Unable to access External Drives and Disk Utility after updating to macOS Sonoma.

I have a HighPoint external Thunderbolt drive that the company supplied me with updated firmware and a driver for so that it would work with Sonoma (2 SSDs and 2 HDDs installed in it). And it did — until it didn't. I used it this morning, and a little pop-up said it might not work with future OS updates but it did still work this morning — until I ejected it and then later tried to use it again — now, nothing. It's not even registering on my M1 MacBook. Really frustrating, and I am wondering how many enemies Apple is willing to make by not fixing this problem because it sure isn't making any friends by not resolving this issue.

Hi All.

Seems like MacOs Sonoma comes with the new security that can block the external Drive if the user missed to click the allow button in the beginning or sometime the external drive has been encrypted with the time machine backup from previous MacOs or the drive has NTFS bit locker from Windows OS, and there is no option to unlock because the drive already disappear from disk utility.

We found the simple solutions that might help.

Try to open : System Settings --> Privacy & Security --> Allow accessories to connect --> and change the option from : ask for new accessories to be : always

Good Luck everyone.

All the Best.

MR & MRS FIX

Sydney Australia.

My drive was freshly bought 2TB NVME and no encryption at all, I formatted in APFS, xFAT and FAT nothing was helpful, when connect to Android mobile it was detected then disappear after disconnect or start to copy files, but drive is working fine in Windows and Android OS as well as Ventura macOS, all issues in Sonoma

No option in Desktop

Apple will not fix this error. Too many time users have reported issues.

Stay to ventura will solve the problem only for short period. When the System will become obsolete (Apple have increased the speed of update to force customer to Buy new product) you have to update, and this problem will be there waiting for you.

The real solution is abandon Apple and come to Windows or Linux.

Buy a mac today is not a good idea. Not upgradable at all and they become obsolete in short time and due to their policy the backward compatibility of 3rd part software is limeted or impossible. Windows 11 now is fully comparable to Apple (or better).

I've had some strange things happen with MacBook Air M1 running Sonoma 14.1.1 in the UK. I don't see any later release available so can't upgrade.

Firstly a SanDisk MicroSD 128GB ExFAT that I used in my dashcam became corrupted on my Mac - the device appeared to be empty and lost it's NEXTBASE label. I was able to use Photorec but most files were corrupted which was disappointing. Both lost a 128GB disk image and now have missing files.

In trying to fix this two 2TB SSD drives a Crucial X8 and X9 also formatted as ExFAT both would sometimes take a while to mount in Finder but appeared to work until recently when both have been corrupted. I would unmount in Finder only to find they were uncleanly removed.

So could be a coincidence but my spinning (non-SSD) drive that is ExFAT appears to be working OK.

Would be interested in an explanation... I've lost all faith in using those drives on the Mac. Thanks

I have lost data, and somehow 15,000 files ended up in the trash, and now I have to go thru them and iCloud to see what I can resurrect! I am absolutely upset that this happened and I don’t understand why! I upgraded to Sonoma too. Apple doesn’t know what to do! Shouldn’t they know?

HAd to power down yesterday...

Didnt think anything of it as i have had to restart a BUNCH lately..and somehow was devoid of external HD issues...

or so i thought..

Upon the restart of the computer ALL of my external drives were GONE.

Took the USB HUB, mounted on my Monterey machine...NO DRIVES MOUNTING..

Remembered a post about going to Windows , did that and the drives are now back on Sonoma 14.4.

What the heck is going on ?? Unreliable OS that chooses to either see or ignore drives....

[Edited by Moderator]

I have similar issues, Apple and Lacie pointing to each other. Spent hours with both supports. Had been waiting for an answer for months. All my devices are under warranty, Lacie even replaced a 6000 USD Big6 drive. The issues are still not completely resolved.

Any idea where we can see the 14.4.1 release notes from Apple? I remain unconvinced that it's safe to use my exFAT drives (two Crucial 2TB SSD corrupted plus a 128GB MicroSD) until I see it specifically called out as fixed. Is there a link to a bug tracker? Thanks

Here’s what tech support had me do. Unplug all external drives. Reboot in safe mode. All of a sudden disk utility opened and we did first aid on the Mac hard drive. I think we did first aid on one of the external hard drives too. Everything works now. Hope this helps

Update - I just formatted my Kingston SSD on Android (because only there it behaved well and worked normally with files, on Windows I had problems reading this SSD), and then connected it to MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1 after Android - it finally recognized it and allowed me to format it to exFAT - and now it works and connects instantly.

Like you , I use Mac for professional use.

the only way I found is abandon Apple and switch to windows .

if you use compatible sw you are almost ok. Sonoma is a very buggy os and windows 11 is, now superior now.

More stable.

if you like me use Apple sw you have to found a valid alternative .

for example in music I abandoned logic pro and pass to S1.

must requires time but Apple is not more for professional use now. The target of costumers is another.

sell your macs and buy a windows machine for work

Using an active USB hub did the trick for me.

I purchased a TP-Link UH720 USB 3.0 hub which is an active hub, meaning you have to plug it into the power socket too. Then I used a USB 3.0 to USB-C adapter cable and it works. macOS sees all my external SSD drives just as before the Sonoma update.

Nonetheless, this is still infuriating from Apple.

Not sure this is helpful to anyone, but what worked for me (Lacie usb-c spin-drive, Journaled) was to simply replace the usb-c cable. I´m no expert by any means, but suppose these cables have different voltage capacity, bandwith or something. The previous two cables would allow the drive to show up in the Finder but wouldn´t allow me to either view or access any files.

Strangely enough, when connecting the drive directly to my iPhone 15 Pro Max, any usb-c cable worked without issue and the files showed up immediately?

Moving all files to the laptop then I´ll convert the external drive file system to APFS, which seems to be a general

recommendation when not using the drive across different platforms.

All my disks now are readable however I still cannot update my Photos library which is in ExFat - I receive there was an error attempting to free up disk space for import. I'll wait 2 more months then maybe resell his M3 Macbook air.