Monterey struggling with External SSD

So I bought an IF-Certified Thunderbolt 4 Cable as one user suggested here for my External SSD, and updated it from BigSur to Monterey, unfortunately, still it takes like 5 minutes to boot. Tried clean installing monterey but nothing changed. I guess it has something to do with monterey being uncompatible with the drives or the enclosure. Reverted to BigSur for now, and my iMac boots in about 30 seconds.

Hope Apple is aware of the issue and fixes this.

I'm afraid that all you can do is to (1) wait for Apple to fix this bug or (2) downgrade to macOS Big Sur.

I'm still waiting for Apple to reply to my bug report.

Maybe a power issue , try different cables . Alternatively reformat them as APFS in Monterey I had loads of issues with my SSD drives prior to the reformat.

I'm very glad to report that I haven't had any disconnects since updating the drive's firmware.

Thank you for reporting. Was about to update to 12.2 to check if the external SSD with macOS monterey 12.2 boot times via usb3.1 would improve, but upon seeing your comment, I cancelled the installation immediately.

external SSD via USB3.1

Boot time on macOS BigSur 29 seconds

monterey 12.1 on the same drive 3+ minutes

blackmagic speed test results are also significantly slower and inconsistent on monterey

Updated macOS to 12.2.1.

After mounting my Time Machine SSD (had left Backup Automatically checked prior to updating), I returned after about 30 minutes to find a backup had been completed several minutes after SSD was mounted. ...I dismounted the SSD, using my Automator app, and subsequently disconnected. (Forgot to previously mention, I use an TB3 USB-C cable for connection, & always disconnect the SSD after dismounting.) ...so, for now, Time Machine and related, all working without issue.

I have a similar issue, but I don't think that "Monterey struggling with External SSD" should be marked as "solved" because the proposed solution requires a specific hardware configuration. A general solution is needed. Here is my experience.

I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Intel processor) and two portable Samsung SSD's. One is the X5 with a Thunderbolt interface, and the other is the T7 with a USB interface. I use the X5 for Time Machine backups and the T7 for general purpose storage. I started with macOS Catalina and later upgraded to Big Sur. Everything worked great. The X5 is so fast that I seldom notice that backups even happen. Then I upgraded to Monterey (currently patched to 12.2.1) and started having issues with the X5.

Before Monterey, I could unmount the X5 and T7 and then unplug them. No problems. Now with Monterey, when I unmount and unplug the X5, it seems to work, but later when I plug it back in, it won't mount. Instead, it just gets hot, like it's working hard on something but unable to complete it. To recover, I need to shut down and restart the MacBook. Then I can plug the X5 in and it will mount normally. This is not an acceptable workaround.

First, I tried to update the Samsung software, thinking that maybe my older version was incompatible with Monterey. I carefully followed Samsung's Troubleshooting Guide for macOS (Revision 1.1, 2021). None of the advice in that document solved the issue. Next, I reformatted the X5 from Mac OS Extended to APFS. (Yes, this erased all my backups, but I was willing to pay that price.) That didn't solve the issue either.

Then I tried a few things in an attempt to isolate the problem or at least find some clues. Using Disk Utility, I can mount and unmount the X5 and T7. I can do this multiple times with no issues, and I can see the mount point appear and disappear in Disk Utility, Finder and Terminal. Again with Disk Utility, I can eject the T7 but not the X5. When I attempt to first unmount and then eject the X5, I get the error message: "Failed to eject Samsung Portable SSD X5 Media because it is currently in use." What could be using an unmounted volume? It must be some component of the OS, maybe the Samsung driver or something in Monterey (Spotlight? Time Machine?).

Next I used Disk Utility/First Aid. Running it on the APFS volume I got the following message:

Checking file system and repairing if necessary and if possible.

Volume was successfully unmounted.

Performing fsck_apfs -y -x /dev/rdisk3s2

error: container /dev/rdisk3 is mounted.

File system check exit code is 65.

Restoring the original state found as mounted.

File system verify or repair failed. : (-69845)

Next I unmounted the APFS volume and ran First Aid on the APFS container and got the exact same message as above.

This is consistent with the behavior I found when trying to unmount and eject the X5 using Disk Utility. What does it mean that the volume is unmounted while the container is mounted? When I unmount the volume, there is no option to then unmount the container. I don't understand what's going on here.

Finally, I unmounted the APFS volume and ran First Aid on the X5 media. That ran successfully with no errors.

After this, I got the idea of unmounting the X5 and leaving it plugged in while closing the MacBook lid. I waited half a minute for the computer to fall asleep and then unplugged the X5. Maybe the sleeping OS wouldn't notice me unplugging the X5. Starting up again, I reversed the sequence: plug in X5, open lid, mount X5. To my amazement, this worked! Except that I didn't need to perform the last step: when the computer woke up, the drive was already mounted. This is an OK workaround, though it's not great because now I have to carry the X5 with me all the time.

Best would be an OS that worked as well as before. The X5 worked just fine with Catalina and Big Sur, which points to Monterey as the culprit. Looking online, I see that others are having similar issues with external media and Monterey. Apple, are you listening?

UPDATE: For the workaround, I said to wait "half a minute" before unplugging the X5. A more reliable technique is to wait for the indicator light on the X5 to turn off. Later, when you resume, all you have to do is make sure the X5 is plugged in before opening the lid. Also, if you unplug the X5 from one USB-C port, it's not necessary to plug it back into the same port. Any port will do -- the OS doesn't seem to care. Finally, you must perform this procedure every time. If you open the lid before plugging in the X5, then the OS will not mount the X5 until you reboot. Like I said, this workaround is not great.

Sooo..if you are like me and have been stressed and searching for a month, finally got my old externals to work. Tuxera has updated to finally be compatabke with Monterey. Installed…bam! Now my externals and jump drives are mounting and working perfectly! Funny thing is that apple support still doesn’t get there’s a problem 🙈. They have a 15 day trial- hope it helps, because it has been a stressful month not finding a solution lol!!

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Monterey update is bad for Intel based Macs and External SSD drives. Just downgrade back to Big Sur, no issues at all. Suspect Apple prefer their own M1 macs.

Same thing for me as well formatting to APFS with Monterey solve my issues, maybe Apple have introduced some APFS incompatibility problems with older versions iOS.

I'm not sure that I agree entirely with your conclusions. In my case, I also have a Mac mini (2018) which was sucessfully upgraded to Monterey (from Big Sur). It has two external SSDs (Samsung 500GB T5 connected via USB 3.1 (Gen 2)) that work well for OS, data, and Time Machine volumes. So it seems to me that there is still a possibility that these issues may be related to SSD hardware. Another possibility is that firmware changes delivered with Monterey for other Mac models may have introduced compatibility issues with some external SSDs.

BTW, all my external (and internal) volumes are in APFS containers. The Time Machine volumes (one on each external SSD) are encrypted/case-sensitive with a disk quota (I used a Terminal command to create the Time Machine volumes).

- Pie Lover

One more thing I forgot to mention. When I put the drive that was in the enclosure I am now using for my OWC 480 SSD into the the Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive enclosure, it worked under Monterey. This drive, however, is not an SSD. It's a spinning/mechanical drive. So the Seagate enclosure would not work with the SSD on Monterey, but it would work with a spinning drive. Strange, I know. But everything is working now.

I've seen posts that these problems may stem the firmware update delivered with Monterey for some Mac models. In my case, I also have a Mac mini (2018). For this model, the firmware did not change from Big Sur to Monterey.

Perhaps this is one reason why I've not come across issues with external drives. The other reason may be that I use Samsung SSDs (T5 500GB, USB 3.1 (Gen 2), Type-C) which seemingly have a high degree of compatibility.

One of the SSDs works well despite being connected via a USB 3.0 hub which is not recommended (presumably because of power issues).

- Pie Lover

This is from a support article at Western Digital (who also owns SanDisk and G-Drive). They acknowledge the bug and their solution is to format the drive to exFAT. Obviously not really a solution. I'm sure both companies will continue pointing fingers back and forth. I just hope it gets fixed.