I bought an SSD yesterday to back up my macbook pro (2018). I transferred some other files on there as well, but when I tried to access them today it pops up with the T5 setup and no way of getting to the files. As it says there is no portable SSD connected.
Absolutely seconding the suggestions: First, you do not need any software on an external drive - it does not need it to function. Second, while you do need to format it for the Mac, you can erase it which will get rid of the unnecessary software on it. And, although it isn't required, it works better if you partition the drive if you want to not only have a Time Machine backup, but also some drag 'n drop files on it. It will have two separate partitions which will result in two icons on your desktop - easier to find the misc. stuff. Just make sure you make the TM partition large enough and choose a smaller size for your other backups.
Having said all of that, it is generally a better and safer idea not to have all the backups on one disk: if that fails, everything is gone. And they all fail at some point. I prefer smaller drives, but more of them - I have a total of four and duplicate backups of everything on different disks (and each drive has several partitions).
You do not need to use the Samsung Portable SSD Software. When your T5 shows up on the Desktop, double click on the T5 drive icon, not the Samsung Portable SSD set up icon. It should open a window showing all the files you transferred onto it.
If you are going to use this drive to back up your MacBook Pro using Time Machine, you will have to erase it using Disk Utility and reformat it as: Format: MacOS Extended (Journaled), Scheme: GUID Partition Map.
If you are going to just drag files to it then you can leave it as it came formatted: Format:ExFat, Scheme: Master Boot Record.
Samsung T5 SSD
