Notebook not detecting phone via usb

I have a Mophie space pack which doubles as not only an additional battery but also like a little external hard drive.

When I plug the phone with case into my notebook, usually it would pop up immediately in 'finder', on iTunes and in IPhoto.

Since 2 days ago it has stopped doing all of the above and I cannot get it to mount onto my laptop no matter what I try.

The case still works on it's own, it also charges via usb - it is only the drive part when trying to connect to notebook that doesn't seem to be communicating.

I have also plugged the phone in without the case and my notebook reads it immediately.

The only thing I can think of is somehow I've maybe told my computer not to trust this drive perhaps, but I'm not sure how I would have done that.

I've been on the phone with Mophie support who said it was an issue apple side rather than theirs.

I'm using OS X 10.9.2.

Any ideas would be really appreciated

You couldn't have told OS X to not trust the drive. Does it show up in Disk Utility? Also, try updating to 10.9.4... just run Software Update. And try another USB cable.

Lifeisabeach said:

You couldn't have told OS X to not trust the drive. Does it show up in Disk Utility? Also, try updating to 10.9.4... just run Software Update. And try another USB cable.

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I've updated to 10.9.4 and checked Disc Utility, it still doesn't show up in there and also still doesn't pop up in Finder or IPhoto etc.

LondonK said:

I've updated to 10.9.4 and checked Disc Utility, it still doesn't show up in there and also still doesn't pop up in Finder or IPhoto etc.

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If it's not even showing up in Disk Utility, then the problem is one of a few things: the USB port you are plugging it into is defective (highly unlikely, but try another port); the USB cable is defective; or the drive is defective. As much as Mophie would like to put this off on Apple, the fact that it used to work and now doesn't is simply on them. You can try plugging it into another computer for laughs to see if it's recognized on that.

What phone are you using? It's possible that this is somehow a phone level setting.

vansmith said:

What phone are you using? It's possible that this is somehow a phone level setting.

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The phone shouldn't matter. It's a battery charger for the iPhone that has a built-in USB drive. Although I just looked over the product page and there is an app that will connect to it to manage files. So....you may be on to something. LondonK, does the app on the iPhone recognize that the drive exists? Can it read/write to it? Are there any settings in the app to manage it, or "allow" it to be recognized on another computer?

Didn't know it was an iPhone only case. That would explain that, haha.

I wonder if the software has some sort of switch for external access. Maybe a read-only/read-protection setting on the case itself or in the software?

As an aside, how does one access the external storage from the iPhone? How does it get around iOS' draconian rules on filesystem access? Nevermind, I see that they have an app.