Level 1

42 points

External hard drives don't mount under sonoma

I have just upgraded to Sonoma on a 2023 Silicon Mac Mini and all my USB-A have stopped mounting or are not reliably mounting. These are encrypted APFS drives.

None were there at first; they don't show up in Disk Utility either so I can't mount them there.

I followed a hint here - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sonoma-wont-mount-external-drives.2404856/ - and tried recovery mode. In recovery mode they are greyed out but can be mounted using disk utility. But then on a normal reboot they disappear again, usually (as I speak I have a Time Machine drive that has remained visible on reboot but another is missing)

Extremely frustrated that such a fundamental bug is in this OS.

Posted on Sep 27, 2023 4:44 AM

Top-ranking reply

mistersquid

Level 3

809 points

Posted on Dec 16, 2023 4:23 PM

not_apple_genius wrote:

[...]

I had a similar issue [...] I was seeing a pop-up come show and disappear so fast that I had to screen-record and slow it down to see what it was. [...]

[...] System Preferences > Privacy & Security > Allow accessories and changed [...] to connect to "Automatically When Unlocked". Connected my adapter again and voila, it shows up.

Hope this helps.

Nice tip!

Was also sometimes seeing the same disappearing dialog when connecting external drives. My "workaround" was both suboptimal and embarrassing (reconnect device with cursor positioned just so for a split-second click).

Hopefully ppl will see and follow your recommendation.

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61 replies

marahaba

Level 1

0 points

Nov 18, 2023 12:51 AM in response to sterow

Me too

Smowtion

Level 1

8 points

Nov 19, 2023 10:48 PM in response to MRSTS

Same issue here. I can't backup my mac to extention SSD

Smowtion

Level 1

8 points

Nov 19, 2023 10:49 PM in response to blixblax

Can you explain more detail you can solve this issue . I can see any ext SSD right now

bonnetj

Level 1

15 points

Nov 21, 2023 3:15 PM in response to bunnylau

Just curious. Is the LaCie drive encrypted?

Thanks!

Nov 23, 2023 2:10 PM in response to not_apple_genius

Just a point of clarification. As it turns out, those of us w/ M1 Macs do not have access to the "Allow accessories" feature.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254478957?page=1

joshmigo

Level 1

8 points

Dec 13, 2023 11:16 AM in response to JRK Apple Discuss

Hi! why this route? /private/var/folders/??

What is that route for?

Dec 17, 2023 10:26 AM in response to bonnetj

Yes, all of my LaCie drives are encrypted, and they are all larger than 3T.

cm_dv

Level 1

8 points

Feb 14, 2024 11:43 AM in response to cm_dv

oops, thought i was responding to a specific answer (change preferences to "allow accessories")!

Mar 21, 2024 6:29 PM in response to sterow

The usb can boot up the OS but wont show up when connected otherwise. Don’t know why it has been made like that or is it a glitch bug 🤷🏻‍♂️

Sfreedm1

Level 1

6 points

Apr 2, 2024 8:50 AM in response to not_apple_genius

Except that OS 14.4 no longer has "System Preferences". Now, "Systems Settings" and that no longer has Allow accessories to connect…

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,030 points

Apr 2, 2024 4:25 PM in response to Sfreedm1

Allow accessories to connect is only on the laptops.

Sfreedm1

Level 1

6 points

Apr 2, 2024 6:19 PM in response to tbirdvet

How can I get the same result on Mac Studio?

supidei

Level 1

20 points

May 7, 2024 9:03 AM in response to not_apple_genius

Thank you very very much...... Ät @ not_apple_genius

This was the Solution.

OMG Apple.

Jun 19, 2024 8:52 PM in response to not_apple_genius

Nope!

Jun 19, 2024 8:54 PM in response to JavannaL

I am a photographer too and ****** Sonoma won't let my WD hard disk mount!

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External hard drives don't mount under sonoma