Mac OS Ventura and exFAT drive format issues

2021 MacBook Pro OS Ventura 3.2.1 will not read exFAT formatted external drive. Is Apple doing a fix


Posted on Jun 24, 2023 12:13 PM

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28 replies

Sep 22, 2023 2:47 AM in response to FAQsSituationers

Thirty terabytes?!! I am not sure if there even exists such a large SSD and if it does it will cost way more than your mac, so this does not look right.


Please tell us the exact model of your SSD and what cable you got, specifically. Unfortunately, many different cables with the same USB-C connectors exist but they are not interchangeable. For example a cable that can charge your iPad may not be adequate to plug your SSD to your mac, even if the connection looks the same.


We really need specific details to correctly ascertain what is going on.

Sep 22, 2023 7:40 AM in response to FAQsSituationers

FAQsSituationers wrote:

The SSD pilot light just lighst up for a while and then disappears, and that's that. I left it connected to my Mac for an hour, hoping that it only takes some time to detect the drive, but nothing happens.

If you are using an Apple Silicon laptop, then make sure you did not completely turn off access to the USB-C ports in the System Settings. Otherwise, this indicates a hardware issue of some sort. It may mean the laptop is not able to provide enough power to the drive, or maybe the port on the laptop is bad, or the cable for the drive, or an adapter if one is being used, or maybe the drive itself has a problem or just is not compatible with your Mac (happens more often with older drives on the Apple Silicon Macs, but I have also seen it occur with Intel Macs as well since Macs can be picky about the drives used).


Do you have any third party software installed which may be blocking access to the drive or the USB ports? Typical culprits are anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, and third party security software. If you are using a Standard (non-admin) macOS user account, then maybe the administrator placed some restrictions on that account. If the computer is being managed, then even an admin account may have restrictions in place.


If you don't see the physical drive listed in Disk Utility even when selecting "Show All Devices", then the file system is not the problem, it is a hardware issue (assuming you did not have macOS ignore the USB-C port connections or have security software or it being managed). If it is a hardware issue, then you will just need to try using another port on the laptop especially on the other side, try using another cable, another adapter, try connecting the drive to a powered USB3 hub in case the drive needs more power (or use a dedicated power supply if the drive supports it). If you still cannot get the Mac to see the physical external drive and that drive works fine on a Windows computer, then it may just be a hardware compatibility issue.


Keep in mind the physical external drive should show up either with the make & model of the drive, or possibly with the make & model of the USB controller used by the drive, dock, adapter, or enclosure. You can also look in the Apple System Profiler to see if the physical external drive or its controller/adapter shows up under USB (or Thunderbolt if it supports the Thunderbolt protocol). Usually in the profiler you will see the external drive's controller and also a reference to the physical storage device within the external enclosure. You can access the Apple System Profiler by holding the Option key as you click the Apple menu and select the first item.

Sep 22, 2023 7:46 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

Thirty terabytes?!! I am not sure if there even exists such a large SSD and if it does it will cost way more than your mac, so this does not look right.

I missed that. There are no 30TB consumer SSDs available. Anyone advertising such an SSD is selling a fake SSD. I knew I was missing something here as it wasn't making sense. Another reason thread hijacking is frowned upon because it gets so confusing.


I think I will bow out now.

Mac OS Ventura and exFAT drive format issues

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