Level 1

58 points

External HD slow to mount every time I boot up Mac

Hi!

I just updated to sonoma 14.1 (clean install), and it seems that my external hard drive that I always have plugged in takes ages to mount, this only happens when the mac reboots or shut down, I know this is normal behavior when you unplug a hard drive without ejecting correctly, but now is happening every time I boot or restart the Mac.

If eject the drive on macOS and plug in again it shows up instant, but if shut down the computer takes ages. It seems its going like a process to check up if everything is okay with the drive and then it mounts, is there a way to deactivate this "check up"?

After some more testing and with various drives the issue is persistent. any solution? already tried repair disk permissions and erased both drives, they in ExFAT as I need to use it for windows as well

Sonoma bug? did not happen on Ventura.

M1 Max MBP

Posted on Oct 28, 2023 2:15 PM

24 replies

DPC007

Level 1

26 points

Jun 21, 2024 9:39 PM in response to miguelbfrom

Upgraded to 14.5 and this issue still persists. Rebooting doesn't help...

No issues with SSD, but the traditional WD 8TB External 7200 rpm drive still takes forever to mount.

Never was an issue before.

5ubt3

Level 1

12 points

Apr 24, 2024 9:03 AM in response to miguelbfrom

I'm running Sonoma 14.4.1 and the problem persists. (MacBook Pro 2018 and G-Drive external portable device)

sekhuat

Level 1

8 points

May 1, 2024 5:43 PM in response to miguelbfrom

I am on Sonoma 14.4.1 but I still faced the problem. :(

May 2, 2024 7:41 AM in response to steve626

Steve,

As you say..."they do not address the root cause"...like most people I work with cloud based storage. Just like to have a "local" fail safe....

May 14, 2024 8:01 PM in response to miguelbfrom

Same thing happened to me, My Lacie external hard drive work perfectly before updating to Sonoma now I’m running 14.4.1 OS and it’s still takes forever to show

up on the desktop.

May 25, 2024 7:34 AM in response to miguelbfrom

I am still experiencing the issue despite updating to Sonoma 14.5. It is frustrating. Why does Apple attempt to fix certain bugs but end up creating even bigger problems?

KRAUSEY

Level 1

16 points

Jun 4, 2024 4:32 PM in response to miguelbfrom

I'm on a brand new m3 max sonoma 14.5 and my external drives are slow AF to mount on both restart or just plugging them in. Frustrating.

JulieniP

Level 1

8 points

Feb 19, 2024 4:02 AM in response to miguelbfrom

I came here a few hours ago as I had this problem for some days/weeks. I updated from 14.2.1 to 14.3.1 and the problem seems to be solved (long time to mount and speed transfer on an exfat hardrive)...

HWTech

Level 9

68,504 points

Dec 27, 2023 7:51 PM in response to DariusPr

Apple changed the exFAT and FAT (aka ms-dos) driver in macOS 14.x Sonoma from a Kernel based driver to a userland based driver so this probably caused much of the code to be re-written so it is not surprising there are issues since it can take a while to perfect a new file system driver.

Here is an Apple developer article which mentions this new exFAT & FAT driver change including a screenshot of the relevant section of that article:

macOS Sonoma 14 Release Notes | Apple Developer Documentation

Everyone can provide Apple with product feedback here:

Product Feedback - Apple

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External HD slow to mount every time I boot up Mac