How to connect a thumb drive to MacBook Air

how doI connect a thumb drive to my Mac Airbook


Posted on Nov 13, 2025 8:55 AM

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Posted on Nov 13, 2025 11:34 AM

DocRoyM wrote:

Yes SoCats, Now I have on my screen Macintosh HD! There are 4 folders there : Apps, Lib, Sys, Uses. All lead to many many folders; where wiki the memory stick appear?


It won't appear as a folder inside of your main system drive (except in Terminal, where external drives appear as folders under /Volumes).


Did you check off "External" disks in the General tab of Finder Settings? Then the flash drive should have its own icon on the Desktop. Likewise, it will get its own entry in the sidebars of Finder windows if you check off "External disks" in the Sidebar tab.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 13, 2025 11:34 AM in response to DocRoyM

DocRoyM wrote:

Yes SoCats, Now I have on my screen Macintosh HD! There are 4 folders there : Apps, Lib, Sys, Uses. All lead to many many folders; where wiki the memory stick appear?


It won't appear as a folder inside of your main system drive (except in Terminal, where external drives appear as folders under /Volumes).


Did you check off "External" disks in the General tab of Finder Settings? Then the flash drive should have its own icon on the Desktop. Likewise, it will get its own entry in the sidebars of Finder windows if you check off "External disks" in the Sidebar tab.

Nov 13, 2025 9:31 AM in response to DocRoyM

DocRoyM wrote:

And where do I find the Disc Utility?


Are you telling us that you can physically plug in the drive, but that it is not showing up in Finder?


This may simply be due to Finder settings (Finder > Settings…, General and Sidebar tabs) as to what types of things to show on the Desktop and in the sidebars of Finder windows. You may want to check those.


If those are set to make USB flash drives visible, and your flash drive is plugged in, and it still doesn't show up, then a trip to Disk Utility might be in order. If there's an issue that keeps Disk Utility from seeing the drive, the Finder is not going to see it, either.

How to connect a thumb drive to MacBook Air

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