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I tried to drag a DVD to VLC app. Instead the entire DVD/CD drive just disappeared from Finder. The drive is still there: I can play a DVD on it. But it does not show up in Locations.

Update 6 months later I have tried two different external Cd/DVD drive's: both can play DVD/USB's but neither show up in Finder.

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Note that it is enabled in the Preferences:

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How can the DVD/CD drive be re-added to Finder? I am on Catalina with a Macbook Pro 2020.

Update Here are the Sidebar settings - showing that the External disks and CDs, DVDs, Ipods are enabled:

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  • So the DVD doesn't show up in a Finder Window of "Stephen's MBP" or whatever your computer is called? It doesn't show up on the Desktop background? And it doesn't show up in the Sidebar? Also, note that the Sidebar pane of the Finder prefs also has settings for whether they show.
    – benwiggy
    Mar 13, 2021 at 18:15
  • I also checked Sidebar settings and they are properly checked: will update the question. Everything you describe is the case and everything is checked/enabled in Settings. IThis all went from working to not without any settings changes when I installed VLC. I have no idea why or how to reset this.
    – WestCoastProjects
    Mar 13, 2021 at 18:19
  • Just to be 100%: the DVD does not show up on your desktop?
    – X_841
    Mar 13, 2021 at 18:28
  • @X_841 It does show up on desktop: someone had suggested to drag from Desktop to Finder and that works
    – WestCoastProjects
    Mar 13, 2021 at 18:48
  • That was actually me trying to answer, yet in the comments it seemed like the DVD didn't show up on the desktop. Therefore I deleted it.
    – X_841
    Mar 13, 2021 at 19:02

3 Answers 3

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+50

The first thing to try is to test the problem in a new user account. If the DVDs show up in the Finder in a new user account, then you know the problem is somewhere in the original user account's Library: a corrupt or misconfigured preference, most likely.

If the problem still persists in a new user account, then you know it is at a System level: so either a bug in the OS itself, or some weird interaction with third-party software installed in /Library, or possibly a global preference that is similarly corrupt or misconfigured.

Going back to the user-level problem: if that is the case, then you need to 'hunt the thimble': find the file that's causing the problem. You can remove large swathes of files and folder from the User Library, test, and then restore them if nothing changes, or restore half of them if it does, and so on.

Likely candidates are user/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist, and com.apple.sidebarlists.plist in the same folder. You may need to look for other potentially relevant filenames.

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4
  • I'll keep in mind and if it disappears again will delete ~/Library/Preferences/{com.apple.finder.plist, com.apple.sidebarlists.plist}
    – WestCoastProjects
    Mar 13, 2021 at 18:46
  • Ok i'm going to delete those now just to see what happens. No change in Finder: but I had already draged "Audio CD" and "Macintosh HD" into Favorites. Apparently the plists do not affect them?
    – WestCoastProjects
    Mar 13, 2021 at 19:14
  • Things may be cached, so you may have to relaunch the Finder (or indeed Log out and In again).
    – benwiggy
    Mar 13, 2021 at 19:46
  • I'll restart Finder. Hold on.. OK yes now they show up in Locations!
    – WestCoastProjects
    Mar 13, 2021 at 19:53
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If you can see the DVD on your desktop, you can simply drag the DVD icon back into Finder.

You can enable showing DVDs on Desktop in Finder settings: enter image description here

Then drag and drop your DVD back:

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1

Someone had created an answer : "Drag the Audio CD from the Desktop to Finder". I would like to award that: please come back ;)

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2
  • I undeleted my question. Glad I could help ;)
    – X_841
    Mar 13, 2021 at 20:23
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    I think you undeleted your answer ;) I upvoted but in the interim an answer precisely to the question was entered : so I did not actually award it. Thanks in any case: your answer is simpler than the other one and represents another valid approach
    – WestCoastProjects
    Mar 13, 2021 at 20:31

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