I just updated to Big Sur and found that my Drobo 5D will no longer mount. It starts up normally but never shows up on the desktop. Looking through the forum someone had said an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter would fix the problem but I do not have a Thunderbolt 3 port on my Drobo only a TB2 and USB3 port. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks,
Larry D
iMac 21.5″, macOS 11.4
What is the exact model of your Mac? You can get this information by clicking the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac".
Also how are you currently connecting or attempting to connect the Drobo to your Mac?
Have you tried a different cable or a different port on the Drobo and a different port on the Mac?
If you have a USB-C port on your Mac, then you can use an Apple USB-C to Thunderbolt Adapter to connect to the Drobo or you can use an Apple USB-C to USB-A Adapter to use the Drobo's USB3 port. IIRC, some of the Thunderbolt ports on these Drobos ended up being really loose meaning it was easy to bump the cable and have the Drobo disconnect from the computer.
Do you even see the physical device in the System Preferences? If so, then it may just mean you have a file system issue on the Drobo volume. Launch Disk Utility and click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drives/devices appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. Do you see anything? You may need to run First Aid to repair the partition and/or volume(s).
Have you checked the Drobo software to see the status of the Drobo and its drives (is the Drobo software even compatible with Big Sur)?
Have you tried using another computer to access the Drobo?
What is the exact model of your Mac? You can get this information by clicking the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac".
Also how are you currently connecting or attempting to connect the Drobo to your Mac?
Have you tried a different cable or a different port on the Drobo and a different port on the Mac?
If you have a USB-C port on your Mac, then you can use an Apple USB-C to Thunderbolt Adapter to connect to the Drobo or you can use an Apple USB-C to USB-A Adapter to use the Drobo's USB3 port. IIRC, some of the Thunderbolt ports on these Drobos ended up being really loose meaning it was easy to bump the cable and have the Drobo disconnect from the computer.
Do you even see the physical device in the System Preferences? If so, then it may just mean you have a file system issue on the Drobo volume. Launch Disk Utility and click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drives/devices appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. Do you see anything? You may need to run First Aid to repair the partition and/or volume(s).
Have you checked the Drobo software to see the status of the Drobo and its drives (is the Drobo software even compatible with Big Sur)?
Have you tried using another computer to access the Drobo?
Thanks for the reply, sorry to not get back sooner but I've been trying some of your suggestions and was off on vacation in the middle of it all. This is where I am...
The Mac model is: iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015), Processor: 3.1 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5.
I have another iMac but it only has USB and Firewire ports. The Drobo mounts to the older iMac but only with USB. It still is not visible to the Drobo Dashboard.
I have tried USB3, USB and Thunderbolt 2 cables. The Drobo will mount with a standard USB cable and seems to work okay but its slow at USB speeds. It still isn't visible in Drobo Dashboard.
Tried the Thunderbolt adapter but the Drobo only has USB3 and Thunderbolt 2 ports so the adapter won't work. Tried a new Apple TB 2 cable with no success.
In disk utility and Drobo mounted on USB I ran disk first aid. The Drobo has two partitions, one had some issues that disk utility required an erase and reformat. Did this and it still won't mount with Thunderbolt.
One thing I noticed is that the partitions on the Drobo were each different format, one was APFS and the other MacOS Journaled. I reformatted the APFS partition to MacOS Journaled with no change.
I contacted Drobo support and they provided a list of things to try which included booting into recovery mode and use Terminal to use "Panic Medic Boot". I went through the whole list and it hasn't changed anything.
To sum up:
The Drobo will startup and mount with a USB2 cable.
The Drobo is not visible in Drobo Dashboard.
The Drobo will not mount with Thunderbolt 2 or USB3 cables.
Any other ideas?
Can't Mount a Drobo 5D to Big Sur version 11.4
