External SSD keeps disconnecting after upgrading to Sonoma

This is 100% a Sonoma issue. Same happened to my Samsung 1GB drive that is connected to the Mac mini M2 Pro after upgrading to Sonoma. Also did the dance (First Aid, then reformat) same issue. Hope 14.01 will do the trick.

I have the Kingston XS2000, it keeps unmounting and won't stay mounted long enough to back it up. How did you back it up?? Did it stay on for a period to allow you to do it.

This whole unmounting thing is driving me F crazy, I'm really afraid of losing my data. And please don't say back it up, that's just the problem it won't let me. Apple wtf are you playing at??

Not sure why you're replying to me with all that, but it's really rubbing me the wrong way. I am a video editor for a living and I use SSD drives every single day of my life. I would like to think I have a pretty firm grasp of how to use, initialize, and format them. Everything was working fine for YEARS until this recent update.. it is without a question a macOS software issue.

By the way, control clicking 'Get Info', will tell you in plain english what the drive's format is.

It’s not JUST an SSD issue. I have the same problem with a 5TB Seagate One Touch drives that’s been working on my Mac mini for years, but when I plugged it into my new MacBook Pro M3 the screen gets filled with erroneous eject messages.

Plus it won’t easily eject when you try to.

Do do do report it!

• Official Apple Support
  • Easy route: Get Support > Start Now (bottom of page) > pick device > Live Chat. This has proven efficient lately in my experience. 💡Insist on MAC support or (again, my exp) even when Mac specified, you can waste time with a generalist or iOS person who has no knowledge of Mac or Mac O/S.
  • Why bother*? Because if it continues 2-3 times a week you may end up with corrupted data and fried drives (as I did). Also not a bad idea to get it logged early on so there's a record with Apple in case it becomes a major issue requiring hardware intervention.
• Product Feedback - Apple (no replies there, just for the record).

*Wish I'd reported it so as soon as the problem arose, insead of thinking it was everything but my MBP and losing a screen and 2 disks. Genius Bar was unable to replicate it, so the tech leaned towards the idea that it wasn't a Mac fault. The Mac was finally replaced, but it was a long battle that cost me dearly in time, data loss, stress and hardware.

As others have said, Apple will only take this seriously if they receive numerous reports about it.

I have. I have a Toshiba Canivo 2TB external drive that I haven't even had an entire week that keeps disconnecting. It randomly started doing this after updating to 14.4.1.

Same problem, annoying to the point that beginning to regret switching to mac

Same issue here. A Samsung T7 which was working fine under Ventura, but since updating to Sonoma has displayed the "Disk Not Ejected Properly" notification at random times. Oddly enough, the disk is, sometimes, still accessible through finder even after the message has been displayed. So, whatever anyone else says, I genuinely believe that this is a Sonoma problem.

Well...same. Currently, thank God, I only have this annoying "Disk Not Ejected Properly" when using my external SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD - 2TB. I've been using it for a year on my previous 2018 MBP with Mojave...and I NEVER HAD A SINGLE PROBLEM. But ever since I paid a fortune for a new max spec MBP with M3 Max and all that...I've started to get random unsafe ejects. Thankfully it doesn't happen during transfers or etc...or I've been very lucky.

It only happens ever once in a while...every X days. But it's truly annoying. ;((( After paying like like €6500 on a Mac, I get this stuff...It's sickening.

Interesting. YES, def related to thunderbolt ports. What speed SSDs cause issue? Have you noticed any other apparently inexplicable issues? For me it affected not only NVME disks, but -

• ALL external disks, NVME (10 gbps) and SATA, whether quite old, 1-2 years or brand new
• Wired internet connection and thus apps dependent on web access (e.g. dictation and AI functions within creative apps)
• Visual display (e.g. showing half an image, no thumbnail images within app, or windows getting stuck)
• Physical monitors (port burn on one, intermittent displays on another) and...
• ...literally anything else plugged into the ports, whether attached direct or via (3 different) hubs I've tried.

I always suspected h/w b/c (for me) it started with one port, then 2, then all 4... and happened again the same way after all ports replaced. However, that could also be coincidence I guess.

Good you've reported direct to Apple. Hopefully numbers will get users heard on this...

When you post here, Readers are other users like you. Apple does not troll the forums looking for issues. Apple does not understand the urgency of this issue unless a LARGE number of Users let them know it is an issue.

Be sure you have either contacted support here, in hopes of getting more help:

Support

or posted a product feedback of type "bug report" here (but these are Not tracked and no response will be forthcoming):

Product Feedback - Apple

I had the same exact thing with the ScanDisk portable extreme 1TB, but the problem is with the drive itself, the controller is a bad quality one, after a while it totally died< had to open it to get the drive itself out of it and install it to an external ssd enclosure to rebuild the file system and retrieve my data, just be careful with these Sacndisk drives.

• i still get the random disconnect issue after update with my Samsung 990PRO.

Before 8 Dec 23, I had Mac OS Ventura and things were smooth between my External NVME drive and my Mac mini m2 pro. But as soon as I upgraded it to Sonoma things between my drive and machine went bad.

My external Nvme drive keeps getting ejected automatically, at start I thought I may have moved the enclosure, but it was happening again and again.

Steps to confirm its the bad update about thunderbolt port in SONOMA.

• I remove the drive and connect it to my old macbook pro (2012) using USB-A cable, and its working.
• I then connect the drive again to my M2 pro mac mini with usb c to usb c cable , but its getting disconnected. I tried restarting also but its same.
• I then connect drive to USB 3 port on My mac mini using USB -A cable and its working fine. I dont know what speeds I am getting on it.

So conclusion, its definitely something wrong with the Sonoma update about handling power or data on thunderbolt ports (I tried on 2 different ports ).

So I will be using the drive on USB 3.0 port until they resolve the issue in next updates , hope so.