I recently updated to macOS Big Sur, and I am having trouble with my external hard drive. The hard drive keeps randomly disconnecting from my Mac Pro so I can't really use the drive at all. Any one else have issues with that? It's WD Caviar Black 6 TB connected with the Orico USB3 dock. Thanks!
Mac Pro, macOS 11.0
I have the same problem.
This is my first time using a Mac and I was very excited about the M1 chip, but have found this enormously vexing to the extent that I'm considering selling the Mac and going back to a PC.
Any help would be greately appreciated. Many thanks
Hi every body. Just today installed Big Sur, actual version is 11.2.1.
I get same problem, Big Sur automatically disconnecting my external HDD seagate 5tb, every few minutes. I can not do nothing, no Time Machine, no files.
Yesterday on Catalina, everything was good, today I suffering with Big Sur...
Changed two cables, tried everything what I could find in that topic, nothing working!
Apple, what happens? What I must to do? I need my Time Machine and files!
MacBook Pro 13" 2018 512gb. Seagate STHP5000400 5tb, formated — 1tb for TM (macos extended journaled), 4tb for job files (macos extended journaled).
OK, I have been doing some experiments and have not had a disconnection for a couple days. It appears (for me at least) as the trigger for the "DID NOT EJECT PROPERLY" event is when the Mac goes to sleep. I suspect it may be a combination of factors which I have not deciphered yet, including 1) Sleeping, 2) HHD, 3) TimeMachineBackup, and possibly marginal hardware.
By setting Energy Saver settings as follows and not manually entering sleep I have avoided the Disconnect for a couple days where it was reliably occurring at least once a day.
Can someone please try this and tell us if this works for you.
I am on an iMac where battery is not an issue so staying awake just wastes energy. This will have a more significant impact on Laptop users trying to conserve battery.
I have opened a Bug Report but it would be nice if Apple would at least acknowledge this is an issue that will be fixed. Apple?
Folks, if it wasn't obvious (it looks like my uploaded screen-shot isn't visible...), at its worst I see the message pop up as frequently as every minute-or-two while I'm actively using my Mini (meaning: the Mac is not going to sleep, and sleep has nothing to do with the problem (at least in my case).
Try preventing the Mini Mac from sleeping. See https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252083720?answerId=254371035022#254371035022 for the Energy Settings. Seems like am Apple bug to me given threads I have seen.
Here's a thought. Earlier (before Big Sur), there were multiple similar issues reported. It appears, power was the main issue. As you know, the 2018 Mac Mini has 4 TB3 ports, but only 2 TB3 buses, so ports 1 &2 share a bus, and ports 3&4 share the other bus. My research has been limited to bus powered TB3 SSD's. I read an article in "Mac Performance Guide" mentioning this very issue. It is quite possible that using the dock with it's own power source is why it solved dschommers (above) connectivity issue.
It makes sense, lack of "enough" power causing intermittent disconnects. It also may be why the G-Drive shows up in the "Finder" and "Disk Utility" as a "SanDisk Extreme Pro"; however, it shows up in the System Information as G-Drive Mobile Pro SSD (see attached images below)...
So, when I connected to my Caldigit TS3 dock, why did it continue to disconnect, albeit much less frequently, but still the behavior persisted?
It was connected to my Caldigit dock from day 1. It was my home drive, so it was connected during the upgrade to Big Sur. I didn't add any hardware (Thunderbay was not added until this March-months after the issue started), and if it wasn't caused by the upgrade, then what?
It appears after the upgrade, the dock's power output was no longer sufficient to power the SSD properly...
Caldigit TS3 power specs:
AC Input : 100V-240V ~50Hz/60Hz
DC Output: 20V/9.0A, 180W
OWC Thunderbay 4 power specs (there are 2 versions of the Thunderbay 4 - TB3 and TB2 power for both is the same):
2018 Mac Mini power specs:
Actual G-Drive Mobile Pro 1TB TB3 connection scenarios:
Mac Mini (direct connect): Constantly disconnects (15-20 times per hour)
Caldigt TS3 (connected to Tb3 port): Disconnects (1 per hour)
Thunderbay 4 (connected to upstream TB3 port): So far it hasn't disconnected.
Sys info today shows:
TB Bus 0: eGFX Breakaway Box
TB Bus 1: TS3 Plus
ThunderBay 43
G-Drive mobile Pro SSD
Sys info before the upgrade was the same but the G-Drive was under the TS3 plus.
I was able to stop the disconnects by preventing my computer from sleeping.
Since making these adjustments mine does not disconnect. However, since it is happening every 5 mins you may be experiencing a much more severe case. I suspect it is a power related thing.
Open a bug report to Apple. The more duplicate bugs they get the higher priority it will be.
I thought a fix would be imminent because of the impact.
It appears to be Big Sur. it is happening on all different Macs and different HDD drives since Big Sur.
It is a huge problems for those affected.
Sure would be nice if Apple Support would at least tell us Apple acknowledges this is a problem.
It’s a real disconnect and I got a notification in the Notification Center that I should eject before I disconnect. The drive will reconnect automatically and then disconnection again after a minute or two. So if I just left the drive on, I’ll come home to hundreds of those notifications
I had a similar problem with such hard drive but not only with Big Sur installed. I wanted to use the hard drive on a different computer, and it also ejected improperly sometimes with me doing nothing. What I did in the end on an older computer was to erase the hard drive and reformat as Mac os Journaled, GUID partition map. Then I ran into the problem that the disc was occasionally unmounted, when I connected and somehow erasing again failed. So I went to disk utility again and selected partition and then selected Mac os Journaled again. The disk was erased, and now it seems stable and working, although I am using it for a different computer with Catalina.
If you can you may want to reformat your disk again but may be somebody has a different suggestion.
I am seeing this too. I have an USB connected hard drive which spontaneously disconnects ever few hours. I stopped Time Machine and still happening. I reformatted and created the partitions to all be APFS, still happening. Move the drive to an old High Sierra iMac and stays connected. Isolated to Big Sur spinning drive. No trouble with SSD drive. Wondering if I should not be using APFS on spinning drive.
I have been experiencing this as well.
I have reformatted the drive. Disabled Time Machine, Verified the Same Drive doesn't disconnect on non-Big Sur macs. Still happens.
I believe it may be related to the Music App. In some other forums the complaint is their Music Library is lost.
Do you all have your Music Library on the external disconnecting drive? I wonder if it is triggered by the Apple Music app.
Well I was running Apple Music today from a new completely local library. In fact no file content just purchased songs. Still had a disconnect. I am wondering if Big Sur may have changed the USB power threshold. Usually you get a "UsB devices disabled" Unplug the device using too much power. This is a frustrating issue. It has cost be a couple days work since my IDE used the external drive.
Anyone contact Apple on this or figure out a way around this without reformatting? I have been having same issue since install of Big Sur. I had my external drive being backed up via cloud service which hasn’t seen drive in 30 days and will be deleted from cloud. I need this data on the drive and cannot risk reformatting.
I was having the same problem, with multiple external HDDs ejecting repeatedly (super frustrating as I know you know). As soon as Big Sur 11.1 became available, I updated to that and it seems to have solved the problem 🤞🏼 Good luck!
I am running 11.1 and still being the problem.
It happens the Time Machine is off.
I thought the USB power was being turned off when in sleep mode (new in Big Sur). However, when I use Option-Command-Eject or Menu > Apple > Sleep the disk stays spinning. I have not left it sleeping for long.
I unchecked "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" Energy Saver.
I opened a Bug Report with Apple.
Big Sur Disconnecting My External HDD
