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USB thumb drive will not work on iMac with Monterey 12.5

Lately, USB 3.0 thumb drives that I've used for years will not load on my iMac 27" 5K, late 2015. The exact same drive will pop up immediately when used on my MacBook Pro 13" running Big Sur 11.6.8. The drives will not even show up in Disk Utility on the iMac. Is this a known software bug??

Posted on Aug 2, 2022 5:11 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 3, 2022 7:54 AM

Are you connecting the USB stick directly to the Mac?


Try booting into Safe Mode to see if you have the same problem just in case you have some third party software installed that is interfering with the normal operation of macOS.


What file system is on the USB stick?


Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" in order to see the physical drive on the left pane of Disk Utility. If you don't see the physical drive on the left pane after doing this, then there must be some sort of compatibility issue. Disconnect all other unnecessary external devices in case one of them is causing a problem. macOS Monterey has had a lot of reported compatibility issues with each update patch so it would not surprise me. The quality of USB sticks is also very poor and I have seen compatibility issues and reliability issues even if the USB stick works with many other systems.


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 3, 2022 7:54 AM in response to Valo_Soul

Are you connecting the USB stick directly to the Mac?


Try booting into Safe Mode to see if you have the same problem just in case you have some third party software installed that is interfering with the normal operation of macOS.


What file system is on the USB stick?


Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" in order to see the physical drive on the left pane of Disk Utility. If you don't see the physical drive on the left pane after doing this, then there must be some sort of compatibility issue. Disconnect all other unnecessary external devices in case one of them is causing a problem. macOS Monterey has had a lot of reported compatibility issues with each update patch so it would not surprise me. The quality of USB sticks is also very poor and I have seen compatibility issues and reliability issues even if the USB stick works with many other systems.


Aug 3, 2022 3:24 PM in response to Valo_Soul

Disconnect anything connected to the USB ports on your iMac. Reboot, and try your USB stick again. If that does not resolve the. mounting issue, then boot your iMac into Safe Boot mode and see if the USB stick will mount. If it does, and upon a normal reboot, it also connects, then problem solved. On the otherhand, if it mounts in Safe Boot mode, but fails mounting after a normal reboot, then you likely have some third-party software interfering with it.

USB thumb drive will not work on iMac with Monterey 12.5

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