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TKDigiCom Author

Level 1

9 points

USB 3 on MacBook Pro-R Does Not Work!

Hi All,

In 1 sentence:

I have a brand new MBP-R and I have found that external USB 3 drives do not work!

Details:

I have the base MBP-R, all updates installed.

I've bought and tried, 2 '11-'12 Seagate GoFlex Desk 3TB, 1 Mid '12 Seagate GoFlex Desk 3TB (white box), and 1 Western Digital My Book 3TB.

After formatting any of the Seagate's to Mac OS then ejecting the HD, none of them will re-mount.

After formatting the WD to Mac OS it will only operate at USB 2 speeds. I did not test the speed before formatting to Mac OS.

I've bought each of the HD's at Best Buy, and I have spent an hour with the Geek Squad working on the issue with no success.

I have spent over 3 hours with Genius’s at 2 different Apple stores with no success. No one at apple supposedly had heard of this problem. We did test a Seagate drive on 2 other MBP that the Apple store had on display and the drive would not mount to either MBP-R.

When I say the drives would not mount I mean that they do not show up in Finder or in Disc Utility.

Sometimes (not all the time) the drive is visible in the System Report.

One genius said the problem may be fixed in Mountain Lion… but it may not.

Basically I’ve spent thousands of $’s on a defective product with advertised features that that do not work. I am very disappointed in Apple.

BTW all the drives worked on my Windows PC!

Tim

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 6, 2012 2:54 PM

33 replies

Dec 18, 2012 9:41 PM in response to JLMO

I had similar problems trying to mount, access and format drives over USB3 on my rMBP. I had thought the drives were dead. After reading this forum and trying a different cable (eSata to USB3) to the same port, the drives worked fine. Strangely the same "faulty" cable works on my old MBP.

Dec 31, 2012 1:58 PM in response to TKDigiCom

I am having the same problem with multiple usb 3.0 drives not transferring at the superspeed rate. I was about to return the drive today, but noticed other people are having the same problem. After plugging and replugging the drive in, swapping the cables and rebooting, it is now registering as Superspeed 3.0. There is no rhyme or reason as to why it is now working, but someone suggested that if the first device you plug into your MBP after rebooting is a USB 2.0 device, then both ports will only register as USB 2.0. I believe this may be true.

Mar 7, 2013 10:42 AM in response to TKDigiCom

HI Guys,

I have checked with WD support team and said that the Passport essential does not support Mountain lion or 10.8.2 and later.

I have my imp info in my WD 1TB Passport USB 3.0.

Any tips and tricks, please let me know.

Thanks.

USB 3 on MacBook Pro-R Does Not Work!