Flash Drive does not show in Finder Sidebar

[pm-r]

They make some great wine in Canada Patrick. You should indulge a bit more; that might remove some of that "Apple grumpiness" that you seem to be plagued with.

Not really "Apple grumpiness" Charlie, but maybe some room for some "Apple OS improvements" preaching, especially as I think of many users such as my cousin and some others that I have helped who barely manage to operate their Macs and wonder why some features are not a lot more obvious after being shown how to fix or change things.


PS: My next batch of wine being done at a local wine-brew is using Merlot grapes from California. The last batch came from Australian grapes. And yes, Canada does produce some nice wines, but not much surplus juice for us wine u-brewers.

And yes, I have my official "wineing" button:





- Patrick
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[toMACsh]

If you look at the side bar when you open any folder - at the very top there is an entry "Devices" and when you move the mouse to the right of that, the word "Hide" and "Show" are revealed.

I looked; didn't find that in any Finder window I opened. Preferences doesn't seem to have a box unchecked for Devices either.

 

[IWT]

I looked; didn't find that in any Finder window I opened. Preferences doesn't seem to have a box unchecked for Devices either.

Finder > Preferences > Sidebar; then check away to your heart's content. Everything you want/don't want to appear in Finder's Sidebar

Ian

 

[pm-r]

Finder > Preferences > Sidebar; then check away to your heart's content. Everything you want/don't want to appear in Finder's Sidebar

Ian

Unless one has some volumes that have been unmounted etc.



- Patrick
======

 

[toMACsh]

I looked; didn't find that in any Finder window I opened. Preferences doesn't seem to have a box unchecked for Devices either.

My point was that I cannot get my Mac to show me a Devices heading in the Sidebar as mentioned in the earlier post. I know where to locate Finder Preferences, as the above post indicates. I do get the mouse-over behavior described for the other headings.

 

[MacInWin]

toMACsh, I think it's called "Locations" and not Devices. There is a Locations section in Finder/Preferences/Sidebar. (At least there is in Mojave, which is what I am running.)

 

[IWT]

Jake is absolutely correct. Up to, and including, macOS High Sierra, it was headed "Devices". In macOS Mojave, it is headed locations - as in this screenshot:



Ian

 

[dtravis7]

I Can tell you stories of Windows and issues that go back to Windows 1.0 and forward. The interface on 1.0-3.0 was pathetic and so bad I hated it with a passion. I realise Mac OS 1.0 on the first Mac 128 was lacking in a few things but compared to early Windows it was to me wonderful.

The only issue with Mac system and then Pre OSX Mac OS was shared Memory so when one app crashed it took the whole thing down. Windows up to NT was the same way and crashed daily. I was starting to fix computers back then and got calls with people in the middle of an important project crying, my Print Spooler keeps crashing and I can not print and need this done now.

A kind friend gave me my first Mac which was a Mac Plus as I was too poor at the time to buy one and I loved it compared to Windows. The first windows that did not crash all the time and worked well was Windows 2000 and later XP but they (especially XP) had issues also. When 10.2 Jaguar came out I tried it, fell in love with the OS and interface and left Windows behind except for repairing it.

And for some who do not know me well, I am a Windows Tester and Insider. I do it to help out and seen some of the worst bugs that I have ever seen in an OS, Beta or not.

 

[stefanmaine]

toMACsh,

"I looked; didn't find that in any Finder window I opened. Preferences doesn't seem to have a box unchecked for Devices either"

I am using OS Sierra, and, as others have explained, that may be why you aren't seeing it.
But I may not have been clear.
The window I am talking about with the "show" and "hide" options is not at Finder>Preferences>Sidebar or any other Finder>Preferences window.
Try this: With "Finder File Edit View Go ..." at the top of your Desktop screen, click on GO, then Documents. There, you should see in the sidebar, "Favorites" and below that "Devices".
To the right of the word "Devices," move your mouse slowly back and forth. Doing so should cause "show' or "hide" to appear (depending on which is now chosen).
I hope this helps.

 

[pm-r]

@dtravis7

I am a Windows Tester and Insider. I do it to help out and seen some of the worst bugs that I have ever seen in an OS, Beta or not.

Can I assume that being a Windows Tester and Insider is pretty well the same thing as being an Apple OS BETA Tester, other than the OS involved???

And are you an Apple OS BETA Tester as well???



- Patrick
======

 

[krs]

toMACsh,

"I looked; didn't find that in any Finder window I opened. Preferences doesn't seem to have a box unchecked for Devices either"

I am using OS Sierra, and, as others have explained, that may be why you aren't seeing it.
But I may not have been clear.
The window I am talking about with the "show" and "hide" options is not at Finder>Preferences>Sidebar or any other Finder>Preferences window.
Try this: With "Finder File Edit View Go ..." at the top of your Desktop screen, click on GO, then Documents. There, you should see in the sidebar, "Favorites" and below that "Devices".
To the right of the word "Devices," move your mouse slowly back and forth. Doing so should cause "show' or "hide" to appear (depending on which is now chosen).
I hope this helps.

This seems to be more complicated than it needs to be.
I just open any folder on my desktop, and the "Devices" with the hidden "Hide/Show" option is right there in the side bar of that folder window.

 

[stefanmaine]

"and the "Devices" with the hidden 'Hide/Show' option is right there in the side bar"

Actually, on my iMac with Sierra, it's not "right there".
You are correct, they are there, but they are hidden from view.
On my computer, "hide" or "show" appear only when I drag the mouse pointer over the blank area to the right of "Devices" in the Sidebar.
So, yes, they're there, but you sort of have to know to do that drag ... otherwise why would you do it?

 

[krs]

"and the "Devices" with the hidden 'Hide/Show' option is right there in the side bar"

Actually, on my iMac with Sierra, it's not "right there".
You are correct, they are there, but they are hidden from view.
On my computer, "hide" or "show" appear only when I drag the mouse pointer over the blank area to the right of "Devices" in the Sidebar.
So, yes, they're there, but you sort of have to know to do that drag ... otherwise why would you do it?

Sorry, poor wording on my part.
The "right there" was referring to the "Devices" name, the Hide/Show option is hidden the way you describe.

 

[MacInWin]

On my computer, "hide" or "show" appear only when I drag the mouse pointer over the blank area to the right of "Devices" in the Sidebar.

Actually, if you drag the pointer over any of the line, the hide/show appears. You don't have to drag on the right, the left works just as well. In fact, that is how I first noticed it. As I moved the mouse pointer down the sidebar, something flashed and disappeared, so I went back up and voila!

 

[stefanmaine]

MacInWin, You’re right, dragging the mouse pointer over any part of the “Devices” line reveals “hide” or “show,” as appropriate. Thanks for catching that.

Which brings me to the interesting discussion (some of it over my head) that evolved here about Apple OS’s design. Since switching in 2011 to a Mac after decades of DOS and Windows, I have been impressed. My experience has been that Apple’s OS (I started with Leopard, now have Sierra) is preferable to any version of Windows (I have used all of them) by almost any measure. My only objection has been that sometimes it seems Apple expects users to read their (Apple’s) mind. (Windows’ design, by comparison, seems often to be mindless.) The “hide/show” issue that I raised in this thread is an example. There is no user-accessible mention of it (that I could find) anywhere. I presume the default choice is “show,” because a flash drive has always appeared in the sidebar under “Devices” when I plugged one into a USB port. It just showed. Until last week, when I wrote the post that started this thread. I had plugged a flash drive into a USB port to transfer a file from my iMac to a friend’s PC, and the drive did not display on the Finder sidebar. “Huh?” I thought. I searched around at Finder>Preferences and elsewhere. Then, as I have done successfully many times, for which I am always grateful, I came here. At some point after posting, I apparently unintentionally, coincidentally, fortuitously, dragged the mouse pointer somewhere along the Devices line, and "show" displayed. Now, I wonder, did the OS design team writing the Finder>Preferences>Sidebar actually decide, “Let’s display ‘Devices/External disks’ in the checklist, but nowhere mention the disappearing ‘hide/show’ because users will know intuitively that it’s there. After all, we know it's there, why wouldn't they”?

 

[MacInWin]

@stefanmaine, drives with removable media work a little differently. The *device* does not show up, but the *disc* in the drive does. So if you attach a floppy drive, nothing appears until you actually put a disc in the drive and it mounts. Same for CD/DVD drives. And for those external card readers. What is mounted is not the device, but the disc/CD/DVD/Card. You might not have noticed that before, but it's been that way for a long time. It did catch me out when I first attached a CD drive and didn't see anything different anywhere.

 

[pm-r]

My only objection has been that sometimes it seems Apple expects users to read their (Apple’s) mind.

But I hate to say it, but don't expect things to improve in the immediate future and have a look at what some others are saying about some of the usages that Apple uses in their OS:

Less… Is More? Apple’s Inconsistent Ellipses Icons Inspire User Confusion - Article Comments - TidBITS Talk

Less… Is More? Apple’s Inconsistent Ellipsis Icons Inspire User Confusion - TidBITS


- Patrick
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[chscag]

No problem here. I don't use the wallet app and have no intention of ever using it. And as far as the Apple Card goes, it's just another credit card that I don't really need. I have to admit though, it looks pretty. LOL.

 

[dtravis7]

So much negativity toward Mac OS lately.

I am a Windows Insider and have builds of Windows 10 that are many versions newer than the typical WinDERZ user has and to me it's getting worse and not better. Think Apple is doing it wrong? I would rather run any version of OSX or Mac OS than Windows 10.

I wish we could be a bit more supportive of apples OS here.

 

[IWT]

When new members find their way to our Forums, they might be surprised and even comforted to find that, whilst they can count on excellent support, it is from a group of people who recognise the faults & pitfalls in an OS as well as the emphasising the overwhelming advantages of that OS.

Neither fanboys nor dissidents.

Ian