MacBook Air M4 Won't Sleep with Samsung NVMe SSD in Ugreen USB-C Enclosure - Solutions?

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Level 1

4 points

MacBook Air M4 Won't Sleep with Samsung NVMe SSD in Ugreen USB-C Enclosure - Solutions?

Hi community, I have an issue on my MacBook Air M4 (macOS Tahoe): when I connect a Samsung NVMe SSD in a Ugreen USB-C enclosure, the Mac never enters sleep mode (stays awake at 100%). I tried disabling "Put hard disks to sleep" in Battery settings, but no luck. Has anyone experienced the same with a similar setup? Tested solutions:

sudo pmset -a disksleep 0 in Terminal (works partially).
Updated Ugreen firmware.
Different cables/hubs.

Any definitive fixes or recommended enclosures?

Thanks!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.1

Posted on Dec 11, 2025 2:32 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

68,636 points

Dec 11, 2025 6:58 PM in response to f250_gto

Have you tried selecting "Sleep" from the Apple menu? I personally like to press the Caps Lock key first before selecting "Sleep" or "Shutdown" so I can tell that the system has powered down for sleep or shutdown when the Caps Lock LED goes dark.

I like to wait several minutes especially when initiating sleep using any other method since there may be some time needed to process the request.

You can try using the following command to view the Sleep & Wake events which will show the two most recent events, check the time stamp to see if the last two events match up with attempting to sleep & wake the Mac (best to copy & paste the command since the spacings in it are critical for success):

pmset -g log | grep -iE 'Sleep  |Wake  ' | grep -vE '^   ' | tail -n2

If it shows a sleep & wake event at the time you made the test, then sleep was triggered.

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Answer 2

f250_gto Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 15, 2025 1:38 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks for your reply, HWTech.

I have done several trials using your tips, which confirms that the Mac goes to sleep properly.

Both when closing the lid and when selecting Sleep from the menu, the Mac sleeps and wakes normally (as confirmed by the suggested command).

The problem is that the external drive remains powered on and drains the battery while the Mac is in sleep mode.

I have contacted Ugreen technical support to ask whether the enclosure firmware can be modified to allow the drive to enter his sleep mode avoiding Mac battery drainage.

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