External G-Drives not recognised after macOS Tahoe 26.3 update

conceit wrote:

All my old G-Raid drives were Firewire going via thunderbolt Adaptor to Mac Studio and were working fine under Sequoa but not Tahoe?

That explains it. Support for Firewire was dropped from Tahoe. It might be time to replace your Firewire hardware with more modern interfaces.

Note that Firewire was originally implemented in the 1980s, it was released by Apple in the mid-1990s (35 years ago). Firewire 800 came out around 2000 or so, offering 800 Mb/s. About ten years later, Apple replaced it with Thunderbolt. Even plain USB-3 is ~ 10x faster and modern Thunderbolt is maybe ~ 50x faster or more.

Although OWC used to offer a few Firewire products, those are mostly showing as sold out or discontinued and it seems the primary market for Firewire today is eBay.

conceit wrote:

I have updated to Tahoe 26.3 but find all my external G-Drives are not recognised.

That is unusual because others are using G-Drives with Tahoe 26.3 with no issues. Including me, I have an external SSD 2 TB G-Drive and have been using it for Time Machine backups since 2021. The fact that ALL of your external G-Drives are not recognized may point to a common configuration detail that is causing the problem. For instance, do you have the manufacturer drive management software installed? If it hasn't been updated for Tahoe, or even if it has, that could be a cause of your problem. When you run Disk Utility, do the drives show there? Do they show as connected to the bus when looking at a complete System Report? How are the drives formatted?

Are the drives directly connected to the Mac or do they go through a dock? If so, what is the brand/model/year of the dock? Some docks do not work well with the latest OS version.

Should I download all my info to a Time Machine drive and go back to Sequoa? Apple should warn users this may happen.

If you make a Time Machine backup now, you will encounter problems trying to restore to an earlier OS version. That is because some software and file formats have changed with Tahoe so restoring to an earlier OS from a Tahoe backup will result in incompatibilities. If you want to restore an earlier OS version, you would need to completely erase and format the computer's primary drive and set it up as if a new Mac from the factory, followed by a MIGRATION (not RESTORE) from a Time Machine backup made under that earlier system. Presumably you have been following good computing practices and do have such backups already made.

Another concern for reverting to an earlier OS version: when updating from Sequoia to Tahoe, you may have noticed the computer screen going black for a minute or so and restarting multiple times. Some of those restarts were due to firmware updates being implemented for Tahoe. Rolling back to Sequoia with Tahoe firmware installed can result in a non-working Mac. Whether this happens or not depends on specifics of your Mac. If it does happen, a firmware restore procedure is required using another compatible Mac, I would not undertake that step myself but would instead bring the Mac to an Authorized Apple Service Provider, because the consequences of doing it wrong could be serious.

I have a wide range of external drives (SSDs and HDDs from different manufacturers), they all work fine on macOS 26.3 as they have before.

Finder menu > Settings > General tab, tick the box to show External Disks. Change the same setting on the Sidebar tab, if you like.

If those boxes are already checked, then open Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility, select View menu > Show all devices. Does it show up there, and if so, can you mount it?

If you have a Mac laptop computer (not applicable to Mac desktops), accessories must be allowed to connect. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessories, try changing it to Automatically allow when unlocked or Always allow.

There were a few prior posts on this forum from users who couldn’t access their external drive due to the drive manufacturer’s software that they used to encrypt the drive. Lacie/Seagate, Samsung, SanDisk, etc., all provide 'drive management' software on their drives and using such 3rd party software can cause issues when macOS is updated and the 3rd party software becomes incompatible. Not sure if that's the issue here, but FYI the best practice with a new external drive (SSD/HDD, not applicable to NAS drives) is to use Disk Utility to complete erase it, format it as GUID/APFS and apply encryption if desired.

skipdiver wrote:

"Apple should warn users this may happen. "

Apple tends to alert developers, but those messages don't always get to the average user except by reading reviews of the newly released OS which will usually mention such huge changes. Never upgrade blindly. And take your time since there is usually no rush to go to the next major version of macOS. Do research on the new OS and all of the third party software & hardware as well to make sure they are still fully supported and working correctly from all of the early adopters.

If you have a delicate setup and cannot have any down time, then having a test environment to test out new macOS updates/upgrades is a good idea before applying them to your main system. Sometimes a good idea for application updates/upgrades as well.

I suppose I'll now have to cast around for an older iMac to access my drives so I can download the files on them, then presumably consign perfectly good working hardware to the trash.

Another option would be to create a bootable macOS 15.x Sequoia USB installer and install macOS onto an external USB3 SSD. Boot from the external Sequoia drive so you can recovery & transfer your files from those old FW drives. Once done with Sequoia, you can erase the new SSD and use it for something else (another data drive or backup drive).

Here is an Apple article with instructions for installing macOS to an external drive.....make sure to read the instructions very carefully....especially the second section which mentions which USB-C port to avoid while installing macOS:

How to use an external storage device as a Mac startup disk - Apple Support

• • If you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, plug your storage device into any compatible port except the DFU port. Learn how to identify the DFU port. After macOS installation is complete, you can connect your storage device to any compatible port, including the DFU port.

Edit: Forgot to include a link for creating a bootable macOS USB installer:

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Hi I've figured it out...

You can follow the instructions below & change the security settings.

https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/how-to-change-startup-disk-security-settings-on-an-apple-silicon-mac/

tonghello wrote:

Hi I've figured it out...

You can follow the instructions below & change the security settings.

You've found a workaround, not a solution. Like how riding a skateboard down the highway to work is a workaround for your car needing to be fixed...it's not a solution. The solution is to fix the car.

Personally, I would not choose to run my Macs under Reduced Security. Seagate has had plenty of time to update their software to not need kexts, but regardless there should be no need for Seagate's software whatsoever.

The best practice with a new external drive (SSD/HDD, not applicable to NAS drives) is to use Disk Utility to complete erase it, format it as GUID/APFS and apply encryption if desired. If you are relying on the manufacturer's preinstalled software, you're asking for trouble. If you're in that situation, find another place to copy the data off that drive, format it as above then copy the data back onto the drive. Else you risk your data needlessly being held hostage when the manufacturer fails to update their software.

There were a few prior posts on this forum from users who couldn’t access their external drive due to the drive manufacturer’s software that they used to encrypt the drive. Lacie/Seagate, Samsung, SanDisk, etc., all provide 'drive management' software on their drives and using such 3rd party software can cause issues when macOS is updated and the 3rd party software becomes incompatible. Not sure if that's the issue here, but FYI the best practice with a new external drive (SSD/HDD, not applicable to NAS drives) is to use Disk Utility to complete erase it, format it as GUID/APFS and apply encryption if desired.

neuroanatomist wrote:

tonghello wrote:

Hi I've figured it out...

You can follow the instructions below & change the security settings.

You've found a workaround, not a solution. Like how riding a skateboard down the highway to work is a workaround for your car needing to be fixed...it's not a solution. The solution is to fix the car.

Personally, I would not choose to run my Macs under Reduced Security. Seagate has had plenty of time to update their software to not need kexts, but regardless there should be no need for Seagate's software whatsoever.

The best practice with a new external drive (SSD/HDD, not applicable to NAS drives) is to use Disk Utility to complete erase it, format it as GUID/APFS and apply encryption if desired. If you are relying on the manufacturer's preinstalled software, you're asking for trouble. If you're in that situation, find another place to copy the data off that drive, format it as above then copy the data back onto the drive. Else you risk your data needlessly being held hostage when the manufacturer fails to update their software.

+1

I completely agree. If Seagate cannot be bothered to design their software to work properly & securely in macOS, then it should be avoided.

steve626 wrote:

• If the old enclosures also have USB connectors, use those, but if they are USB-2 they will be very slow (480 Mb/s).

👍

Depends on the enclosure(s) and when they were made.

Some of those Combo drives had a blue USB 3.0 connection.

skipdiver wrote:

"Apple should warn users this may happen. "

And then some. I suddenly discover that my oldest archive is inaccessible. So Firewire dates from the 1990s. I date from the 1950s, but I would hope nobody intends to discontinue me. Fair enough if Apple wanted to do that - but why did they do it in sneaky secrecy? I suppose I'll now have to cast around for an older iMac to access my drives so I can download the files on them, then presumably consign perfectly good working hardware to the trash.

Actually, Firewire dates from the 1980s. As do the original Mac floppy drives. But obsolete technologies do go away, often because companies like Apple or Microsoft cannot justify a business case for them. To maintain those interfaces requires maintaining and updating software and sometimes hardware, which raises costs for new Macs, which in turn users complain about here and elsewhere. So software and hardware companies try to find a balance while being responsive to shareholders who demand profitable products.

Examples of outmoded and seldom used interfaces largely no longer supported include: floppy drives, Firewire, Thunderbolt 1 and 2, monitor VGA and others.

HWTech had some great suggestions for how to get around the Firewire limitations.

OWC Macsales offers older Macs for sale (refurbished with a warranty) and I see today a 2019 iMac for under $300, it can run Mojave thru Sequoia, and hence can handle Firewire (with an adaptor). That's not much more than some external SSDs cost.

conceit wrote:

How do I get more modern interface for my old G- Drives Thanks

See neuro's and den.thed's responses, they answered faster than me. There are three options:

• Replace the enclosures with USB-C ones and transfer the drives from the old ones to the new ones.
• If the old enclosures also have USB connectors, use those, but if they are USB-2 they will be very slow (480 Mb/s). 480 Mb/s is equivalent to about 50 MB/s, but in real use one might see about half of that, or about 25 MB/s. USB-3 is typically 500 MB/s (5000 Mb/s) and Thunderbolt can reach ten times faster.
• Replace the external drives in their entirety. No doubt they are well past projected end of life so even though they are RAID, are probably not a reliable approach going forward. I would favor this third option.

conceit wrote:

How do I get more modern interface for my old G- Drives Thanks

I don't recall the G-RAID FW drives being standard enclosures, but if they are you can purchase a new (USB-C) enclosure and transfer the drives. Else, you will likely need to purchase a new HDD or SSD.

conceit wrote:

How do I get more modern interface for my old G- Drives Thanks

Not all, but many of those older enclosures had both FireWire and USB access ports on the back.

If your enclosure(s) are combo Firewire and USB, then you can use the USB cable that came with the enclosure and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

"Apple should warn users this may happen. "

And then some. I suddenly discover that my oldest archive is inaccessible. So Firewire dates from the 1990s. I date from the 1950s, but I would hope nobody intends to discontinue me. Fair enough if Apple wanted to do that - but why did they do it in sneaky secrecy? I suppose I'll now have to cast around for an older iMac to access my drives so I can download the files on them, then presumably consign perfectly good working hardware to the trash.

Mine is MacBook Air M1, and after upgrading to Tahoe, all my Seagate HDD external drives can’t be recognized. I can see the drive but they turn grey, and I am not allowed to mount them, nor First Aid do any help. Anyone encounters the same?