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Level 1

31 points

Mac OSX Monterey External Hard Disks Going to Sleep

Hey all, I'm currently using a M1 MBA and recently updated to Monterey. The issue I'm facing now is my external hard disk dock is going to sleep after a minute of inactivity, even when I have unchecked the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" option in the power options.

This usually gets fixed by restarting the MBA, but every time I put the mac to sleep for awhile (operating in clamshell mode and connected to external display via Caldigit TS3+) and wake it back up, the issue pops up again.

When I head into terminal and execute "pmset -g", it shows that my disk sleep option is set to 0.

The external disk drive dock is plugged directly into my Caldigit TS3+, and the TS3+ is plugged into a thunderbolt port on the MBA.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Dec 5, 2021 2:23 AM

Best reply

rbearpark

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Jan 11, 2022 3:12 AM

Same here! Incredibly frustrating. I have just found a fix however, thanks to a member on another forum on the same topic so thought I'd share here too.

There's a free app on the app store called Amphetamine. Download that, go into the preferences>Drive Alive, make sure your HDD is plugged in and check the box. It's been working for me all morning.

Hope the issue gets fixed soon but this works for now!

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146 replies

mrhoni

Level 1

46 points

Aug 10, 2022 12:09 PM in response to Javier Bonafont

Where is the disk sleep timer? I don't see a timer in Energy Saver. Whoops I realize you are referring to terminal commands.

Aug 11, 2022 5:49 PM in response to Javier Bonafont

UPDATE: my "fix" using Terminal was short lived. I dont know why, but it worked well for a day and now is back to disks sleeping after a minute of inactivity. :-(

Aug 15, 2022 1:53 AM in response to Wurlitzer1015

See this article...

https://www.sir-apfelot.de/en/mac-sleep-disks-24071/

Aug 22, 2022 10:07 PM in response to skivvie

Happy to say that the latest update fixed this for me. I have a m1 max 16” with an OWC flex 8. Now my hard drives remain spinning all day and instant reads after leaving the computer for a few hours.

Aug 27, 2022 11:02 AM in response to saofrenzy

Came here to say that I have the same issue on my M1 Max Studio. While using LR my disk has to spin up in order to load a photo after spinning down randomly. This is unbelievable.

BLKROW

Level 1

4 points

Sep 22, 2022 12:29 AM in response to Klahane

SAME HERE

Apple can you fix this NOW please

RoloM22

Level 1

12 points

Nov 3, 2022 2:04 PM in response to saofrenzy

This fix seems to work on my Macbook Pro M1 MAX with OWS Thunderbay:

Terminal command:

caffeinate -i -m

Thanks to the OWC support team

RoloM22

Level 1

12 points

Nov 3, 2022 2:15 PM in response to thelanj

See my reply below

Nov 21, 2022 4:33 PM in response to tranzlucent

I have upgrade to the latest version of the latest... 13.0.1 and the hard drives still spin down - even with those settings.

Mar 14, 2023 4:29 AM in response to saofrenzy

I have this too, m1 max. So friggin tired of it. Is there ANY known solution other than rebooting or using something like Amphetamine? NOTHING else? This is ****, Apple.

Mar 28, 2023 12:21 AM in response to a_center

It's been here since Monterery from what I've understood. Don't expect a fix anytime soon. Use something like Amphetamine is the only solution.

Mac OSX Monterey External Hard Disks Going to Sleep