A lot of Xbox users have been having trouble with connecting the external hard drive with the Xbox series X or S. Here are the 6 easy ways to solve the issue of Xbox not reading the hard drive. Let’s get straight in.
To fix the issue of XBOX series X/S not reading the external hard drive, Try Adjusting the power management and to do that, go to Settings > general > Power mode and startup and then un-tick the box that says “when XBOX is off, Turn off storage” and restart the XBOX series X/S. After you restart, it will recognise the external hard drive.
The above-mentioned fix might not work for some. So, we are here with other cases as well as their fixes.
Try Another USB cable to connect External hard drive to your XBOX.
At times, a USB cable causes incompatibility between the external hard drive and the XBOX. So, it is better to check if your USB cable is working fine and check if it is compatible.
If not then try a new one or get it from your friend who’s having a hard drive. Also, if you have another External hard drive then try using the USB cable of that hard drive.
There are good chances that the USB cable you are using is causing you trouble and you better replace it with a new one or a spare USB cable(If you have any).
If you wanna buy a new one and are confused with which one to go with? You can try buying these ones.
And if replacing a USB cable doesn’t work in your case, Try the next step.
Try using another external hard drive
The next step is to check the Hard-drive itself as it can be faulty as well. A faulty external hard drive won’t show up on your device and nothing other than replacing it with a new one will work.
Compatibility can be the issue here as well. So, it is better to check your External hard drive if it working fine with your XBOX or not.
Also, make sure that the external hard drive you are using has 256GB or above storage as XBOX suggests you to have at least 256GB for external storage.
Here are some quality external hard drives you can consider replacing your current external hard drive with.
WD 1TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive HDD
Try following the next step if there isn’t any issue with your external hard drive or your USB cable.
Adjust Power management on your XBOX
Adjust the power management on your Xbox by deselecting the option that states “when Xbox is off, turn off storage”.
and to do that, go to Settings > general > Power mode and startup and then un-tick the box that says “when XBOX is off, Turn off storage” and after that restart your console.
After restarting your Xbox, check the system storage and see if the external hard drive is working or not.
There are good chances that doing this will solve your issue of the External hard drive not working on the Xbox. If it doesn’t then, try the next one.
Power cycle your XBOX
Turn off your Xbox series X/S by holding the power button for about 10 seconds until you hear a beep sound. After that beep sound, restart and once done, check the system storage and look for the external hard drive.
At times, whenever the device isn’t refreshed it tends to fail to show some files and power cycling your Xbox will make sure that your device is refreshed.
Doing this works for many and this might work for you as well and in case if it doesn’t work for you, try the next one.
Make sure your Xbox series X/S is updated.
If your Xbox isn’t updated to the latest update, the system might not recognise the external hard drive. This is yet another case that the hard drive isn’t recognised.
It is always better to keep your Xbox series X or S updated so that your console doesn’t fail to recognise external devices and other glitches.
Also, You can keep the automatic update so that you don’t miss out on any other latest updates. And to do that:-
Go to settings > system > updates > latest console update status and then tick those boxes that state:- “Keep my console up to date” and keep games and apps up to date”.
After updating your console, Look for the external drive in the system. It should work and if it doesn’t, try the other one mentioned next.
Reconnect the External hard drive.
Reconnect the external hard drive by ejecting and replugging it back to the USB port and make sure that the USB port you are using is working fine.
Make sure that the power supply to the USB port is appropriate enough to power up the external devices. And if the USB port where you replugged your external drive to isn’t working then try another one.
There are 2 USB ports at the back and one at the front. Try all of these and make sure that the power supply to these ports is working fine.
If nothing of the above works for you, there’s one way still left that you can go with. Here’s how:-
Xbox customer support
Xbox customer support can help you with the problem when nothing of the above-mentioned thing worked in your case. Also, if the external hard drive is faulty try getting it replaced if you just bought it recently.
Ask the customer support guys about the situation and if there is any hardware issue and your device is new, you might get your device either repaired or replaced.
That’s that for the topic and I am hoping that the above-given information helped you out to get rid of the situation where the Xbox fails to recognise the external hard drive.
In case, you ever face any console related or Xbox related issues, remember our name and you might get the fix for your issue here without any fuss. peace.