Mac OSX Monterey External Hard Disks Going to Sleep

One month after my last post, I have seen no spontaneous unmounts from either of my OWC miniStack enclosures with hard drives used for Time Machine. Connecting each enclosure separately to the Mac Studio seems to have solved that problem.

However, three times I have seen one of the hard drives (it's always been the same one) unmount (or at least produce a Notification) after a restart.

Once was after a manual startup after a power outage. (I have my Mac Studio set not to restart automatically.)

Once was after upgrading to macOS 12.6 and my Mac Studio restarted twice.

Once was after a manual shut down with the Apple Menu item and a subsequent manual restart. (I did that to address a separate problem.)

Just an update...

I've installed the Ventura release candidate on my Mac Studio (M1 Ultra).

My G-Tech G-Drive seems to still somewhat frequently spin down/up, despite the setting for "Put hard disks to sleep if possible".

Which is disappointing.

However, what IS different is that the Amphetamine App seems to keep the drive from spinning down for me now (whereas before, it didn't). I set it up to write to the spinning drive once a minute, and it no longer spins down.

So, I have a Studio, not a laptop, so not sure if its the same issues. But my version of this problem ended when I connected my HDD array directly to the mac, not to my hub, and set via terminal my disksleep to 15 minutes. Now my drives spin up and down as needed predictably and have not had any problems for quite a while.

Still having this exact same problem. Super annoying. Using OWC raids for video editing. Plugging into doc or straight into mac doesn't matter.

In Monterey, I could reboot with the drives plugged in and that would fix it.

That hack isn't working in Ventura anymore. After I reboot, my system goes straight to "sleep" mode and I have to wake it up, which seems to prevent the reboot hack from working.

same spindown/up problem. mbp m1 pro 16, two daisy chained lacie 2big docks thunderbolt 2 raid, one apple software raided set, and 4 non raid disks via caldigit ts4, os ventura.

currently functional workaround: setting the put the hard disks to sleep to only on battery.

this works so far. your, and mine, mileage may vary.

on monday i'll have a new lacie 2 big dock thunderbolt 3 delivered and hooked up. hopefully it'll work.

I'm similar to your setup , two Lacie 2Bigs (TB 2 connected via Apple's TB3 to TB2 adapter) and a 2Big Dock (TB3). Still having the same problem of all 3 docks spinning down every minute but keeping them alive with Amphetamine.

I haven't tried using the seeing of only sleeping on battery, I'll give that a go.

HI! Having the same problem (external hard drives going to sleep and wake up and sleep intermitently). This happens since I've switched to a brand new Mac Studio MAX....

The External enclosure works perfectly fine (i.e. as expected) with my MBP (Intel).

I have the issue too and am considering upgrading to Mac OS 13 if that might fix it. Any updates on whether you are still having the spin up / down issue? It does look like the Power management dialog settings window has changed in this new OS per your photo.

Adding my experience here as well. On MacOS 13.0.1 and this is still a major issue for video editors. It's very frustrating waiting for the drive to spin up every 60 seconds while editing. I'm on an M2 MacBook Air. It seems to be Apple silicon related issue. Where's the fix for this Apple!? It's incredibly annoying!

Macbook Air 2022 and OS12 Monterey. I also have this spin down problem.

-Using an external 3 hard drive connected to a USB 3 hub and apple usb c to usb adapter.

-sleep settings are correct

-issue occurs after a whole or after mac has slept. does not usually occur shortly after a reboot. thais has me in the habit of rebooting more, whereas with old mac would sleep all the time

-when it occurs it will spin down a lot, maybe every few minutes. haven’t measured it.

-tried amphetamine which works, but that’s not the point, something else isn’t working.

-have used same usb hub and hard drive for many years with 2015 macbook pro.

Hi,

I've got the exact same problem with my external raid on an M1 macbook pro.

What "solved" my problem was using automator to create an automation and let it move a 1kb file from one folder to another every 20 sec or so.

Maybe there was already a solution but at least you don't need to install any software for it that you normally wouldn't want on your mac.

Apple needs to fix this as it's really annoying!

Cheers!

Same drive issue here that started after connecting them to new M2 Pro Mac Mini running latest update of Ventura. Three external drives, a Novus, a Toshiba and a toaster, all repeatedly sleep after only a few seconds of inactivity, causing considerable waiting times to do any activities. They are all plugged directly into the Mac. Do not have that problem when connecting drives to my older iMac running Monterey. Using Amphetamine as temporary measure (hopefully).

FWIW, have noticed other glitches in Finder such as file icons in a folder rearranging to alphabetical order upon opening, but closing folder and re-opening puts files back in previously arranged order. Drag dropping files from one folder to another causes a "jump" of said icons to top of folder for brief moment before transferring.

Hope a good solution comes soon!

Consider filling out a short bug report here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

Maybe it will get some traction and activity from Apple.

Could be a waste. It would be nice if people experiencing the issue continue to put in bug reports to Apple by going here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html