External dvd drive does not work when upgrading from Sierra to High Sierra

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Level 1

9 points

External dvd drive does not work when upgrading from Sierra to High Sierra

Hello,

I have two iMac 27" (one mid-2010, another late-2013) and four MacBook Air 13" all working so far with Sierra all these years.

Last week I've decided to upgrade all of them to High Sierra then to Mojave except the iMac mid-2010 which cannot be Mojave upgraded.

My external DVD drive (ASUS brand) worked very good all these years with Sierra and still works fine with Mojave so I can view DVD's. However it does not work anymore with my iMac mid-2010 under High Sierra, the DVD icon will show on the desktop but the DVD player refuses to launch (it says impossible to find a valid DVD reader - error 70012).

What could be done to fix this issue since under Sierra, the external DVD drive worked find and now it does not work anymore under High Sierra ?

Thank you and Happy New Year, Albert

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 31, 2020 1:45 AM

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Answer 1

selfonlypath Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 2, 2021 9:39 PM in response to jdo_apple

Hello jdo_Apple,

Let me clarify a bit... First the ASUS external DVD reader part number (SDRW-08D2S-U) where I have two of these for more than 3 years, each working find respectively on my late-2013 iMac and mid-2020 iMac both running for years under Sierra. Both ASUS do work fine for years as well on my two MacBook Air under Sierra.

As for the iMac end-2013, this never had an internal DVD reader (slim) model but for the iMac mid-2010, it used to have an internal DVD which I've removed around 2 years ago to install a 2nd SSD disk. Again and again, under Sierra this mid-2010 iMac worked fine when using one of my two ASUS to view movies under Sierra. Note this iMac has in fact two SSD Crucial drives, the first replacing the original HDD which failed few years ago.

I've installed High Sierra on all my 4 Macs then installed Mojave on my 3 Macs (except the mid-2010 which does not accept Mojave) from this link Comment obtenir d’anciennes versions de macOS - Assistance Apple

Both ASUS still work very fine on my two MacBook Air and my end-2013 iMac 27" with Mojave but seems NOT RECOGNIZED by iMac under High Sierra. When I insert a DVD movie, it will be seen as a disk on my iMac desk but launching DVD Player fails saying error in french (see attached image below)

On a side note, one can rule out any firmware or technical issue with ASUS because I've installed few days ago VLC software which successfully runs my DVD movie on the very same iMac mid-2010.

So it is quite sad and wierd why after this High Sierra upgrade the mid-2010 refuses to recognize a healthy ASUS external reader.

Thanks for any help, Albert

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Answer 2

jdo_apple

Community Specialist

Jan 2, 2021 10:51 AM in response to selfonlypath

Hi selfonlypath,

We're glad to look into this with you and help ensure your iMac is able to use your external DVD drive. We're glad you've come to Apple Support Communities.

To ensure we understand correctly, please let us know more about what's going on. Have you had a chance to restart your iMac since noticing this error? Does the internal DVD drive work on your iMac? This may verify if the issue is software related, or isolated to your Asus DVD drive.

We can recommend disconnecting your DVD drive and any other non-essential devices, before resetting the System Management Controller (SMC). The SMC regulates power delivery to your Mac components and connected devices. You can keep your keyboard and mouse connected to your iMac through this process. Here's a guide with the steps:

How to reset the SMC of your Mac

If the issue persists after resetting the SMC, let us know if it's still happening in a new user account on your Mac. In order to perform this step, you'll want to create a temporary new administrator account, then log out of your current account to test there. Here's a guide with instructions:

Set up users, guests and groups on Mac

We're here for you if you've got any questions.

Have a great day!

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Answer 3

Leanne_68

Community Specialist

Jan 4, 2021 11:17 AM in response to selfonlypath

Hi Albert,

Thanks so much for the clarification. Have you had an opportunity to start your affected iMac in macOS Recovery to run a First Aid scan to detect and repair possible issues? If not, let's do so. Here's a guide with the steps to start up in macOS Recovery:

About macOS Recovery

From there, follow these instructions to run a First Aid scan:

Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac

If you find that the same error message appears when using the DVD Player app after the next startup, you'll want to reach out to Apple Support directly for further assistance using the following link:

Get Support

Have a great day!

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Answer 4

selfonlypath Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 5, 2021 1:38 AM in response to Leanne_68

Hi leanne_68

Ok I've done earlier this morning the SOS repair Check via restarting in Recovery Mode of the four volumes (two SSD's where each SSD has been partitioned into 2 volume). The check or SOS did not report any problem so I did restart my iMac then inserted one DVD movie as an example.

Please see attached below the screenshot result where you clearly see what i've told before... the USB system does correct mount, loads, sees the external ASUS player, its inserted french movie but the problem is the Apple DVD Player (version 5.8) refuses to find or see the DVD which has been mounted in the desktop.

Again if I do launch VLC dvd player instead of Apple DVD player then everything works, I can watch the DVD.

Unless I'm wrong, the problem is not related to the ASUS player, the disk, the USB, the mounting but only to the DVD Player App itself or some hidden parameters in the Mac OS.

Albert

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Answer 5

selfonlypath Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 12, 2021 5:16 AM in response to selfonlypath

I hope to not be wrong but it seems clear to me the problem lies in the Apple DVD Player. Last night, I've watched a movie with the external DVD reader then VLC software, even if the Apple remote control works... so unless Apple releases an upgrade of DVD Player running on High Sierra, I guess external DVD player will not work unless using VLC.

So no need to re-test, scan, repair... the USB external DVD player is found by the OS so it is really DVD player refusing to interact with. Too sad because the screen colors are so brilliant, nice after more than 10 years... sigh

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

239,393 points

Feb 12, 2021 1:22 PM in response to selfonlypath

Possible clue...

https://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100208120847220

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External dvd drive does not work when upgrading from Sierra to High Sierra

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