Monterey struggling with External SSD

My respons to mfulat was about slow booting systems, not external SSDs that would not mount which is an entirely different problem.

That being said I don't see any of the usual suspects in your report.

However, here's some food for thought: unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer, school or bank's servers, they are useless from a privacy standpoint.  Read these two articles: Public VPN's are anything but private and Former Malware Distributor Kape Technologies Now Owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, Zenmate, and a Collection of VPN “Review” Websites. 

Apologies for the delay, attached is the Etrecheck report as requested, a few other things I've noticed since the Monterey update Safari and Finder are slower than Big Sur and Bluetooth devices, Magic Mouse & Keyboard takes a while to be connected.

Same issues here with my 2017 iMac. I have been using a WD 1Tb external SSD connected to the back of the Mac as my boot drive as it is way faster than the built-in drive on the Mac. After “upgrading” to Monterey the drive is there in finder, but the Mac is back to booting off the internal drive. Selecting the external SSD as the boot does nothing. Disk Utility says the drive is locked and times out when trying to unlock it. All worked fine in Big Sur

Not quite comparable because it is an iMac, but anyway here we go:

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name: iMac

  Model Identifier: iMac18,3

  Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i5

  Processor Speed: 3.4 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 4

  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 6 MB

  Memory: 16 GB

System Firmware Version: 447.40.12.0.0

  SMC Version (system): 2.41f2

I upgraded my 2017 iMac to the Monterey update last night. I had it configured to use an external SSD as the boot drive to improve the overall speed. Prior to the update, with the previous version of Monterey installed, it was taking 15 minutes or so to boot, now boot times have returned to what they were under Big Sur. In addition, all the graphics issues I was having (light mode text displaying in black) have resolved. So it does appear that this update addressed at least a few bugs.

Some progress I installed Monterey on the internal HDD and performance is tolerable, boots in about 3 minutes and desktop gets responsive after another 3

minutes. I’ll try the SSD next as it’s being picked up by Finder now hopefully it should work.

I can't mount sandisk SSD to Mac after the Monterey update.

I tried with an apple manufactured USB-C to USB-C cable, it worked only once. But not twice.

I also did the SMC reset. Not working.

The used the terminal code but not working

What else can I do?

I also have the same issue. This article helped me issue with Monterey on 2020 MBAir. Any heavy data transfer to external SSD and the drive first disconnects Finder freezes and then comes a kernel panic. Identical on any of 3 external SSDs, formatted as APFS or OS Extended. Thank you

I was trying to point out that the Samsung SSDs may not be a contributing factor. The LaCie 4TB drive could possibly be the culprit or the issue may depend on the specific file system or encryption.

Where possible, I prefer peripherals that don't require custom software to function. I've had good success with 3'rd party external SSDs, scanners, webcams, monitors, and computer audio equipment across a number of system upgrades.

- Pie Lover

I have issues in taking backup with Samsung Portable SSD (1 TB) after upgrading my MacBook Pro 15 to Monterey macOS. The SSD is connected to the system using a Type C to Type C cable (without any dock).

When I connect the SSD to my laptop, I get a "Software Installation" popup "Samsung Portable SSD drivers are mandatory in order to use Samsung Portable SSD Software. Do you want to install the drivers?". After clicking on all steps for installing it, I get a message, "This package is incompatible with this version of macOS. The package is trying to install content to the system volume. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance."

I have been backing up in the SSD for 2-3 years. I backed up the last time in September 2021, and now I'm trying to back up again in January 2022. Furthermore, I can not afford to format the disk.

Also, trying to enter into the Time machine application hangs my system. I had to restart it.

The Samsung Portable SSD software (automatically opened) does not recognize the SSD and shows no SSD is connected.

I have a Samsung T5 500GB external SSD which I use without Samsung software. My understanding is that the Samsung software is only needed if encryption (for the whole the device) is enabled.

The SSD is connected to a Mac mini (2018) using a USB 3.1 (Gen 2) port using a Type C to Type C cable. The SSD is formatted with an APFS Container with multiple volumes, including a Time Machine backup volume (which itself is encrypted).

- Pie Lover

I'm using Mac Air 2020, Monterey, and its software is up to date. I Connected WD 1TB elements external hard drive to transfer items. The hard drive keeps disconnecting automatically. Get a message to say I've eject it incorrectly. Also connected WD 1TB My Passport hard drive to back up, it also is automatically ejected after a few minutes. I have my Mac connected to a mains plug.

I only have this Mac so unable to have a temporary fix, like some others on this site, and I'm not as technically confident as some on this site. It would seem from reading through previous posts, that the error is with Apple. Can you advise please, I need to back up frequently as working from home due to Covid.

.

Updated to Monterey12.2

Problem still present.... 😣

SSD drive worked flawlessly in Big Sur.

Has not worked properly on Monterey when directly connected via USB-C.

Works fine via a USB-C dock, just slower...

Thanks for your insight. I have gone through the identical procedure now. In addition LaCie has cleared one of my 5TB drives, and I even have a TM again. I am not trusting it yet though, because I got failures doing a disk backup on SuperDuper. Failed. And this is not the only procedure that keeps failing.

I have a sneaky suspicion, that Apple will release an update including the mess that was generated around HD handling with DiskUtility and especially TimeMachine, which I still perceive as a loose canon. Luckily I have a new M1 Max that shouldn't collapse anytime soon. This gives me confidence that Apple might fix this mess soon. We are not the only ones with these problems, and I would not trust your solution totally. Yet. Better safe than sorry.

I completely agree! After it fixed my problem, I went ahead and transferred the data and formatted it to AFPS so that it would be more easily read and I wouldn't lose that hard drive again.

And Thanks for your insight!