Mac Mini becomes unreachable and LaCie media drive disappears from Mac Studio

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Level 1

7 points

Mac Mini becomes unreachable and LaCie media drive disappears from Mac Studio

I have a Mac Mini M6 that acts as my "server" for music and videos, etc. There are two LaCie hard drives attached to it. One is a Time Machine backup and the other holds all the media. My main computer is a Mac Studio M1. Both computers are running the latest version of MacOS. I use Screen Sharing from the Mac Studio to manage the Mini. When I boot the Mac Studio the LaCie media drive is set to appear on the Mac Studio Desktop. Both devices are attached via WiFi to the same router and have fixed IP addresses. The router is an Orbi RBR850.

From time to time the media drive disappears from the Studio desktop and Screen Sharing cannot connect to the Mini. Plex and the Mac Music app cannot find the media. I can ping the Mini and it shows up in my router's list of attached devices. It shows in the device list in a Studio Finder window. It also shows up in iNet Network Scanner. It is just not reachable.

The only solution I have found to reach the Mini again via Screen Sharing and remount the media drive on the Studio Desktop is to physically shutdown the Mini. That also restarts the process and the disappearance shows up again. Sometimes it happens within an hour, other times it works successfully for a day or two.

For obvious reasons I don't want to have to hard boot the Mini every time this happens. Any help would be appreciated.

Posted on Oct 3, 2026 6:06 AM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 10

98,246 points

Oct 3, 2026 7:48 AM in response to mshot

At this point, it is impossible to tell if this is a Settings, Network or combination of those causing the disruption.

To maintain the Screen Sharing connection, both Mac's must be setup so that they do not Log Out, go into Sleep Mode and/or lose the Network connection. Share the screen of another Mac - Apple Support

The first thing I would check, is the Energy and Lock Screen Settings on the Mac mini to make sure that it is not logging off or nodding off in sleep mode and dropping out of Screen Sharing. Set sleep and wake settings for your Mac - Apple Support

The second thing that I would check, is for Wi-Fi interference caused by USB cables and devices that are plugged into either of those Mac's with under carriage antenna. Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference - Apple Support

If possible instead of using Wi-Fi, I would setup and test an Ethernet Network using Cat 6e cables and a switch between those two Mac's and/or thru your existing router.

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Answer 2

mshot Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 7, 2026 3:56 PM in response to mshot

I tried your suggestions and everything else I could think of. In each case the same problem showed up. For a varying amount of time I could screen share to the mini, it returned pings, etc. Then it was still running but could not be reached and returned no pings.

I went back again to my router where it showed as connected. This time I noticed that it was shown as connected at 5GHz+6GHz. That was odd because, normally, only the satellite router connects that way.

I changed the connection to an SSID that only has 2.4GHz. It worked perfectly and remained reachable. Monday I changed that connection to an SSID that was locked at 5GHz. It has been running and connected since. I am not sure why that worked or how or even why it was connecting at 5GHz+6GHz previously. But it is working fine now from it's original location and setup.

Thanks again for all your help.

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 10

98,246 points

Oct 3, 2026 5:51 PM in response to mshot

mshot wrote:

Thanks for the quick answer and information. Here is what I find when checking the articles and my settings on the Mini:

Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off On

Put hard disks to sleep when possible Off

Wake For Network access On

Start uo when power is connected After Power failure

Turn display off when inactive Never

Require password after screen save/or display is off Never

Start Screen saver Never

Those look OK.

In addition:

Shielded USB3 cables attach the disk drives to the Mini

The nearest wireless phone is 3 feet away

Nearest devices are attached to 5+GHz WiFi

Make sure that the USB cables and drives are not in-between the Mac mini and router.

Remove or move that wireless phone base some place else and test.

Make sure that none of those a in-between the router and mini.

I cannot connect to the router via Ethernet. It is in the next room to accommodate the fiber connection.

The Mini answers pings, but not Traceroutes.

The shared disk icon from the Mini disappears

Screen Sharing cannot find the Mini

The mini is run headless. No Screen or HDMI emulator is attached to it.

Connect an external HDMI Display or TV to the Mac mini and test.

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Answer 4

mshot Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 3, 2026 2:21 PM in response to den.thed

Thanks for the quick answer and information. Here is what I find when checking the articles and my settings on the Mini:

Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off On

Put hard disks to sleep when possible Off

Wake For Network access On

Start uo when power is connected After Power failure

Turn display off when inactive Never

Require password after screen save/or display is off Never

Start Screen saver Never

In addition:

Shielded USB3 cables attach the disk drives to the Mini

The nearest wireless phone is 3 feet away

Nearest devices are attached to 5+GHz WiFi

I cannot connect to the router via Ethernet. It is in the next room to accommodate the fiber connection.

The Mini answers pings, but not Traceroutes.

The shared disk icon from the Mini disappears

Screen Sharing cannot find the Mini

The mini is run headless. No Screen or HDMI emulator is attached to it.

Does that help?

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Answer 5

den.thed

Level 10

98,246 points

Oct 7, 2026 4:29 PM in response to mshot

Good work, now you know what to do if it happens again.

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Answer 6

mshot Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 8, 2026 7:21 AM in response to den.thed

Thanks!

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