[3 Solutions] Fix Corrupted USB on Mac Without Losing Data

Dany updated on Jan 11, 2024 | Home >Computer Instruction

Corrupted USB on Mac Overview

USB flash drive is usually used for data storage and is a portable storage device. It can help users transfer data from different Mac devices and can be used as a bootable installer – users can create macOS Ventura bootable USB with it. Sometimes USBs may corrupt because of impropriate usage or accidents:

  • Eject your USB flash drive in the wrong way.
  • Power off suddenly while using the USB flash drive.
  • Format USB flash drive on Mac incorrectly.
  • Malware and computer virus infection.
  • Physical damages.

All these reasons may cause USB flash drives to corrupt and may cause USB flash drive not showing up on Mac. There are three solutions to fix a corrupted USB on Mac. Check the following chart and skip to either tutorial and fix your USB flash drive on Mac:

Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. Update the USB driver Open the Apple menu to click "System Preferences" on your Mac. Under the "System Preferences"...Full steps
Fix 2. Use First Aid You can click the link to check how to boot Mac into Disk Utility. You can open the...Full steps
Fix 3. Format USB

Connect the target USB drive to your Mac. Open or boot into the Disk Utility on Mac...Full steps

Rescue Data from Corrupted USB on Mac with Software

Before you start to fix corrupted USBs on Mac, the first thing you should do is rescue data from the corrupted USB drive on Mac. It is possible to lose data while fixing the corrupted USB on Mac, so it is also necessary to recover data from flash drives on Mac. Which Mac USB recovery program should you choose and download? We highly recommend recovering data from corrupted USBs on Mac with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

You have enough reasons to pick this professional and handy tool to rescue data from your corrupted USB flash drive on your Mac:

You will learn how to rescue data from a corrupted USB on Mac with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac in three simple steps:

Step 1. Connect your USB drive to your Mac

Correctly connect your USB flash drive to your Mac. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Start selecting the flash drive and click "Search for lost files" to let the software scan for lost files on it.

Note: Before data recovery, you'd better click "Disk Backup" from the left sidebar to create a backup of your USB drive to avoid further data loss. After backing up the USB drive, the software can recover data from your USB drive backup, and you can remove the USB flash drive and use it again.

select your USB drive and search for lost files

Step 2. Find lost data on the USB drive

After the scan, all files will be presented in the left panel in the scan results.

Find lost data on USB using the filter function

Step 3. Recover data from flash drive

Select the files you want to recover and click the "Recover" button. Don't save the recoverable files to the USB drive itself in case of data overwriting.

recover flash drive data

How to Fix Corrupted USB on Mac [3 Methods]

If your USB flash drive is damaged physically, you should go for a local repair to fix your USB drive. We can offer three ways to fix corrupted USBs on Mac when you suffer virus attacks, disk errors, and other none physical damage.

Method 1. Fix Corrupted USB on Mac by Updating the USB Driver

For Mac users, updating the USB driver means updating the macOS operating system because the USB driver will update automatically with the operating system. When you find your USB cannot show up or is corrupted on your Mac, you should go to "Software Update" to check if there is an update. Then we can show you how to update the USB driver/macOS on Mac to fix corrupted USBs.

Step 1. Open the Apple menu to click "System Preferences" on your Mac.

open the system preferences menu

Step 2. Under the "System Preferences" menu, choose "Software Update".

Step 3. Click "Update Now" or "Upgrade Now" to complete the latest macOS update on Mac.

update the usb driver

Method 2. Run Fist Aid to Fix Corrupted USB on Mac

First Aid is one of the valuable features in Disk Utility on Mac, and it can help Mac users fix corrupted hard drives on Mac and corrupted USB drives. Let us find out how to fix corrupted USB drives with First Aid in Disk Utility.

Step 1. You can click the link to check how to boot Mac into Disk Utility. You can open the Finder and find Disk Utility under the "Utilities" folder.

Step 2. Choose "View" and then click "Show All Devices". You will see all the storage devices and the startup disk here.

Choose the Corrupted USB flash drive

Step 3. Select your corrupted USB flash drive and click "First Aid".

Step 4. Click "Run" to repair the corrupted USB on your Mac.

Step 5. Wait for the repairment complete and click "Done".

Fix corrupted USB on Mac with First Aid

Method 3. Format and Fix Corrupted USB on Mac with Disk Utility

You can try to format your USB to fix the corruption if First Aid cannot repair your corrupted USB flash drive. Remember to back up your USB drive, or you can recover lost data with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard after formatting the USB. How to format USB on Mac with Disk Utility? Let us check the following tutorial and find the answer:

Step 1. Connect the target USB drive to your Mac.

Step 2. Open or boot into the Disk Utility on Mac.

Step 3. Select the corrupted USB flash drive and click "Erase" to format it.

format the corrupted USB on Mac

Conclusion

The secret of fixing a corrupted USB on a Mac without data loss is downloading EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. After formatting the corrupted USB on Mac, you can still get back the data on your USB drive with this powerful data recovery tool. Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, and you can prevent data loss on Mac.

Fix Corrupted USB on Mac FAQs

You can learn more about fixing a corrupted USB on Mac with the following questions and answers:

How to format a USB flash drive to FAT32 on Mac?

There are two secure methods to format USB flash drive to FAT32 on Mac:

  1. 1. Format the USB drive on Mac in Disk Utility
  2. 2. Format USB flash drive on Mac with Terminal

How to recover data from a corrupted USB on Mac?

You can recover data from a corrupted USB on Mac with reliable USB recovery software – EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. You will need only three steps to rescue the data on a corrupted USB:

  1. 1. Launch this software and scan your USB flash drive.
  2. 2. Filter the files and select the files you want to recover.
  3. 3. Preview and retrieve the data on the corrupted USB flash drive.

Why is my USB corrupted or unreadable?

There are many reasons that may cause your USB to be corrupted or unreadable:

  1. 1. Eject your USB flash drive in the wrong way.
  2. 2. Power off suddenly while using the USB flash drive.
  3. 3. Format USB flash drive on Mac incorrectly.
  4. 4. Malware and computer virus infection.
  5. 5. Physical damages.

Can I fix the corrupted USB flash drive on Mac?

Yes, you can fix the corrupted hard drive on Mac in three ways:

  1. 1. Update the USB driver on Mac.
  2. 2. Use First Aid to repair the USB.
  3. 3. Format the corrupted USB with Disk Utility.

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Updated by Cedric

Cedric Grantham is a senior editor and data recovery specialist of EaseUS. He mainly writes articles and how-to tips about data recovery on PC and Mac. He has handled 10,000+ data recovery cases and is good at data recovery of NTFS, FAT (FAT32 and ExFAT) file systems, and RAID structure reorganization.

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Written by Dany

Dany is an editor of EaseUS who lives and works in Chengdu, China. She focuses on writing articles about data recovery on Mac devices and PCs. She is devoted to improving her writing skills and enriching her professional knowledge. Dany also enjoys reading detective novels in her spare time.

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