iMac (Sonoma) external DVD drive burn errors

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iMac (Sonoma) external DVD drive burn errors

I have a iMac desktop running on Sonoma ? Anyway I’ve had it a little over a year and at the time I bought it I purchased an external dvd drive so that I could make movies on iMovie and then burn them to a dvd. It all worked fine the last time I did this which has been several months ago but now I am getting ll different errors. The last time it made it to 98% complete and then stopped again with some error. Everything I look up says to plug your dvd directly to the iMac not a “hub” which I have because there is not a USB port on this computer. I have had errors that say:

“Burn failed because of medium write error”

I had a pop up on top of complaint external device and power??

Help please

iMac 24″, macOS 14.8

Posted on Jan 31, 2026 2:55 PM

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Answer 1

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D.I. Johnson

Level 7

34,031 points

Jan 31, 2026 4:26 PM in response to cnana0918

The power complaint is likely because you have more devices in that hub than the computer can provide power for, assuming that hub does not have its own ac power adapter. Some optical drive even come with a Y-cable to provide power from two USB ports simultaneously because they can be power hungry and finicky when they don't get what they need.

In fact, your iMac has either two or four Thunderbolt/USB ports on its back panel.

You will use those to connect your USB devices.

iMac - iMac Technical Specifications - Apple

If your USB device has the old, wide USB plug, then you can buy and use a simple USB-a to USB-C plug adapter or cable to make it conform to your iMac.

A quick search for USB-A to USB-C adapter or cable on Amazon will reveal very many.

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