Monterey struggling with External SSD

Got tired of waiting for new OS updates to see if it might FIX the disconnecting issue..

So did some digging and found that the enclosure I use has the Realtek RTL9210 chipset.

After some more googling I found firmware updates on Plugable dot com's website...

I don't have a plugable enclosure, but thought to just try it anyway.

Updated without any issues. Drive has been working perfectly ever-since.

I have a Orico M2PV-C3 enclosure

Holding thumbs it stays this way..

Hooray! The latest update to Monterey (12.3) has fixed my problem. Everything works normally again. Thanks Apple software engineers! Overall, my advice is to update the OS. Connect the external drive directly to the laptop using the cable that came with the drive. Other cables and hubs may not support the drive. (For the Samsung X5, I have to use a Thunderbird 3 cable plugged into a Thunderbird 3 port or it won't work.) If you can get the drive to mount, then make sure the driver and firmware are up to date.

I had several issues with external USB drives, Disk Utility and Time Machine on a new MacBook Pro M1 Max with Monterey 12.0.1.

1. USB3-drives are not properly recognized. Time Machine does not work.
2. USB-C drive did not work with either Time Machine or Disk Utility (see below).

Today I purchased a new SanDisk with USB-C connection to make a proper Time Machine backup. The Disk mounted, but Time Machine did not work, nor could I erase the drive with Disk Utility. I tried everything I knew, called Apple Support, but nothing worked (safe mode didn't work).

Workaround: I could solve it by using a Mac Mini 2018 with USB-C-Port, running MacOS Big Sur. Here the external SSD could properly mount and erasing + partitioning worked within 30 seconds. After this treatment, the drive worked well with my new MacBook. Time Machine backups worked fine after that.

Deducting from this, I see that it is not a hardware issue as much as a software issue, affecting both Time Machine and Disk Utility. I am guessing it has to do with MacOS Monterey.

The workaround as highlighted above solved it for the moment.

mfulat:

Please download and run Etrecheck.  Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the Etrecheck's Privacy preference pane so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Also click and read the About info to further permit full disk access.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to include the report in your reply.

I ran into this problem yesterday and spent quite a while troubleshooting and finding a fix for me.

In my case I had a pair of SanDisk SSDs formatted APFS and their R/W speeds plummeted to super slow speeds in Monterey. On older macOSs (specifically Mojave) it was still fine.

By reformatting the drives as APFS on Monterey this solved the issue. In my case it was not as big of a deal since these were clone drives. I initially did one ExFAT and that worked fine but I really wanted APFS for the drives and experimented and finally got over my issues.

I had an issue with my 3.1 USB-C and Monterey 12.2. I purchased a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD and it worked perfectly. I thought to try the Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with the new drive on the old USB SSD and it worked PERFECTLY. The USB-C cable didn't work on the M1 Max with the 3.1 SSD but the new Thunderbolt 3 cable plugged in to the old SSD on the M1 Max worked.

Based upon detail from another forum ( see link ), which although I'm unfamiliar, a post sheds light on Monterey & Spotlight indexing pertaining to Time Machine external drives. {I'm using a 2020 Intel iMac & now, macOS 12.2 & a 2TB SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD, that has been in continuous use since 2019}

When I attempted adding my external Time Machine drive, I received an error message... "xxx is a Time Machine backup folder. You can not add it to the privacy list." This corroborates what the forum's link points out... Monterey's Spotlight does not index network drives. (Although the guy in that forum wanted to index his Music Library on an external drive & figured out a Terminal procedure to do so.)

I've been using my SanDisk SSD for Time Machine without issue, until Monterey. As I previously did have my SanDisk SSD added to the Privacy window in pre-Monterey Spotlight, I deleted the SanDisk SSD as part of the process getting Time Machine functioning as it should (& as it did prior to Monterey).

Let me add a couple of recommends which might help others... a caveat to those using newer, M1 Macs.

1. My SanDisk SSD (and, Time Machine) was rendered unusable post, Monterey install. I found the best way to erase the SSD (essentially starting over) was by erasing the top-level disk, using Monterey's Disk Utility, and reset the SSD to Untitled, ExFAT, & Master Boot Record. [Note: I was very fortunate I had a good, Carbon Copy Clone on another SanDisk SSD - so, my loss of all prior, Time Machine backups was not a big problem as I could not get access to any of that backup Data.] ...Then, I erased the nested drive to Untitled, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), GUID Partition Map; and then, Converted the nested drive to... APFS. ...Once conversion was complete, I used Get Info to rename it as I wanted. ...I can say that with the completion of this process, I no longer experienced any issues mounting & dismounting (using Disk Utility) the SSD. When I re-selected the newly converted, SSD for Time Machine, it set up & completed the 1st backup quickly. Time Machine backups have since been running smoothly.

2. I have found macOS Disk Utility has been the more reliable way to dismount an external SSD, instead of using Finder. ...And as result, I use a created, Automator app that employs a Terminal command {to Disk Utility} for dismounting my Time Machine SSD. {The SSD gets too hot to leave continuously connected; a pain, but so it goes.} ...I keep this Automator app in my Dock for easy access to dismount the Time Machine SSD.

Having employed the above for the last 5 days (from this Post), I'm confident the external SSD, Time Machine drive will continue running well. ...When the next macOS update takes place, I will find out if the current, Time Machine set-up transitions & works with the newly updated, Monterey, or the Update causes problems {meaning, hasn't yet resolved the basic, Time Machine issue with external SSDs}. ...And, we'll have to again sort out Time Machine.

Update: I purchased a Thunderbolt 3 SSD which came with a thunderbolt 3 cable. It works perfectly on the MBP M1 Max and Monterey 12.2 which got me thinking... I tried the Samsung T5 SSD with the Thunderbolt 3 cable. It worked perfectly! Interesting, the mounted icon was different when using the Thunderbolt 3 cable. Using a USB-C 3.1 cable, I get a silver drive icon as per older Catalina. When using the 3.1 cable on the new MBP with Monterey 12.2 I get the silver icon and the drive doesn't work properly. When I use the Thunderbolt 3 cable on the Samsung T5 SSD, I get a gold drive icon and the drive works perfectly albeit slower which is expected. Maybe try a Thunderbolt 3 or better cable on your non-thunderbolt drives and see if they work better.

My Mac Pro (late 2013) OS X 12.3 is still having problems handling the 4TB external SSD (WD) in a Sabrent USB 3.0 enclosure. I have been using that drive and enclosure since Catalina with Mac OS Extended Journaled. After the update to Monterey, I had to reformat it. After many failures. I discovered I was only able to format the drive to APFS if I put it on my USB hub. I was also able to format it if I attach it through my Thunderbolt display. After it is formatted, if I move the drive to a USB port on the Mac, it quickly becomes unreachable and has to be reformatted again. As long as I keep the drive on the USB hub or Thunderbolt Display USB port, it appears to work. I guess I just need to live with that configuration until another update comes out and try again.

KRisseeuw wrote:

1. I had several issues with external USB drives, Disk Utility and Time Machine on a new MacBook Pro M1 Max with Monterey 12.0.1.

USB3-drives are not properly recognized. Time Machine does not work.

2. USB-C drive did not work with either Time Machine or Disk Utility (see below).

Today I purchased a new SanDisk with USB-C connection to make a proper Time Machine backup. The Disk mounted, but Time Machine did not work, nor could I erase the drive with Disk Utility. I tried everything I knew, called Apple Support, but nothing worked (safe mode didn't work).

Workaround: I could solve it by using a Mac Mini 2018 with USB-C-Port, running MacOS Big Sur. Here the external SSD could properly mount and erasing + partitioning worked within 30 seconds. After this treatment, the drive worked well with my new MacBook. Time Machine backups worked fine after that.

Deducting from this, I see that it is not a hardware issue as much as a software issue, affecting both Time Machine and Disk Utility. I am guessing it has to do with MacOS Monterey.

The workaround as highlighted above solved it for the moment.

How on earth is this marked “solved”? The issue — Monterey has hosed compatibility with many, but not all, USB-C external drives — persists, even for KRisseeuw.

EDIT: It might be a bit too early to be 100% sure what the problem is but it might be Spotlight indexing.

Usually the light on my enclosure is constantly blinking when it's plugged into the Air. Since I turned off indexing for the drive, it isn't blinking anymore and it's been >10 minutes and the disk hasn't involuntarily ejected yet.

Maybe Monterey can't index the whole SSD because my Air doesn't have enough space on the 256gb internal drive (it's been between 10-20gb left) to index....

but so far not having problems since I turned off indexing (go into preferences > spotlight > privacy > add the external drive to prevent indexing)

Hey, hopefully you've solved you're issue by now, but I just had the same issue and the senior Apple Technician walked me through recovery start up - disk utility - Show all devices - first aid to hard drive - then mount. It mounted right up and I'm rolling right along! I just had to share after losing sleep over it! Please vote this as a solved answer so that it can help some folks! ;)

I had a problem where two disks were no longer recognized and were not visible as all in disk utility. after upgrading to monterey. When I put a usb c adapter on the older plug they both worked. I was driving them from a old usb dock. By putting a usb c adapter on the usb dock and conneting that to the usb c port on the computer still did not work. Next I hooked it to a usb c hub and connected the hub to the computer and VOILA! both drives are visible and accessible.

Mike

The issue is Monterey (on M1) with external SSDs partitioned to APFS. All my drives (regardless of brand) have terrible writing speeds on M1 Monterey with the APFS filesystem. Apple should address it and provide an update that fixes it. There's no other way.

Makeshift solution is to run your external drives on HFS+ to bring the write speeds to about 80-85% of the total ssd speed claimed by the manufacturers.