Lacie disk on FW not sleeping after installing Mavericks

Hi Michael,

The issue is not switching from SMB2 to SMB, but from SMB2 to AFP (apple file protocol).

The commands Cornel posted have nothing to do with switching the default SMB2 protocol in Mavericks for external drives. They simply change the default network protocol from SMB2 to SMB1 (this changes protocol for network volumes, not mounted disks). Plus, this is not something you would ever want to do for network shares, as SMB1 is both slower and can cause instability in NAS.

AE has stated that this setting cannot be changed in Mavericks. The new default file protocol is SMB2, a change from all previous OSX versions that used AFP. The only way to change is to roll back to Lion, or buy a new Thunderbolt drive.

Note that the Mac Mini is the only apple computer left with a firewire port. It is rumored the new Haswell Mini will be released this month sans firewire. It seems Apple is completely phasing out firewire in lieu of t-bolt. Plus, the new Mac Pros have had no issues with external t-bolt or usb3 drives.

Hi Lcrooks,

Thank you for the quick response and clarification, yes I was having trouble trying to bridge the gap between network volumes and directly connected mounted drives and how that command would have any effect. I understand now, and I will back out the nsmb.conf change.

So, on your Server version of 10.9, when you change the protocol for mounting external drives from SMB2 to AFP, the issue is resolved, correct? if so, one 'workaround' at least for me, would be to install Server, which is now a stand alone install, costing $19. Does that sound reasonable? Or does that change in default protocol change it for ALL connections, not just external mounts but network shares as well? In other words, would I no longer be able to connect to Windows shares on my local network using 'smb://machineIPaddress/share_name' if I make that change?

I realize installing Server might bring a whole other set of issues, but I would try to basically turn off or not use any other Server functions. In my situation I have an older Mac, with only USB2, and FW 800. My next Mac will have USB3 and TB, so I only need a temporary solution. Until then, there is major drop off in performance going back to USB2 from FW800, so if $19 for Server solves it, maybe that is a way to go. I realize there will be slight drop off from switching from SMB2 back to AFP, but that is more than compensated I think by being able to stick with FW800 versus USB2 for the transfer speed.

Michael

Hi Michael,

Installing Server app will not solve your problem. Server app allows you to change the way any drive mounts as a network volume (ie from SMB2 to AFP). Therefore, any computers on your server will mount the drive as AFP (not SMB2).

However, it does not change the way the computer with Server app interacts with the physically attached drive (ie the server computer will still mount your external disk with SMB2 file protocol).

Many of you want the attached disk to enter standby mode while the computer is on. Server app will not fix this issue. Running a server, I do not want my drives to enter standby mode while the computer is on (as this would slow access to files for any of my clients). I only wanted the drive to spin down when the computer slept and I was able to accomplish this by scheduling nightly shut downs when my server is not in use.

Because of the nature of the problem and apple's clear desire to completely phase out firewire, I am skeptical there will be any forthcoming fix for this issue. It may save you some sleepless nights just switching to USB or upgrading your drive to t-bolt.

Seems like this FW / T-Bolt external drives not spinning down has been going on for a loooong time now.

Must be a really complicated issue to fix, I mean they even came out with 10.9.1 and the problem is still here.

Maybe we will just have to catch the next wave to get it fixed(11.0).

Error Found:

I ran Console (Applications > Utilities > Console) then ejected the external drive and got the following error line in Console.

AppleFileServer: GetAttrListStandardVolumeInfo: geattslist failed with errno: 2!

Then every 10 seconds after that I would get this one:

AppleFileServer: _Assert: /SourceCache/afpserver/afpserver-643/afpserver/FPCarbonVol.cpp, 71 (-35)

Not sure what any of that means, but maybe somebody here has a clue and could share.

Either complicated to fix or Apple does not care at this time.

Folks,

10.9.2 appears to have fixed this..FW devices are sleeping now at their pre-determined times as in 10.8, and are waking without issues when system wakes up, at least on my system. I would like to know what others are experiencing though to make sure it's not just a fluke or something I did different this time. I applied the 10.9.2 combo update over 10.9.1 just for the record (as opposed to fresh install of 10.9.2)

My Lacie disks are now also sleeping normally since I installed 10.9.2 earlier today.

So your FW drives are sleeping while mounted?

@ssls6

Yes. These are WD Green drives mounted in Newer Tech Voyager Q docks, purchased from OWC. FW800. WD Green drives are eco drives designed to spin down after a period of inactivity, this is programmed in the hard drive ROM and independent of any Energy setting in OS X. Under Mountain Lion, they would spin down if not accessed for a period of time, even if the Energy setting in OS X was set to not put Hard drives to sleep.

Under 10.9.0 and 10.9.1 they never spun down, with 10.9.2, they are doing so again.

I am disappointed to report that 10.9.2 has not fixed the problem for me with my drives in OWC's Mercury Elite AL Pro enclosures connected via Firewire 800. (This is with a recent-model Mac mini.)

I was not so fortunate. My MacAlly FW800 drives will sleep when unmounted but if they spin up again they won't sleep until they are mounted and unmounted again. They never sleep if mounted. At least progress is being made.

My FW drive goes to sleep when the computer sleeps. This is somewhat different behavior prior to 10.9 when the drive would sleep after a set period. So perhaps I was premature with the description "normally".

When you wake your computer, they should spin up but if they stay spun up then it's not fixed. The drive inactivity sleep time is by default 10 mins.

OK, so the fixed the problem for some of us with external drives not sleeping when they are suppose to by creating a new problem with external displays going to sleep when they are not suppose to. If this was in a 3 Stooges comedy it might be funny but it's OSX.

Guess we need to start a new thread on external displays not staying awake. Hopefully that won't take as long to fix as this did.

Not sure if the Thunderbolt external drives are fix maybe somebody can chime in on that.