Ever since I updated to Ventura my two hard disks shut down randomly with the error message "Disk not Ejected properly - Eject before disconnecting or turning it off".
I have checked cables, USB ports and all OK. It points to an issue with the OS (updated this morning to 13.0.1.
Please help as I cannot access my music.
iMac 21.5″, macOS 13.0
I just found a solution that worked for me on my 2018 Mini. I've been having a progressive issue with a WD 2TB SSD in a OWC Elite Pro Mini enclosure dismounting abruptly for probably over a year. In the last month, the drive wouldn't stay mounted for more than a couple minutes. The problem tracked with what I've read here. I tried swapping cables and enclosures. Neither worked (though as you'll see it was not a failing cable, but rather some sort of problem with communication over whole classes of cables). Yesterday, worried that the drive was failing, I ordered a new 2TB hard drive. I connected both to start transferring data over. The new drive started having the same dismount problem. I couldn't transfer more than 100gb. I tried running them off of an Anker dock. Still had the issue.
My solution: I tried my USB-A ports and the drive mounting completely stabilized. Then I realized I was using an Anker cable, and maybe it was the cable. I tried a USB-C 2.0 Anker cable through my Thunderbolt port. The drives were stable with that, too. I then tried an Apple Thunderbolt cable. Stable, plus return of 10gb/s transfer speeds. Cables that didn't work: a thunderbolt cable from 3rd party on Amazon, the USB-C 3.1 cable that came with my ProGrade SD card reader, and the USB-C 3.1 cable from OWC that came with my Elite Pro Mini enclosure. I recommend either using a high quality Thunderbolt cable, or a high quality USB 2.0 cable (if maintaining connection is more important than transfer speeds). Hope this helps someone!
I spoke with apple support. They had me run a hardware check on the iMac. All A-OK.
like Lancaster I’ve been unable to complete successfully the hard drive copy from my sea gate to another drive. Dismounts before completion
I will use my backup iMac 2010 high sierra to complete the copy task then reformat the seagate drive.
meanwhile I’m alert to any other issues arising from the recent Ventura install.
if there are issues I may be up for a fresh install of Ventura
if I can’t rescue the seagate I still have a backup copy created using CrashPlan.
seagate also recommended reformatting the drive.
Mac Studio M1 Ultra, Ventura latest, USB 3 dual drive sled by EZ-Dock I've been using trouble free for 3 years. 2 Seagate Ironwolf 8TB drives software mirrored using Apple's RAID assistant. All checks clicked and unchecked according to all posts I could find.
Drives are sleeping almost immediately after spinning up unless you're actively copying or opening a file. Spins down within 1 minute of loading. Every time I need to access to the drive it's 12 seconds of waiting for the drives to spin up and report one after the other. This folks is not progress.
Started in safe mode and the honeymoon lasted about 2 hours and the cat came back. Really disappointing after dropping the downpayment on a house to have the latest and greatest.
My coworker on an identical machine purchased a G-Raid 8TB mirrored enclosure and doesn't have the problem. I think throwing money at it is the only way out. Waiting for Apple to respond always takes more time than I have. This really doesn't feel like a hard nut to crack. But what do I know?
This has been occurring for myself quite frequently.
Just posting here to say that this time it happened - my external storage disconnecting on Ventura 13.3 - the storage is still visible in /Volumes but obviously is not actually mounted.
If I try to mount it again, the drive then shows up in /Volumes but with a "1" appended to the name.
Attached a screenshot for clarity, where I have mounted the storage volume again after it seemingly disconnected itself.
Is this just a thing that happens when a volume isn't correctly dismounted?
I am aware that this could be occurring due to a fault with my storage. However I am seeing many people having similar issues with their storage disconnecting randomly.
I can go days with no issues, and then one moment the drive spontaneously disconnects.
So perfect setup to try one drive directly on the USB A 3.1 port and another with the hub / USB-C / Thunderbolt?
Good luck with trying to solve this!
Dear Chris,
Many thanks for this. To begin with I was optimistic but then the "Disk not Ejected Properly" message popped up again and continues every minute or so. This time it seemed to take longer before the disk attempted to self disconnect. I have 2 external disks, both WD, if that is relevant, and message appears in pairs applying to each of them.
Using the Energy Saver option, everything is enabled except the "close down hard disks whenever possible" which is disabled.
I have used the First Aid option in the Disk utility application and everything seems OK.
I am not an Apple nerd but have been using iMacs successfully for more that 10 years without any issues! This problem only arose after upgrading to Ventura in October.
Any further suggestions will be welcome, and many thanks indeed for you help.
LancasterHills
I really appreciate your help, Chris and Todd, but I fear I am not getting anywhere. It seems as if my iMac does not like external disks, because everything else is working perfectly!
As soon as I connect a hard disk, the Disk not Ejected Properly message instantly pops up in both my own account and the new Test account set up at your suggestion. Sometimes the disk does not want to eject when I try to eject it properly and then a few minutes later it miraculously disappears. All the files on the hard disks are undamaged, thank goodness, and can sometimes be accessed directly , and other times the load up after I click on the disk.
My music files start to play until the disk randomly ejects and the Disk not Ejected properly message appears. Sometimes they start playing again without my intervention and then just as suddenly stop! Spooky!
Are you aware of anyone else upgrading to Ventura having this problem? It is a total mystery to me.
Dear Colleen and all the Community team,
I need to be away for a few days, so I will not be able to have a go at implementing your helpful suggestions until next week. But rest assure I will get back to you.
I can assure you that the USB cables are in good shape and functioning well! They are connected directly into the USB slots at the rear. The Disk not Properly ejected message pops up for each disk.
I even checked the drives for viruses this morning, but thankfully all is well.
As a 78 year old, I am pushing the limits of my Apple experience!
I will get back to you next week.
Kind regards, LancasterHills
Dear Team,
Back in the saddle again, I have good news and bad news. I found a disused hard disk that happened to be formatted in Windows NT. I managed to reformat it in Mac OS (Journated), and was able to transfer some data to it. And after five hours it has not tried to shut itself down. The "offending" hard drives that always respond at startup with the dreaded Disk not Properly Shut Down message are disconnected.
The bad news is that as soon as I connect just one of the offending hard drives, the error messages appears for both hard drives; the new one and the old one. The old one refuses to shut down normally so when I switch it off the error message reappears. One the old one is disconnected the new one says functioning.
Which way next? Any suggestions, team are most gratefully accepted with thanks.
Thanks Miyndsurfers for the confirmation of my conclusions. I will somehow work out how to reformat my WD 2TB disk without losing the data!
One other observation is that if either of the two smaller USB powered reformated disks are connected as well as the offending WD 2 TB then they all go into unexplained shut down. The WD 2 TB does this on its own. If the two USB disks are connect either singly or as a pair, everything is OK!
And I always thought the mighty Apple iMac was immune to this sort of time wasting frustration!
I have this exact same problem! But I cannot quite figure out a way to have my harddrive stay connected long enough to back up the data onto reformatted hard drive. Could you share how you managed to do it?
Hi there,
I'm afraid it was a matter of trial and error. Sometimes the copy and pasting process aborted, and others it only switched off after a file had finished copying. I spent a frustrating week at this. My only tip would be to take one folder at a time; sub-folders seemed to copy OK. The frustration grew when I discovered that my music files were not instantly discoverable in their new location. I have aged considerably in the past moths or two! Good luck.
My external Time machine HD also stopped working when my Mac was upgraded to ventura, Whats the deal here? Then my traveling HD als failed. This can't be a coincidence. I noticed that others were having this problem as well. Any solutions?
I use the external drive for Time Machine. I thought the problem was my LaCie drive bought from Apple, so I bought a WD SSD and new cable. Restarted Time Machine. Same problem. I have a new MacBook Air M2.
I am having the same issue after upgrading to Ventura 13.2. I have a 2017 iMac Pro. When I boot to safe mode, I can see all the drive that are missing. Does this means there is a bug with the latest OSX? How do I resolve the problem from here on out? Kindly advise. Thanks.
Hi, thanks for the tips. However this does not seem to address my current issue. My iMac just decided not to mount some of the external drive after Ventura 13.2 update. Don’t think it was due to any malware.
External Hard Disk and Ventura
