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!
a Ha! Lots to learn here: Identify the ports on your Mac - Apple Support Adapters for the Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3, or USB-C port on your Mac - Apple Support
However, the problem has NOT recurred on my MacBook Air M2 since Ventura 13.3.1
Tnx for sharing and clarifying. I've never had random ejecting problems, just constant napping. I don't have adapters/converters to contend with either, everything is USB-C all the way. But...because I often use multiple drives on large projects, I send my drives through a CalDigit element hub. The LaCie team sez the hub isn't an issue, but I'm not convinced. That said, even when I plug a D2 drive directly into the Mac Studio USB-C port, the napping still ensues. I'm a lifelong Mac user and have worked with LaCie drives since 2TB was a huuuuge drive, but I've never had sleepy drives. Even as I type this on my MacBook Pro, seated 10 feet away from my (sleeping on purpose) Mac Studio setup connected to LaCie drives, I can hear the drives spin up/down intermittently.
The LaCie team are now suggesting that I tinker with Terminal, but I put my money on buggy Ventura updates.
Stay tuned y'all for updates.
Glide2277...survey sez that APFS def improves performance with Mac.
I'm running 13.3.1.(a), but the sleeping drive issue started with original Ventura. The CalDigit hub can't be updated to 39.1 (despite their website claims)...I've tried updating CalDigit firmware on a 2019 MacBook Pro and a 2022 Mac Studio...same result: no update installed. Like many "3rd party" peripherals, CalDigit is playing catch-up with Apple. The bug I'm dealing with is a perfect storm of incompatibility between CalDigit+LaCie+Apple.
Actually, you're right. The d2 drives are USB-C (3.1 etc), not Thunderbolt...that was wishful thinking.
So, to be clear, all my cables running from the D2 drives to the Cal Digit element hub to the Mac Studio are USB-C.
I'll keep you posted.
Thank you!
I have an OWC Mercury Pro optical drive that refused to play Blu-Rays after the last Ventura update, CDs were fine as were (most) DVDs.
As you said, safe mode didn't work, PRAM reset didn't work, nothing worked until your suggestion of a shift, control, option restart. So simple, so painless. Even Apple support couldn't help me after an hour long conversation.
Thank you so much!
And that party is over.
With the same Blu-ray still sat in the drive I tried to watch the second half of the movie today but got the same error message I was getting before: Key exchange failed (3100002).
I even tried restarting again while holding down shift, control and option but that didn't work a second time.
Unless someone has an answer, it seems all I can do is wait and hope that the next update resolves the issue.
At least I know for sure that the drive and the software are working.
Had my Ventura about a week. If it was a person, I'd kill it. Now when I want to reformat external disk I get message it's in use. Say what? In time machine, I can't eject it, can't remove it from exclude in options. And don't get me on containers and volumes. With my old Mac with Monterey, it was clear what devices were working and doing whatever but now I'm afraid to click on something lest I lose it all. I think Apple and others pushing proprietary claims to the limits should realize not all change is good, necessary, asked for or wanted. But hey, I'm just an old coot trying to work this out before I forget my name. Thanks, Apple.
I am having the same issue. I'm running ventura 13.4 on both machines. I can be using my 2018 Mac Mini and watch it eject. I have tried everything. Nothing has worked. Makes it really hard to use Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro. The hard drive works fine on 2018 MacBook PRo
It's even worse. A month of using it, the problems have grown. I have a lot of music, my own and purchases from Apple. For a few years, I have used external hard drives to store and back up (apart from others used as time machine for computer and other files). However, with Ventura, my Music has become a jumbled mess, lost, missing, relocated. For a month I have been sorting and reallocating albums individually manually, sometimes repeated as the music tree seems to change. I am frustrated that simply dragging from one external drive to another and then using a new Mac did not replicate what I had and what worked before. I have lost a month of my life trying to solve a problem that seems insolvable but may be for a younger group. In the past Apple support, normally excellent, was of little use regarding this issue. In fact, some of the advice I received proved erroneous; but that was another issue with music. No, not happy. Thanks, Apple. And yes, I do detest your proprietary business model.
The latest Ventura update killed the 'use USB3 cables' solution for my problem.
Harddrive spins down every 10 seconds or so, really helpful if your editing videos on a deadline!
Drives have spun up, spun down and spun up again in the time I wrote this message.
My other work around: a cheap old USB3 open drive bay is now also not working anymore, thank you so much for this guys, I really felt silly having a solution for a problem.
My other version of this comment got deleted for adding irony, don't be petty Apple: solve this issues. You can't sell a system like the Mac Studio and mess up support for external harddrives, that makes no sense.
Does anybody know if OS 14 Sonoma has resolved the unwanted external disc ejecting issue? I've got a Mac Studio Ultra M1 running 13.6 with constant external disc ejecting issues; I brought the main culprit (OWC Express 4M2 TB3 enclosure) over to my 2017 MacBook Pro (intel) running 13.6-the latest it can run, and the drive also ejects from that desktop. I'm unable to copy files over to internal drives before the disc ejects.
I saw one post here suggesting that using a USB-C cable (rather than TB3) may solve the issue. My TB3 enclosure won't even mount at all with USB-C--it requires a TB3 cable to mount.
Huge workflow problems due to this. Has anybody tried OS 14 Sonoma and found it resolves these issues?
Greg
One further addition. When I wanted to put the iMac into sleep, I received the error message again for the new disk. I did not attempt to eject it, as previously this has not been necessary .
Goodness, what a surprise. A major OS update on a Macintosh computer breaks something that was working without problems before.
Alert the media.
Both the LaCie HDD and WD SDD get power via the USB-C port on the Mac. I have no special cleaning/optimizing/AV/VPN software on my Mac. I just upgraded 13.0.1 to 13.1. I'll see if this helps.
My Lightroom catalog won't open because of read/write permission incompatibility. ?
External Hard Disk and Ventura
