Disk Utility keeps asking for a password every time I go to open it. And it asks for a password for every drive attached to the system.

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Level 2

187 points

Disk Utility keeps asking for a password every time I go to open it. And it asks for a password for every drive attached to the system.

Disk Utility seems to not be working correctly on a number of my drives, is there some piece of code that could have been corrupted? And if so, can it be corrected?

Running a Mac Pro with 14 drives (not including the internal SSD), 12 of them are doing this. When I open up Disk Utility it asks for a password. I have to enter and re-enter that password for each and every drive that is connected before it is clear and able to function. There are 8 NVMe drives seated on a Sonnettech M.2 8x4 Silent Gen4 PCIe card that is in turn seated inside the Mac Pro. There are another 4 NVMe 4 TB NVMe drives seated on internal PCIe slots with the OWC Accelsior 1M2. And finally there are 2 SATA drive inside the Promise Pegasus J2i inside the computer. Only 2 of the NVMe drives seated on the OWC Accelsior cards work perfectly. It seems like every other card makes the Disk Utility act strangely. I have trouble shot the set up by installing and removing drive one at a time as well as putting the working drives into different internal PCIe slots and the problem follows the drives. I have also cloned the drives (using SuperDuper) to external SSDs and run those over thunderbolt and the issue persists, even on these external drives. And I made sure to erase everything on the drives before cloning so whatever has made these drives malfunction, travels with the copy.

One other thing, I took the Sonnetech card out and installed it into a Sonnettech Echo I external expansion interface and attached that to the computer via thunderbolt. And it asked for the password there as well.

And to be clear, the drives function perfectly except for this odd interaction with Disk Utility.

I spent many hours on my own, swapping drives in and out, moving things around, and this is the result. I also spent many hours on the phone with senior Apple technicians and we tried everything. They mostly wanted me to upgrade to Tahoe but like I said, when I remove the offending drives, Disk Utility functions perfectly. And the internal SSD does not seem to be affected.

I cannot erase the drives because even thought they are all backed up, the offending code travels with the data.

This all began when I went to create a disk image off of a DVD and was unable to open Disk Utility. The DVD was hung off of a USB connection via and external DVD player. I had not installed anything new, no new software, not new applications, nothing. This is my work computer so I am very careful with my interaction with the internet.

The DVD player is no longer connected.

Anyone have any idea what this might be and how I can try to address this?

Thanks.

Mac Pro

Posted on Jan 19, 2026 1:20 AM

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Answer 1

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Blaskowitz

Level 3

713 points

Jan 19, 2026 1:49 AM in response to rosindabow

If Disk Utility is prompting for a password per drive just to view them, that usually means those volumes are encrypted (APFS-encrypted / “locked”) and Disk Utility is trying to unlock them during its scan. That also explains why “it follows the drive” and why cloning keeps the behavior — the encryption/container metadata comes along with the copy, it’s not “corrupted code” in the data.

First thing I’d confirm is what kind of password prompt it is: does it say “Unlock ‘<volume name>’” (volume passphrase), or is it asking for your Mac admin password? If it’s the volume unlock prompt, try mounting one of the affected drives in Finder and make sure “Remember this password in my keychain” is checked, then reboot and see if Disk Utility still asks. If it keeps forgetting, I’d look at Keychain Access next (login keychain not auto-unlocking / keychain issues) because that’s what stores those unlock credentials.

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Answer 2

rosindabow Author

Level 2

187 points

Feb 8, 2026 9:05 AM in response to rosindabow

Just a heads up. I spent the last week copying 10 NVMe drives to 10 external hard drives. I then erased and reformatted the NVMe drives. Then copied the information back onto those drives. It worked!

The difference from before was that previously, I was cloning the drive, so whatever small piece of code that had corrupted the drive, came along to the clone. Just copying the information and NOT cloning seems to eliminate the corrupt code.

These drives were formatted the same way they had been before, as AFPS with no encryption. The big issue is now each library has to be rediscovered by their respective application. Just gonna take some more time.

So - I still do not understand what small piece of code was deposited by macOS 15.7.3 And this all began when I was trying to back up a DVD ...

I'll post back when I get everything up and working.

Thanks one and all for the feedback.

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Answer 3

rosindabow Author

Level 2

187 points

Mar 22, 2026 9:40 PM in response to Tom Loredo

I was able to figure this out. Apple was of no help. What I had to do was to erase and reformat the drives. I copied everything off and then started fresh. I updated to macOS 15.7.4 . Once I did that, I brought the files back in making sure that none of the extraneous bits and pieces came with them and everything has been working perfectly. I am using Carbon Copy Cloner to back up.

That was about a month ago. It took many, many hours, days, weeks, to do all of this.

Apple will be of no help.

Good luck.

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Answer 4

rosindabow Author

Level 2

187 points

Jan 19, 2026 2:15 AM in response to Blaskowitz

Blaskowitz wrote:

If Disk Utility is prompting for a password per drive just to view them, that usually means those volumes are encrypted (APFS-encrypted / “locked”) and Disk Utility is trying to unlock them during its scan. That also explains why “it follows the drive” and why cloning keeps the behavior — the encryption/container metadata comes along with the copy, it’s not “corrupted code” in the data.

First thing I’d confirm is what kind of password prompt it is: does it say “Unlock ‘<volume name>’” (volume passphrase), or is it asking for your Mac admin password? If it’s the volume unlock prompt, try mounting one of the affected drives in Finder and make sure “Remember this password in my keychain” is checked, then reboot and see if Disk Utility still asks. If it keeps forgetting, I’d look at Keychain Access next (login keychain not auto-unlocking / keychain issues) because that’s what stores those unlock credentials.

First, thank you very much for posting. Yes, the Disk Utility IS trying to view the volumes. These volumes are APFS but were most definitely not encrypted and have been running perfectly for over 2 years. And I am glad to hear that you think that these drives are not corrupt.

It is looking for the Mac Admin password, nothing else.

Not sure what you mean with "mounting one of the affected drives in Finder"?

And I do not know how to work with keychain. Is there a simple set of instructions I can look at to help teach me how to do what you are suggesting?

Everything you said sounds very plausible. I had the sense that the computer had stored some odd little bit of code which I needed to clear out. And to reiterate, I formatted all these drives and I set them up as APFS with no encryption.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

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Answer 5

Jan 20, 2026 8:22 PM in response to MrHoffman

MrHoffman wrote:

With Intel Macs, can be a firmware password: Set a firmware password on your Mac - Apple Support

Also: Encrypt and protect a storage device with a password in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

As a test of this, follow the instructions to turn off the firmware password or storage password, and test again.

FYI, I have seen Disk Utility prompt for an admin user password with the most recent update patch by just launching Disk Utility with another drive attached. I do believe the drive I had connected did contain a Filevaulted APFS Data volume (it had a bootable Intel macOS on it) along with a volume I created with an encrypted APFS file system. I only just saw this behavior in 2026, but we had held back the 14.8.3 & 15.7.3 updates until just before the Dec. holidays so it would be the first time I experienced those particular update patches.

It is definitely new behavior with Disk Utility and macOS 14.8.3 & 15.7.3 at least when external drives are connected which contain encrypted volumes. In addition to a pop-up for a macOS admin password, you are still presented with a pop-up asking to unlock the encrypted volumes (the latter prompts occur one at a time as you unlock/cancel each one).

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Answer 6

rosindabow Author

Level 2

187 points

Mar 23, 2026 6:40 PM in response to rosindabow

Hi all, I just wanted to update where I am on this. I spent a ton of hours and weeks on this. Many phone calls with senior Apple advisors (who were of no help) and lots of trial and error. I'm going to give a shout out to a company called Carbon Copy Cloner and the owner. I contacted him and he coached me through the EXACT steps to solve this problem. The issue was introduced by Apple (though they would never admit it) in 15.7.3. It supposedly has been solved in 26.4. But I wanted to (and still) remain working with 15.7.4. Mike coached me through using Terminal to remove a "hidden "Preboot" volume on each disk" which I had to delete. He sent me the precise steps to remove each one of those errant hidden Preboot volumes which I had to do on each of my 18 drives in Terminal ... And it worked! I will not post it here as I do not want to be in anyway responsible for someone using Terminal and messing up their own system.

The key to the solution is getting rid of that hidden Preboot volume on each disk. My limited understanding is that volume was added by the macOS Installer, or when I created a bootable copy of the system onto a backup disk. Not sure why Apple did that and why they wouldn't admit to having done it ... but there you have it.

My 100+hours of trouble-shooting is behind me now. System is stable with no issues at all.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help me figure this out.

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Answer 7

rosindabow Author

Level 2

187 points

Jan 19, 2026 1:29 PM in response to Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson wrote:

Activate "root" User then Log in as "Other". Sign in as "root" with your password then try to access your HDs.

Here is video for root User Setup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OcNpLicSLY

Hi, not sure why you are suggesting signing into my root user account. I can access all my drives, they are all working perfectly. It is just viewing them inside Disk Utility. Every time I open Disk Utility, a request for my Mac Admin Password comes up and depending on how many drives are connected to my system, that's how many times it asks for the same password. Would working as a root user be any different?

Thanks.

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Answer 8

MrHoffman

Level 10

151,543 points

Jan 20, 2026 3:10 PM in response to rosindabow

With Intel Macs, can be a firmware password: Set a firmware password on your Mac - Apple Support

Also: Encrypt and protect a storage device with a password in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

As a test of this, follow the instructions to turn off the firmware password or storage password, and test again.

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Answer 9

Mar 22, 2026 9:08 PM in response to rosindabow

I have this problem, too, and there are so many reports here, confirming it has nothing to do with encryption, and affects setups that have worked fine for years (as is the case for me), that it seems to indicate a bug. I suggest everyone experiencing this provide feedback to Apple explaining that this appears to be a widely-experienced bug, and pointing to this thread. Note that Apple does not regularly monitor this forum. You can provide feedback (including bug reports) via Apple's macOS feedback page:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

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Answer 10

Mar 22, 2026 9:56 PM in response to Garry Brooke

UPDATE: This behaviour seems to have stopped. I'm now on macOS 26.3.1(a). Perhaps Apple in their infinite wisdom fixed the bug in one of the releases this year.

I really wish Apple would publish a list of bug fixes with their releases. Many software houses publish bug fix lists which help their customers a great deal. It's a matter of helping customers use their products and a matter of honesty. Apple do publish release notes that are important for developers, although those lists are quite pithy. I wish they would do the same for non-dev customers.

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Answer 11

Jan 29, 2026 10:08 AM in response to rosindabow

I finally had a chance to test things out. It seems the only time I am prompted by Disk Utility for a password just for launching Disk Utility is when one of the volumes on the external drive contains a full macOS installation. That is the only common factor that I can find. It doesn't matter if the volume is encrypted or not encrypted. Even a USB installer is not enough to cause Disk Utility to prompt for a password when launched.

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Answer 12

Jan 19, 2026 12:29 PM in response to rosindabow

Activate "root" User then Log in as "Other". Sign in as "root" with your password then try to access your HDs.

Here is video for root User Setup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OcNpLicSLY

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Answer 13

Jan 26, 2026 8:12 PM in response to rosindabow

Just to add to existing insights. I have three external drives attached to my Mac. All are formatted APFS and are USB 3 capable but are connected thru USB "A" to my Mac. One has two containers of which one (used for Time Machine) is password protected. The other two drives are not protected.

Disk Utility only seeks admin credentials when the unprotected drives are mounted. It never seeks credentials for the drive which has an encrypted container.

I have tested this by starting Disk Utility with the two drives mounted/unmounted.

Thus, those comments about this issue being related to encrypted drives are incorrect. I think it's a bug.

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Answer 14

Feb 8, 2026 8:13 AM in response to rosindabow

I have been experiencing the same behavior from Disk Utility lately under both Sequoia and Tahoe.

Disk Utility has been prompting me for my admin password when I have certain disks mounted. I'm not sure just when this behavior started.

I've discovered that ** only prompts for the password when I have another bootable APFS volume connected, and it prompts even if that volume is not encrypted. My volumes are not specifically encrypted.

I find that ** will prompt for a password if a bootable APFS volume is connected, whether it is mounted or not.

** does not prompt when I have an HFS+ formatted bootable volume connected.

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Answer 15

Jan 20, 2026 1:31 PM in response to Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson wrote:

Activate "root" User then Log in as "Other". Sign in as "root" with your password then try to access your HDs.

Here is video for root User Setup -

That is a terrible idea. There is absolutely no reason to activate the root account & login. There are a huge number of dangers to this. IIRC, Apple even removed the official documentation for doing this a long time ago. And it is not going to help the OP, but may create a bunch of new problems....even security risks & permissions corruption.

Even back in the day, there really was not much reason to do that anyway. I'm not aware of any legitimate reason to do this at all today.

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Disk Utility keeps asking for a password every time I go to open it. And it asks for a password for every drive attached to the system.

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