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With Monterey update, can't see certain hard drives

After updating this morning, I can't see certain G-drive hard drives on my MacBook pro. Some that I formatted over a year ago are fine. The two new most recent ones won't appear. I have checked that the finder show all hard drives. Disk utility doesn't seem them either. However, when I plug them into another MacBook pro that hasn't been upgraded they appear in the finder. What should I do?


Thanks!

Posted on Oct 26, 2021 3:05 PM

Reply
158 replies

Nov 9, 2021 2:17 PM in response to MontereyVictim

That's not true.


Ports are not just go/no go connectors, there is a lot of software required for them to function as intended.


Don't summarily state the ports don't support the cables when it's likely to be that macOS needs to be tweaked.


Regardless, file feedback with Apple if you haven't already opened a case with Apple Support.


Oct 30, 2021 2:41 PM in response to viathelens

FYI. In the spirit of not giving up I disconnected a wacom tablet from the computer, mostly because I don't use it and I was trying to simplify my desktop, I had shut the computer down...and magically when I rebooted the mac everything was back in its right place, all my hard drives lined up where they should be....so very happy about that! The wacom was connected via a hub. I had actually plugged a small disk into the hub to see if that would work and it did show up, too, but the reason seemed to be the wacom tablet being plugged into the hub. Just an FYI for something else to try...I'm fixed and happy!

Oct 26, 2021 7:55 PM in response to pdtnyc

Are the external drive encrypted?


Try rebooting the laptop since Finder & Disk Utility can get into a persistent weird and confused state at times if something unexpected happens and only a reboot will resolve the problem (at least until the event is triggered again).


Try a PRAM Reset and it never hurts to do an SMC Reset (follow the instructions for the T2 Mac).


Try accessing these drives while booted into Safe Mode.


Check to see which chipset your various G-Drives use by checking in the System Profiler (under Storage, or USB, or Thunderbolt -- not sure which is best). You can access the System Profiler by Option-clicking the Apple menu and selecting the first item (the Option key toggles the first item on the menu and perhaps other menu items). Maybe Monterey has a problem with certain USB chipsets used in external drives. I know Big Sur and/or M1 Macs had these types of compatibility issues last year as there were lots of posts here on these forums, but I've never really seen any in-depth article or analysis of the issue except that the JMicron USB chipset was fingered to have problems -- perhaps some other ones as well.


Use the Terminal app to try to manually mount the external drive to see if it may provide an actual error message. You will need to correct drive identifier for the volume on the external drive. You can get this by using Disk Utility. Using your screenshot as an example the drive identifier is "disk2s2", you must verify the drive identifier each time you mount the drive because the identifier will likely change. Here is the sample command where I use a generic drive identifier of "diskX" so make sure to replace "diskX" in my example with the correct drive identifier such as "disk2s2":

diskutil  mount readOnly  diskX


If this fails, then it may be interesting to see the output of the following command when run from Monterey and from the other MBPro where the drives are working. It is best to disconnect all other external drives so that only the information about the G-Drive is displayed.

diskutil  list  external


Is the data on these G-Drives backed up somewhere else? You should always have frequent & regular backups of the computer as well as any external media which contains important & unique data.


Nov 8, 2021 9:40 AM in response to cdobbs

The work around is wonderful, all that can be done now is to let Apple know about it and they will make a decision as to whether it's a bug or by design.


(A great example is when they made changes in iOS to stop providing power to certain devices that were drawing too much through the Lightning to Camera adapter. In that case the change was made on purpose and those devices needed to be used with the version of the adapter that provided power.)


As I stated, if you have an open case with Apple Support on this, let them know of the workaround.


If you do not, open one:


Contact - Official Apple Support

Nov 10, 2021 7:46 AM in response to Jono Slack

Jono Slack wrote:

Hmm
I was looking for such a cable (I agree, the charge cables are really slow). I'm not sure which part number this might be, presumably it's a thunderbolt cable? Any advice welcome!

The Apple charging cable only supports USB2 according to the Apple documentation. An official Apple UBC-C Thunderbolt cable which can handle the Thunderbolt protocol and USB3/4 protocols have a lightning bolt on them to indicate Thunderbolt. Some other manufacturers may use the same marking, but others may not. See this Apple article (see the section "Charging"):

About the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) Cable - Apple Support

Nov 29, 2021 2:07 AM in response to Stephen Jay

All of my external drives continue to work perfectly, so it's not as simple as saying Apple "broke dongles"; my Seagate STEL8000100 Backup Plus 8TB drive has zero issues when connecting via the cable Seagate provided with the drive.


If you are experiencing this issue, contact Apple Support directly so they have better information as to which devices have issues and which don't.


Contact - Official Apple Support

Oct 26, 2021 6:14 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks. I'm using a MacBook Pro (15 inch-2018) with a 2.6 Ghz 6 Core Intel Core i7. I'm running the hard drives natively on the mac finder with no third party software. Your suggestion to use the disk utility to "show all devices" was great. It reveals that the newer hard drive isn't mounting, while the older hard drive from the same manufacturer, G-DRIVE is. Any other idea? I have tried accessing through a good hub using a the older usb connection with no luck. See screenshot with both hard drives connected via usb-c->usb-c cords (and I have tried switching cords, too).


Oct 26, 2021 8:23 PM in response to pdtnyc

pdtnyc Said:

"With Monterey update, can't see certain hard drives After updating this morning, I can't see certain G-drive hard drives on my MacBook pro. Some that I formatted over a year ago are fine. The two new most recent ones won't appear. I have checked that the finder show all hard drives. Disk utility doesn't seem them either. However, when I plug them into another MacBook pro that hasn't been upgraded they appear in the finder. What should I do? Thanks!"

-------


What Comes to Mind:

A. Reformat the drive, making it APFS.

IMPORTANT: Export the data first using a Mac with a macOS of Mojave or before.


B. On each volume click the "First Aid" button.

Screenshot:

Dec 15, 2021 6:05 AM in response to pdtnyc

Hello, Not sure if anyone else has posted this. I recently upgraded to Monterey and just one of my external hard drives wasn't mounting. I have two external drives; a newer G drive and a LaCie. The G drive is what stopped mounting after upgraded to Monterey. My IT figured out how to get it to mount. We had to erase the hard drive and format it as ExFat, but we had to do the erasing on an older operating system, Catalina.

Oct 26, 2021 4:58 PM in response to pdtnyc

What is the exact model of the laptop? You can get this information by clicking the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac".


What file system is on those drives?


If you are using the manufacturer's proprietary software to manage those drives, then that software may not be compatible with Monterey. See if the drive manufacturer has an updated version of their app and if there is no update, then you will need to wait until the drive manufacturer updates their app for use with Monterey.


Within Disk Utility click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. See if the physical drives appears when you connect the problematic G-drives. If the physical drives appear, then the drives are being seen, but it is a file system or partition issue.


Also make sure to connect the drives directly to the laptop without any hubs, docks, or adapters (unless the adapter is necessary to convert the USB-C to USB-A) since these items can sometimes cause problems. If the drive is connected directly to the laptop, then sometimes using a powered USB3 hub from a respected manufacturer can help alleviate drive problems.

With Monterey update, can't see certain hard drives

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