Two external SSD drives no longer connect at the same time.

Question

Level 1

4 points

Two external SSD drives no longer connect at the same time.

Hello everyone,

I need some help... It's my first time posting here so I will do my best to explain the situation.

So I bought the MacBook Air M1 (2020). It works great and has no issues so far.

I also purchased two ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures with Built-in Cooling Fan (TBU406PRO) to use with two WD_BLACK 4TB SN850X external SSDs. Please view the amazon links below:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C8CZB5S7/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7CQ2CHH/

The first time I connected both of them, my Macbook recognized them without an issue. I was also able to successfully do a full backup of 1.5TB of data from one SSD to the other. The process to about 40 minutes to complete with no interruptions.

About 5 minutes after the backup, I see that Finder tells me that one of my SSD was "not ejected properly" and was left with only one connected. I tried to disconnect and reconnect them again but my computer only shows me one.

Both of my thunderbolt 4 ports are fine since I am able to connect a usb hub along with the external ssd. But my MacBook simple does not recogize both SSDs when the are connected at the same time. It only shows me one at a time.

I am running the latest version of macOS: 14.2

Can someone pease let me know what the issue might be?

I have read that M1 Macs sometimes do not provide enough power to multiple external devices. But in my case, they were working fine when they were first connected: https://talk.tidbits.com/t/cant-mount-two-external-t3-ssds-on-m1-macbook-pro/14688

MacBook Air 13″

Posted on Dec 14, 2023 9:29 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

deltaf Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 14, 2023 12:42 PM in response to deltaf

Update

So for anyone who has a similar issue, I was able to figure it out. It is indeed a problem with the amount of power that the Mac can provide to these two external drives.

What happened was that when I finished the back up, spotlight started indexing my second SSD. These enclosures also have a fan. When you combine the power draw from Spotlight and from both enclosures that have a fan turned on, my Macbook was not able to keep both running at the same time and therefore, only one was able to remain connected.

I solved this issue by first waiting for spotlight to finish indexing, and then turning off the fan on both enclosures. Both of them then appeared connected to my computer.

I hope this helps anyone out there with a similar issue so it can save yourself a lot of headaches.

Reply

Two external SSD drives no longer connect at the same time.

Similar questions