External harddrive won't shut down in Mavericks

Same here. Have three external enclosures (inXtron SK-3500 Super-S3) all connected via FireWire 800 and all of them do not spin down the drives neither on Sleep nor Eject since upgrading to Mavericks. Tested with three different Macs (iMac 2008, MacBook Pro 2009, MacBook Pro 2011).

Used to work with Mountain Lion.

Funny thing is, when connecting the external drives via USB they DO spin down on Sleep or Eject.

Only workaround so far - full shutdown.

Hope to get some fix soon.

Same thing here. I have a late 2012 MBP with a Western Digital external connected via USB 2.0. Computer sleeps, but the external keeps a spinning.

I'm having the same issue. On iMac mid 2011 - OWC Mercury Elite Pro hard drive in use as Time Machine Backup connected via Firewire 800 will not spin down. I reset PRAM and SMC, repaired permissions and no luck. I also erased and formatted the OWC (mac os extended journaled) and deleted the Time Machine plist. Mavericks was a clean install. I have used this hard drive when Lion and Mountain Lion were installed on this Mac and there were no issues. I have another OWC Mercury Elite Pro hard drive connected via USB through a hub and it spins down with no problem.

*****FireWire and thunderbolt HD interfaces seem to be universally affected. I've seen no exemptions yet to same

Its happening on 80% WD Raid My Book on this board and others, and happening entirely on Firewire and Thunderbolt drives

Its seen on O Raid and 1 Raid both alike.

also occurring on LaCie (Seagate) FW drives.

until resolution , use external USB drives proven to work with Mavericks.

I am having the same problem with USB 3 drives. They won't spin down even after the computer goes to sleep.

*Do not let them run constantly, unmount them and unplug until a resolution is produced, ...otherwise overheating can occur.

😊

Shutting down is not the solution, it's the band-aid. Come on Apple, we anxious for a patch to fix this and several other nagging issues with Mavericks.

Same problem as OP. Running Mid 2007 iMac with external drive (Lacie) as boot (USB 2) for Mavericks.

Same here... inXtron SK-3500 Super-S connected via firewire 800 (used for Time Machine).

Hard disk can't spin down or sleep even if unmounted...hope a fix comes out soon!

I have been experiencing the same issue with 3 x 1TB External Drives Firewire drive connecting using thunderbolt. I physically shut them down once I have finished using them. It's a pain, but it has to be done. I hope a fix is in the works soon

Message was edited by: Colin Jackson

Same here. My 3 External Seagate 3 TB USB 3.0 Drives won't spin when I put my iMac to sleep (IMac 27" Late 2012, OS X 10.9 Mavericks). Samsung SSD 840 Pro in external USB 3.0 box won't go to sleep either.

Power Management worked fine in Mountain Lion.

I'm desperately waiting for a fix.

Same problem here. Also when I unmount the drives, one of my (two) external drives does not shut down. These are WD drives connected via Firewire and Firewire/Thunderbolt adapter to my iMac (late 2012). Just one of many issues with Mavericks unfortunately...

Yep..Same deal here.

Ejecting no longer puts my external LaCie to sleep.

Have to manually turn it off.

Odd behavior in general with my externals in Mavericks.

While perusing the drive's contents it will momentarily disappear, then flash back on.

As if it's constantly reloading the image.

Definitely some weird stuff crawling around in 10.9. Spooky.

i have a OWC Mercury Elite Pro thats hooked up to firewire and is now having the same probelem too ..have you tried switching it to usb.. like your other ones ?

now that i think about it my OWC Mercury Elite Pro was sleeping fine until i did do a back up on time machine and after that i too have been experiencing what everyone else here has...something tells me it has to do with time machine and firewire