Kingston A2000 NVMe external drive is not seen in MACOS

Question

Kingston A2000 NVMe external drive is not seen in MACOS

I have just purchased an OWC Envoy Express TB3 external drive enclosure and a Kingston A2000 NVMe SSD drive to go with it. After the enclosure with the drive ws connected to my 2020 iMac 27" with Big Sur running, the following happened:

The drive does not appear in the Finder
The drive does not appear in my disk utility (even after changing between the two different views)
The Envoy Express TB3 enclosure is recognised by the iMac as it appears in the Thunderbolt section of the System report.
The NVMe unit does get warm in the enclosure but that's about all

I have reinstalled the NVMe a number of times in the enclosure but nothing changed. Has anyone had any experience with incompatibility issues associated with either the Kingston A2000 NVMe or any other brand NVMe SSD in an external TB3 or a USB-C enclosure? I am waiting for Kingston to respond to my query and Apple Support was unable to assist when I contacted them.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jan 9, 2021 4:11 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

thimfromnorth perth Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 11, 2021 4:17 AM in response to thimfromnorth perth

Kingston has confirmed all their NVME drives are not compatible with Apple (Used either Internally or externally). Their only category of compatible hardware is their different RAM modules. I thought external NVME drive is operating system agnostic but there you go. Still waiting for a reply from OWC. Their website says that they are currently very busy.

Cheers everyone.

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Answer 2

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,301 points

Jan 9, 2021 4:40 AM in response to thimfromnorth perth

I have had no issues using my WD NVME black in a TB3 Trebleet enclosure. I have found that the TB cord can get very fussy and I had to change that once. I have also found that turning the cord over can impact the connection for some reason.

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Answer 3

Jan 9, 2021 4:41 AM in response to thimfromnorth perth

Try a different port. If I recall correctly the cable is permanently attached, so you can’t try a different cable. I have several friends using the OWC enclosure with no issues. Not sure the brand of SSD. If I had to guess, I’d be suspect of the SSD and try a different brand. I have several Western Digital and Samsung drives in various enclosures, including a OWC and have no issues.

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Answer 4

Jan 9, 2021 4:16 AM in response to thimfromnorth perth

Unfortunately, there’s really not much that can be done here either. To preserve your warranty rights, I suggest contacting OWC. Here is their support contact information;

https://eshop.macsales.com/Service/support/technical-support-form

I’ve had support issues with OWC products before and they were prompt and helpful. Good luck.

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Answer 5

Jan 22, 2021 8:08 PM in response to thimfromnorth perth

The OWC unit went back for a refund. I decided to use a USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gb/s) external enclosure from Simplecom with a 600Gb WD SN550 NVME SSD and I am happy with the read and write speed 1,091 Mb/s and 926Mb/s respectively. It is plenty fast for me. Maybe might try another TB3 enclosure when the price fall to a more reasonable level.

Thanks all.

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Answer 6

Jan 9, 2021 4:27 AM in response to Jeff Donald

Thanks Jeff. Forgot to mention that I am also waiting for a response from OWC's Support, in addition to Kingston's Support. The reseller of the Kingston SSD is not convince that the drive is faulty and that they believe Apple has compatibility issues with some SSD drives though they cannot confirm if the Kingston A2000 is one of them.

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Answer 7

Jan 9, 2021 5:49 AM in response to Jeff Donald

Thanks for all your replies. The OWC is recognised by the system but not the drive in it. That would eliminate the cord problem I would have thought. I have read that WD NVMe have no compatibility issues with Apple's systems. The cord is replaceable but I would not replace it yet, not at least until I get responses from both OWC and Kingston. I could be looking at purchasing an OWC or a WD NVMe if it is indeed a compatibility issue.

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Kingston A2000 NVMe external drive is not seen in MACOS

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