such apps first and then relaunch them.
Solution No. 5 – Uninstall Problematic Apps
It could be that you have downloaded some conflicting apps and they are to be blamed for why your USB is disconnecting. Here is a comprehensive guide that tells you how you can uninstall apps on your macOS. Following the steps mentioned in this post get rid of all those recently installed apps after which you have started to face the issue. To uninstall apps completely, you can also take the help of a dedicated third-party uninstaller app for Mac. Such apps uninstall applications in such a way that no remnants of the uninstalled apps are left.
Tip No. 1 – Get Rid of Duplicate Photos
A USB device disconnected abruptly can lead to incomplete transfers as well as import errors. This might further lead to file corruption or the presence of duplicate files on your Mac. Here, you can use a third-party app such as Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro, that can help you remove duplicate photos safely.
Why Use Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro On Mac?
- Lets you get rid of duplicate photos from your Photos Library.
- You can identify and locate both exact duplicates as well as similar matches. For the latter, there are multiple filters.
- Once duplicate photos are identified, you can use the Auto Mark function to select one duplicate photo in each group.
To know more about this wonderful tool, its various aspects, and how it functions across various devices (Android, Mac, iOS, and Windows), check out this post.
Tip No. 2 – Backup Your Existing Data
Issues like this one can cause data loss. We recommend that you backup your data regularly so that in the event of an emergency you can restore data from that backup.
Tip No. 3 – Recover Lost Data
In the worst possible scenario, if you encounter a situation where you have lost some important files, needn’t lose hope. There are some great data recovery tools for Mac that can help you recover data, regardless of the data loss situation.
Let Not A Disconnecting USB Annoy You Anymore
First off, don’t let a disconnecting USB discourage you. We hope that the solutions above will help you fix the issue and you will be able to use your USB drive smoothly as before. Additionally, we’d also like you to be prudent and follow the writer’s tips we have mentioned just above so that no matter what you can save your precious data from going out of your hands.
Did you find the post useful and interesting? Share it with a Mac user who might be facing this issue. For more such content, keep reading WeTheGeek. You can also reach out to us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Flipboard, and Pinterest.