Android phone not showing up on your Mac?
Your Mac doesn’t see the phone, or Android File Transfer says “No Android device found” or “Can’t access device storage”. It is almost always one of the causes below. Check them in this order.
Updated October 27, 2026
1. Unlock the phone and choose File transfer
An Android phone connected over USB only charges until you choose otherwise. Unlock it, pull down the notifications, tap Charging this device via USB and choose File transfer. Pixel phones call it File transfer / Android Auto.
“Can’t access device storage” is Android File Transfer’s message for exactly this: the phone is locked, or File transfer isn’t on.
Some phones, Samsung Galaxy among them, show up on the Mac even while charging, but with no storage in them. If the phone appears empty, this is the step you missed.
2. Use a cable that carries data
Plenty of USB cables, often the ones that came with a charger or a power bank, carry power but no data. With one of those the phone charges and nothing else happens. Use a cable you know transfers data. If the phone still doesn’t appear, plug it straight into the Mac instead of a hub or a display.
3. Quit any other app that might be holding the phone
macOS lets only one app use a USB device at a time. Whichever app opens the phone first keeps it, and every other app fails to connect until that one lets go. These are the usual suspects:
- Android File Transfer Agent. Google’s Android File Transfer installs this background helper. It starts with your Mac and takes the phone the moment it’s plugged in. Quitting Android File Transfer isn’t enough, because the agent opens it again the next time the phone connects. Remove the agent in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions.
- Preview, Photos and Image Capture. Many Android phones also present themselves as a camera. While any of these apps is open, macOS’s photo import service holds the phone for it, sometimes for hours. Quit the app and the phone is free within a couple of seconds.
- Other phone tools, such as other file transfer apps, and apps that import photos from cameras.
If Photos opens every time you connect the phone, select the phone in the Photos sidebar and turn off Open Photos for this device.
4. Reconnect
Unplug the phone, wait a few seconds and plug it in again, then choose File transfer again. Switching the phone’s USB setting to charging only and back to File transfer does the same: the phone reconnects as if it had just been plugged in.
5. Android File Transfer itself
If none of this helps and you’re using Android File Transfer, the app may be the problem. It was last built in 2018 for Intel Macs, and on Apple silicon it only runs through Rosetta. Try another app before you blame the phone or the cable: see Android File Transfer alternatives for Mac.
How Yaaft deals with these
Yaaft is a free Mac app for moving files between a Mac and an Android phone over USB. It was written with these problems in mind:
- If another app holds the phone, Yaaft names it, including Preview or Photos behind macOS’s photo import, and connects by itself as soon as that app quits.
- It can also share the phone with Preview or Photos, so you don’t have to quit them.
- Nothing of it sits in the background holding phones. If you turn on opening when a phone is connected, macOS only notices the phone and starts Yaaft; the phone isn’t touched until Yaaft’s window is open.
- It needs nothing on the phone and no internet connection: macOS gives it no network access at all.
Get Yaaft for macOS 13 or later, or read the questions and answers.