catalina does not suppport superdrive

I have been having problems with my superdrive since the Catalina installation. I went through troubleshooting with Apple Support and at the Genius Bar. My drive worked in the store but not on my imac. Anyone with a late 2012 mac and Catalina OS having trouble with their superdrive? Mine will not recognize the region of DVDs, freezes the Music app when trying to play the CD and freezes up when burning a CD.

Hello, ripley500.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

I understand that your SuperDrive and Asus external DVD players aren't working since updating to macOS Catalina. I'd like to help and share some information with you. With macOS Catalina, the SuperDrive won't show up in the, Finder sidebar, Desktop, or Disk Utility unless a disc is inserted.

If you need to make sure that the drive is working on a software level, open System Preferences. The CDs and DVDs preference pane will only show up when the SuperDrive is connected. If this appears, then the Mac recognizes that the SuperDrive is attached on a software level. For hardware, check System Information > USB, and System Information > Disc Burning.

You may need to reach out to Asus for more information about their drive.

If this isn't the case with either drives, let me know in more details of what happens.

Cheers!

Hate to say it but there is a problem with Catalina and the Superdrive. I just purchased a new Superdrive. Catalina would recognize the drive and would allow me to play CDs, but it would not let me play DVDs. Took the drive to a third party Apple Service center. They confirmed my error, but then thought about trying it on a non-Catalina machine. The drive worked fine. They reset the DVD region using the non-Catalina machine and now it works fine. It appears there is an issue with region control, Apple Superdrive, and Catalina. You will need a non-Catalina machine to set your region code, or buy a third party drive. I have a third part drive from OWC and it works fine.

So neither your Apple SuperDrive nor Asus work, right?

Have you tried den.thed's suggestions?

What have you tried. What year and model Mac do you have?

Also read the following: Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question

Try resetting the SMC: How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

Next, log into another user account and see if the problem persists there in Photos. (This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide).

Boot into Safe Mode (Use Safe Mode to isoloate issues with your Mac) and try playing there.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 

Boot into Safe Mode (Use Safe Mode to isoloate issues with your Mac) and try the optical drive from there. Reboot normally and try again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 

Question directed to someone any one at Apple: Would there be any sort of update? I am a graphic designer and I need the hard drive to work, please.

They won't see it here. This is a user-to-user forum. To get your concern before an Apple employee, please use this feedback link:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Feedback works. There have been a number of issues where high numbers of feedback link reports resulted in a fix.

Where is the fix????

I have a iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015). I want to connect a apple super drive but, it will not connect.

What do you mean it will not connect? The cable connects, right? Can you turn it on and put in a disk? What happens. Do you have CDs, DVDs and iPods checked in the Finder's General preferences?

What system are you running? I believe it was an early version of Mojave that couldn't see a disk in the drive. That was corrected in later system versions.

Describe what else you've tried.

Nope' both my LG desktop and portable CD/DVD drives that worked as far back as OS X Snow Leopard, still work today on my newer Mac's running macOS Mojave and Catalina.

I would reset your Mac's SMC and NVRAM, startup in Safe Mode followed by a normal restart and then retest your CD/DVD drives.

I'm getting a 'not permitted' message when I try and play a commercial DVD on my apple superdrive connected to my MacBook Pro - DVDs used to play and drive still works - assuming my recently installed/upgrade OS Catalina an issue? Any external DVD players that are compatible with OS Catalina ? Thanks - Dave

Ripley500, you are not alone, I have the very same issue. The agent that sold me the drive never told me that it is not compatible with Catalina. Question directed to someone any one at Apple: Would there be any sort of update? I am a graphic designer and I need the hard drive to work, please.

yes i have this problem too with catalina - and it is really annoying me! i am thinking of reverting back to mojave but i have read that mojave no longer supports just external dvd players either . can anyone enlighten me please. I live in an area where streaming is not possible - the set of dvd i want to watch is not available to down load. very very slow internet so i need external drive facility. someone please help me.

Have you tried cleaning the drive with a dry cleaning disc?

Have you tried another SuperDrive or aftermarket CD/DVD player?

Have you tried your SuperDrive with another Mac or one at your local Apple Store?

I have a iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015). I want to connect a apple super drive but, it will not connect.

In my system preferences no CDs or DVDs pane is present?

Should I go back to Sahara?

And why doesn't Apple support iMovie, iDVD, Garage Band, and, on this platform, Skype?????????????

Please, an answer I can actually make my situation work!?