External harddrive won't shut down in Mavericks

I switched from FW800 to USB and it does appear to spin down now. Not the ideal solution, but for the moment is better than having to Eject the drive, shutdown Dropbox, etc. every time I put the iMac to sleep.

*Read* This is still a problem.

I spoke with Apple Tech Support this morning, this issue has been acknowledged and will hopefully be rectified in the next update.

I'm glad it was acknowledged by apple.

Any indication on when the next update could be available? Excelelnt that we will have a fix shortly. 🙂

I have also confirmed this problem. My OWC Mercury Elite Pro no longer spins down when using the FW800 connection but it does spin down when using the USB connection. I have an older MacBook Pro which only has USB 2.0, so I want to us the FW800 connection. This is clearly a serious defect in Mavericks.

Rumboogy22

My OWC Mercury Elite Pro no longer spins down ......This is clearly a serious defect in Mavericks.

No, its a minor inconvenience, disconnect after use so they arent running perpetually.

Techs will have a fix.

It's a serious defect. You always talk, rather pontificate, on the virtues of removing complexity from the backup/archive process...removing the "points" of failure as you like to put it. Telling someone to disconnect a drive after use (pull a cable) is added complexity of the worst kind...asking someone to intervene in what should be an automated process.

Try and be consistent in your opinions.

This thread lists a serious occurance:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5475136?tstart=0

However you feel to class the 'danger level' of failure to spin-down on FW and thunderbolt drives, necessary suggestions would be:

1. find temporary work around until fix is in place

2. make recommendation for optimal use of external HD.

3. give any and all assistance to aid in data protection.

To wit your statement: --"Telling someone to disconnect a drive after use (pull a cable) is added complexity"

Disconnecting is "best current option" in light of data protection. Complex, no not really, Bothersome? Maybe.

In the case of portable notebook computers disconnecting after data backups or data transfers to an external device is SOP (standard operating procedure), and not 'complex'.

Most thunderbolt and FW drives have additionally USB connection ports on the back (most that is), in which case, as some have listed above [(HerrDirector I switched from FW800 to USB and it does appear to spin down now.)], ....merely attaching same via USB until a fix is place is simplex.

Nothing is perfect in life, as Mavericks has a couple kinks to be worked out, this is no different than any other OS by any company that has been released. Failsafe data redundancy is the only protection that exists regardless.

Peace 😍

Good post Plotinus. I would like to add a few generalities for all to read (from the past):

all parts of a computer, also the externals, are scanned every few milliseconds, a good example is the keyboard: it must be scanned to see if there is input from it.

The scanning is different for FW ports and USB ports and all other ports.

How an external (drive or other) reacts is dependent on its controller: if the controller gets a scan in, it may well be that it at the same the disk is not allowed to spin down or is started at the same time (for speed purposes).

Normally when the "helpful" softwares, that come with a lot of brands, are are running continiously in the background and interferes with the OS; so must not be installed.

Lex

Colin Jackson wrote:

"I spoke with Apple Tech Support this morning, this issue has been acknowledged and will hopefully be rectified in the next update."

See my post at:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5479044?start=30&tstart=0

I am having the same issue with my Seagate 1.5 TB drive on USB. It won't sleep no matter what I try. This drive workedjust fine with 10.5 - 10.8 ... I have sent feedback to Apple support. We'll see...

Exactly the same problem. 3 Western Digital FW800 drives won't spin down without complete shutdown. This is definitelty a Mavericks problem. Hope to see a solution soon. 2.53GHz Mac Mini.

Gotta say, kinda of getting used to manually shuttin' down the external.

A little twist to the ritual.

swizzy new york

Exactly the same problem. 3 Western Digital FW800 drives won't spin down without complete shutdown. This is definitelty a Mavericks problem.

Actually its a BINARY issue (Mavericks and WD control software)

WD is happy to announce the release of the WD Drive Manager for Mac Version 3.1.0.

Note: the WD Drive Manager is also available for other Mac drive products.

My Passport Studio

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USB2 Mac mini with TB

I have a Thunderbolt drive and a FW800 drive externally and an SSD internal boot and an additional internal Seagate spinner.

My experience is that unmounting/ejecting several at once will not spin down the drives but they will spin down after the drives onboard inactivity spin down time is reached.If I unmount in the correct order most of them will spin down. Also mounting ANY drive will spin up ALL drives but not mount them. Only the one I chose to mount actually gets mounted. When unmounting the drives I must unmount the Thunderbolt drive last otherwise unmounting any other drive will spin up the thunderbolt drive but again not mount it. The FW800 drive will not spin down at all until it's onboard timer spins it down. Nothing I do will make it spin down any sooner other than writing a script to spin it down which I have not yet tried. (tomorrow.. I'm tired)

Also Temperature Monitor and other temp sensing apps will keep your drives spinning even when unmounted. For some reason Temperature Monitor comes default to poll hard drives for temp every three minutes effectively disabling any spindown timer or sleep function you may be trying to run