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User profile for user: BungalowBill92
BungalowBill92 Author
User level: Level 1
36 points

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

Since I updated to macOS Sonoma, I've been experiencing issues with my external drives (in ExFAT). I can't access them, nor can I access Disk Utility (which continuously displays a "Loading disks" message). Only when I use the Disk Arbitrator app to prevent the drives from mounting, it allows me to run Disk Utility and "First Aid," enabling access to the external drive. However, the folder icon images are missing, and in the Sharing & Permissions info, it reads "You have custom access." Is anyone else experiencing similar problems, or does anyone know how to resolve this? Thank you very much.


[Re-Titled By Moderator]

Mac mini

Posted on Oct 8, 2023 4:06 AM

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User profile for user: Dr_William
Dr_William
User level: Level 1
32 points

Posted on Dec 11, 2023 6:38 AM

I lost an 8TB hard drive just after the upgrade to Sonoma. It was formatted for Time Machine in APFS - you don't get an option to change format style on a new drive for Time Machine and also a 4TB Mac extended journaled disk, and a 2TB WD exFAT.


One after another they started to drop off and for no reason. Apple support - what support? - you may as well p@ss into the wind! No one wants to acknowledge this or do they? You get a case number and that's it. I tried recovery with various software programs.


You fork out thousands of €uro for the computer which they say will do everything you need, you find out then they no longer come with large amounts of memory. You buy ext. hdd's or ssd's more hundreds if not another thousand €uro for storage, not to mention extra cloud storage for emergency contingency.


My computer is less than 4 months and I wonder what next.... maybe the internal ssd or the M1 or M2 chip just as the computer passes the final days of its warranty cover.


A clear statement is needed from this company what is causing the problem and when it will be fixed, people do not have endless amounts of money to throw after bad.



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User profile for user: chrisale2
chrisale2
User level: Level 1
0 points

Feb 12, 2024 12:51 PM in response to BungalowBill92

I am having what seems to be the same kind of problem. Very unreliable external SSD behaviour with Sonoma. My example is I bought two new 4TB SSD. I have a stack of these that I have gathered over time for Time Machine Backups. With Sonoma I am sometimes able to format the hard drives in Disk Utility, and/or initialize Time Machine on them from the System Preference. Sometimes it fails with "resource busy" like this:


When it does work, and I try to initiate the first backup for Time Machine it invariably gets to about 99GB and the stalls and fails. The only recourse is to reformat and try again.


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

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