Monterey struggling with External SSD

I have about 8 SanDisk Pro's which I rotate in turn for backups (not time machine). I find erasing them to be very problematic at best and often disk utility will hang. I can sometimes force the disk to re-format by using a windows machine to format the disk and then going back to the Mac to reformat to AFPS. I though booting into recovery mode was a little better but it still hangs from time to time. I have a Silicon MacBook Pro and an Intel Mac mini and both do this which is driving me crazy. Once formatted then do mount ok but disk write speeds are typically 50% of what they used to be. I tried different cables, direct, via HUB with USB-C and via HUB with USB-2/3. For some reason the slower the interface the more likely it seems to be but given the nature of needing a reliable quick backup option I wish apple would get this sorted.

Same here - still same problem but I have been able to determine which models of SSD seem to be effected. I have some 2 year old Sandisk Extreme 1Gb drives and they all suffer from the same problems everyone has reported. I also have a Sandisk Extreme Pro 2GB which is a faster drive and does not seem to have the problem. I have also got - Crucial X8 SsD which so far seems ok.

Spoke to apple again today and what’s disturbing is that the senior engineer did not seem to be aware of the problem.

Sandisk also seemed surprised but did say they would escalate to level 2.

I hope everyone is leaving feedback and starting a support call with Apple. There must be a limit to the number of times Apple can pretend nobody else has reported the problem.

I have also opened a ticket with Sandisk about my specific issue.

It could be that you have a USB device and the system hangs trying to access it.

Try to boot without any device attached.

This is clearly a problem. It often takes minutes to mount or unmount an APFS external SSD which worked perfectly in Big Sur.

Here's the link:

macOS Monterey & External drive indexing (Spotlight Privacy): https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/434412/spotlight-doesnt-index-network-drives-on-macos-monterey

Not over here. I’m still having issues with Apfs-formatted portable drives. I have no issues with Hfs+-formated ones though.

I'm using a Gtech Gdrive EV Raw 1TB and my drive when I upgraded my macbook to monterey will not eject at all, it causes my macbook to not shut down if its plugged in, and I can't delete files from the drive or copy files to my desktop.

These are APFS volume which are stored in a container (and share the allocated storage). I'm not aware of any performance penalty when using APFS. Perhaps someone else could comment further.

BTW, I think that APFS has been required for the system volume since Mojave.

- Pie Lover

From https://www.techrepublic.com/article/apfs-vs-hfs-which-apple-filesystem-is-better/

Pros of Apple's APFS

• Allows for clones or multiple copies of the same file, with only changes stored as deltas, which reduces storage space when making revisions or copying files
• Can create point-in-time snapshots
• Full-disk encryption with single or multi-key encryption for added security
• Uses checksums for data integrity of metadata
• Metadata corruption prevention due to creating new records instead of overwriting existing ones, which can become corrupt due to system crashes
• Increases performance on some devices by eliminating the need to write changes twice compared to HFS+ Journaled file systems
• More efficient management of storage typically yields additional free space.

Cons of Apple's APFS

• Checksums are only for metadata integrity--not user data
• Compression is not available.
• Encrypted volumes can only be accessible by other computers running newer versions of macOS
• Does not support Fusion drives
• Cannot utilize NVRAM for data storage

Conclusion

HFS+ has likely seen the sunset and will probably not have any future augmentations to its base; APFS is the future file system for Apple devices, and I expect it will be expanded upon to offer more features. When comparing the pros and cons of both file systems, APFS comes out ahead for newer devices moving forward.

BlueberryLover wrote:

I think by "compression" people mean built-in compression rather than using Zip or a Disk Image with compression.

- Pie Lover

That's what I used - the built in, i.e. Control (right) - click on the folder/file and select Compress from the contextual menu.

Judy sorry but what you presenting is not helping. This is a Monterey software issue that needs to be resolved quickly. If I can format a drive instantly on Big Sur, but it hangs when I use Monterey.....its a no brainer. Please pass it along to Apple Engineering or give us feedback on the progress of a fix.

Very helpful... can you provide a link to the external drive enclosure that works with Monterey?

As an update to what I have observed, I re-connected my Micron 7.68 enclosure back to my M1 MacBook Pro, was able to erase and re-format for APFS, and then copy close to 6TB of data over from another source. No disconnects or errors of any kind.

When connected to my (slightly) older Mac Mini (quad core i3), I was able to connect the drive, but could not erase or re-format. After re-formatting on the M1 MB Pro, I would start to copy files and it would disconnect with a few minutes; then, back to unable to erase, et al.

All machines running the current version of Monterey.

iMac 2017 here. Fusion drive 1tb.

install failed on internal drive (hang at first reboot). Forced power off and then it boots but there are issues with reported free space (finder says 76gb, but any attempt of copying files produces disk full error). Tried reindexing and first aid. No chance.

then I tried installing on external ssd connected via usb c.

tried 3 clean installs.

every time it installs, but booting takes 10 minutes (literally). After booted, any disk access (finder, disk utility, etc) essentially hangs for several seconds to minutes.

I'm not who you directed this too, Old Toad, but here's my Etrecheck report — I have the same basic issue. (One USB-C drive not mounting after Monterey; the other, same make/manufacturer but different size and date of birth, works fine. All drives still mount and work under Big Sur.)