OS Monterey doesn't recognize seagate external hard drive

Namaste!

I faced the same problem after upgrading to Monterey. The toolkit was not prompting to enter the password. Neither the Unlock Drive for Mac app was working. It was giving the error " You can not open the application ...... because it may be damaged or incomplete". Came across this page while searching for the solution. But, realised it is still not resolved.

And then while exploring, something worked and now I am able to use my drive.

Sharing what solved the issue for me.

I clicked on the Seagate Toolkit icon on the top bar (it appears next to the bluetooth icon [if the toolkit is installed]) and choose the second option which reads "Seagate Secure" and clicked.

It took me to toolkit update option. Next it prompted to disconnect the drive so that it can update the toolkit. I disconnected the drive. The toolkit was updated. Then it prompted to allow the app in the security settings. Which I did by going to the System Preference -> Security and Privacy -> General tab - go to allow apps downloaded from ..... and check to allow seagate ( You may need the admin password for allowing)

Next, it prompted for restarting the system, which I did.

After restarting, I clicked on the Seagate Toolkit icon (next to the bluetooth icon) to open it. It said no drive is detected. So, i connected the drive. And as soon as i connected the drive it prompted to enter the password.

That's it.

Now I am able to use my drive as I was before.

Hope it works out for you all too.

Good wishes.

-Jayant

I had the same issues everyone mentioned but it seems Seagate might have updated the Toolkit. It was locked and the Unlock Drive for Mac app was broken.

When I clicked on the Toolkit pin on my Menu bar, the drive showed up as Read-only but allowed me to set up Seagate Secure once again. It prompted me to restart my computer to finalize the Seagate Secure set up, and the drive was unlocked when my computer booted up.

If by "Tried reinstalling the Toolkit..." means using Seagate's own software ... don't. It's unnecessary as your Mac has all it needs to use the drive. If it's installed; uninstall it.

Have you formatted the drive? Most HDDs come ready for Windows; you need to format it to APFS or some other Mac specific format.

I am using the harddrive even before upgrading to Monterey. I dont really use the Toolkit. I have been using the “Unlock Drive for Mac.app” ever since to access the drive. But now, after the upgrade, it states “You cant open the application ….. because it may be damaged or incomplete”

You don't need to use any kind of app; your Mac has all you need.

Eject the drive, plug in back in and use Disk Utility to confirm the format is Apple. If not an Apple format, you'll need to erase it and select an appropriate Apple format.

If all that fails, my solution is to use Windows to format it NTFS and start all over.

If it's "already NTFS" as you say, your Mac is not designed to use it natively. You must format it in one of the Apple formats: APFS, APFS (Case Sensitive), journaled or etc.

NTFS was an interim step meant to clear all data visible to the Mac and give you a blank (to the Mac) starting platform, not to be "used" directly by your Mac.

It is in NTFS cause i need to use it with my PC or other devices.

Overall, it means that the problem really here is Monterey since i can use the Seagate harddrive when i was still in Big Sur. Apple/Seagate needs to fix this cuase it will be useless to reformat my “backup harddrive”

Anyway, Thank for your help/explanations. Much appreciated.

You have two choices: install and app that allows your Mac to read NTFS or format the drive as ExFAT. Both Macs and Windows read ExFAT drives.

The problem is not Monterey, it's that you are not giving it what it needs.

If the computers are all local and are all connected to the same local network, place the disk on the Windows system and serve a file share from NTFS from there, or reformat to HFS+ and serve a file share from macOS. Other computers on the local network can mount and access the file share. This network file share entirely avoids needing to swap that disk around.

NTFS has only ever been read-only on macOS, and has always required add-on software for read-write access. Paragon has been a common choice fir NTFS access. If you were previously using NTFS read-write, see if your Mac has an older version of Paragon and Paragon now needs an update.

I installed Paragon (trial), it technically did not fix the issue that coz the drive is still “locked” and is read-only. BUT, i tried to unmount-mount the drive using it, and weirdly it fixed my initial/main problem of “unlock drive for Mac.app”

now the app is functional and i was able to unlock the drive.

apparently, upon unlocking, the drive is not really NTFS but APFS. i dont know why the Disk Utility and Paragon initially read it as NTFS.

thanks.

I have the same situation after upgrading.

I plugged the drive into my daughter's Mac and it would read it.

Thinking I will need to take the drive to computer store and have them transfer to a newer Seagate backup drive i have

I have exactly the same issues and it is hard (impossible) for me to think it is not associated with the upgrade of OS system to Monterey. Like many others the MAC recognised the Seagate drive and allowed it to be unlocked until now when the message comes up as " You can’t open the application “Unlock Drive for Mac” because it may be damaged or incomplete."

These are not coincidences given consistency. IF anyone finds a solution I would be grateful to hear as I don't wish to reformat disk as I will lose previous backups

All

This solution worked for me. Was a a simple enough process of downloading the toolkit app from Seagate and following instructions in the link below

Hope it helps you all resolve these issues which seem only to have featured with the latest Apple OS Monteray

https://www.lacie.com/gb/en/support/kb/unlock-drive-for-mac-cannot-be-opened-because-it-may-be-damaged/

In general…

Add on apps and tools are not required for external storage access, and have sometimes caused issues.

Remove the add-on vendor software, erase and format the external storage, and try again.

If that direct storage access works, check with the hardware vendor support.

Or don’t use the add-on software, of course.

I have the identical problem. The drive worked fine as a backup until I updated to Monterey. I can backup the hard drive but using it for Time Machine is a nightmare. It works, then suddenly is not recognized. Disk Utility can't repair using First Aid. I have to go into Recovery Mode to reformat, then I'm in the same cycle. Time Machine backs up once, then doesn't recognize the drive.