External optical drive (DVD/CD) not working

User wrote " This is on a 2022 MacBook Air M2 "

Then the below Allow Accessory would apply to this situation

Refer to Link Below from Apple on this very topic

If your Mac asks you to allow an accessory to connect - Apple Support

Excerpt from link above

When you use a new or unknown USB accessory, Thunderbolt accessory, or SD card with your Mac laptop with Apple silicon and macOS Ventura or later,

Then try getting one of those inexpensive cleaning discs for CD/DVD drives. The drives are mechanical and use lasers. If the laser lens or sensor gets dusty it can produce the very thing you are experiencing.

Bottom line? The SuperDrive works perfectly well with M series Macs running macOS 14.2.1 Sonoma. If yours isn’t then the drive/cable probably has a problem. Or you have corruption in your Sonoma installation.

Apple’s SuperDrive DVD/CD drive ($79) works for me as usual on my M1 Mac Studio Max running Sonoma 14.2.1. You do not mention the band of your drive but there is no reason a run-of-the-mill drive would quit working.

The most common reason users run into this issue is because they connect their drive via a USB Hub or Dock instead of directly plugging it in to a port physical port on their Mac.

So tell us what brand of drive you are using and how you are connecting it. And have you investigated the drive manufacturer’s support website?

Apple SuperDrive

I have an old Samsung (model SE-208DB/TSBS) drive that I bought for $44 years ago. It’s listed as compatible with Mac OS X 10.4.8, that’s how old it is. I dug it out and plugged it into my Mac Studio M1 Max and it works fine.

So the finger is starting to point toward your drive, not macOS 14.2.1. And no drive shows up in Disk Utility unless it has a disc in it these days.

On another post, the person got a DVD drive working by plugging it into a USB-A port, but you don't have a USB-A port on your Mac. Made me wonder if the USB-C ports are not backwards compatible with USB2, but that drive appears to be USB3 (at least what I found on Amazon based on the name you posted).

On my M1 Mini, I use an LG Slim Portable drive on Sonoma that is plugged into a powered USB3 Hub connected to the Mini through a USB-A port.

You stated that it spins up and ejects. That usually indicates a disc that cannot be read for some reason (dirty?).

Try other discs or clean the drive as Ikrupp noted.

if it was me then I would troubleshoot by testing it with other computers, macs, windows, linux you name it these drives are one size fit already so you can verify if it just died by freak chance at the same time as you updated

I also have an M1 Mac Studio running 14.2.1, but my Apple SuperDrive won't work properly. Image flickers, and wouldn't let me eject the DVD I was trying to play.

It worked! All I had to do was plug it directly into my Mac mini 2, and it appeared in Finder. Thanks.