Mac Data Recovery

Recover Data from Unmounted APFS External Hard Drive

Written By Vishal
Approved By Rohit Arora
Updated on 10 Nov, 2022
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Summary: In this blog, we will briefly discuss more reasons behind the unmounting of an APFS drive and ways to recover data from an unmounted APFS drive.

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APFS is a file system introduced with the new operating system – macOS High Sierra 10.13. The primary focus of APFS is encryption; it is developed for SSDs and flash drives. Like all media devices, an APFS formatted storage drive can also have trouble mounting on the Mac. An external drive formatted with APFS may not mount due to several reasons such as the logical corruption of the file system.

Read Case Study: Whooping 94% data recovered from unmounted external drive on MacBook Pro

APFS Unmounting – Causes & Simple Fixes

Improper Connection – Check the cable-connection at both ends. The connection may be loose, which could be causing the drive to unmount.
Bad Connector – The wire transmitting the electrical signal may have broken from within its protective layer. You should replace the cable; it is always handy if you keep a spare cable just in case you need it.
File System Corruption – To prevent file system corruption you should shut down your Mac using any of the system commands; the command helps synchronize the file systems. As compared to APFS, HFS and FAT formatted drives are more susceptible to corruption. Therefore, you have to recover data from HFS and FAT using a data recovery software.
Faulty Thunderbolt or USB Port – Thunderbolt and the USB are two ports available in a Mac that helps you connect your hard drive and other devices to the Mac. It is highly unlikely, but the ports may have run its course.

Try Mounting your APFS External Drive via Disk Utility

Though chances are thin, still you can repair and unmount your external hard drive via Disk Utility tool. Follow the below steps to unmount your APFS drive using Disk Utility:

Launch Disk Utility from Application
Select the APFS external hard drive
Press the Unmount button

This may help you to mount APFS external storage drive.

Recover Data from an Unmounting APFS Formatted External Drive

The above 4 simple fixes and the Disk Utility technique do not always work in your favour since an unmounted APFS drive may be severely corrupt. However, a Mac data recovery software will work and recover inaccessible files from an unmounted APFS Solid-State-Drive or a hard drive.

Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac has been helping users to recover their lost or inaccessible data for more than two decades. This is a highly reliable software and a handy tool whenever data loss occurs. The software is macOS Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, and Catalina compatible and runs smoothly on both 64–bit and 32-bit operating systems. It can recover your data from lost, formatted, and encrypted hard drive. Apart from these useful features, if you happen to delete your Time Machine backup or any other partition accidentally, the software will recover it in few clicks.

With Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac, you can even create the disk image of your hard drive if your hard drive is having bad sectors.

Once you have retrieved all the data from the unmounted external drive with Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, you can then erase the storage disk and format it with APFS for further use.

Launch Disk Utility
Select APFS media
Press Erase and chose APFS format
Click Apply to save the settings

This will make your external hard drive function with the newly created partition map.

Conclusion

Though APFS is susceptible to corruption, it is an exceptional file system developed by Apple, and an upgrade to the predecessor HFS. If your APFS formatted drive doesn’t mount on the Mac then there is no need to panic, simply use Stellar Data Recovery for Mac software for retrieving your data. It is a highly effective software in recovering your inaccessible files from an unmounted APFS external storage drive. The software has many other features that recover your data in all known data loss scenarios. You can try the Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac software at any point in time to reclaim your lost data.

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About The Author

Vishal

Vishal is a data recovery expert @Stellar. He addresses data loss scenarios on a Mac. He intends to help people solve their macOS problems. Besides, Vishal prefers to read about astronomy and autobiography, and his favorite is Steve Jobs - The man who thought different written by Karen Bluementhal.

5 comments

Wills says:

January 25, 2020 at 3:17 pm

Working on Mojave. Thnaks!

Reply
Robert Crespo says:

August 30, 2018 at 6:07 am

I want to recover my lost data from encrypted APFS drive. Does your software support encrypted APFS drive? Please suggest

Reply
1. Vishal says:
  
  August 31, 2018 at 4:53 am
  
  Yes, Stellar Mac Data Recovery support data recovery from encrypted APFS drive. You should enter the password to recover data from your encrypted drive.
  
  Reply
Samuel Stein says:

August 24, 2018 at 10:17 am

Stellar Mac Data Recovery is one of the finest tool to use in any type of data loss.

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1. Vishal says:
  
  August 24, 2018 at 10:25 am
  
  Hello Samuel,
  
  Thanks for sharing the kind words. Please also follow us on facebook,twitter & youtube.
  
  Reply