Yosemite ejects external drives

I'm having the same problem with my lace rugged 2TB drive and I'm about to send it in because the thunderbolt cable is so sensitive to any touch. I've tried it on multiple mbpr 15" 2015 models... So annoying especially as I am running Lightroom off of it and it crashes every time! Has yours been giving you problems since the start? Mine was manufacture refurbished from mac mall, not sure it that was the problem

Thank you all very much for your suggestions and help.

- I tried the Spotlight trick via System Preferences with no luck

- I did not try the terminal command, because I am not enough familiar with it

- I did the Disk Utility repair, but nothing wrong was found on the disk

- my thunderbolt cable does not cause any problem when touching it, however it is not the best manufactured cable I have ever seen and used; I might buy a stronger one (any suggestion on a good quality thunderbolt cable?)

It seams that I have a trick to avoid the disk eject, which is just by turing off Wi-Fi (and with it the Time Machine Backup on a Time Capsule). I have a strong feeling that the Time Machine Backup is causing the problem because when the Wi-Fi is turned off I can copy large files (about 500GB) without error.

After perform a Clean Install of OS X El Capitan this problem disappear.

The clean install seams to be always the magic solution, but it is long and painful.

I have / had 2 basic problems on my rig (Mac Mini --> TB Display --> WD My Tunderboly Duo 8TB).

1) TB Display flicker, workaround - cycle thunderbolt cable connection at mac

2) Constant TB drive disconnect - replace with LaCie firewire 800 drive and cable

I'm dubious of Apple publishing a permanent fix to either, hopefully I'm wrong.

Hello,

I am new to his forum and I want to add something probably valuable for some of you: I used to have such problems (random ejection of an external drive) in the past. With YOSEMITE clean installed AND MBP 2011 (THUNDERBOLT 1 OF COURSE) the problems are gone at least with my 2 Lacies external drives (3TB thunderbolt-1) and 2Big Thunderbolt-2 6TB, working of course both at Thunderbolt-1 backwards. No random ejections and also no disconnections after the system goes to hibernation. I wake up the MBP and no problem. The drives reconnect smoothly and fast. HOWEVER, THE PROBLEM IS WITH MY MAC-PRO 2014 AND EL CAPITAN AND ITS THUNDERBOLT-2 ports, and my THUNDERBOLT-2 2Big Lacie drive. Even with a brand clean installation. I did not try the MAC-PRO with Yosemite (no more time waste on my side), but probably it would also fail. I even connected there Lacie TB2 drive to the Apple Display Thunderbolt-1 back connection and IT WORKS. SO the problem is with TB2 in the MAC PRO. I also connected a TB1 WD Passport drive to the end of the daisy chain of the Lacie TB2 drive, and the problem is STILL THERE. So, in a nutshell, the TB2 connection oft he MAC-PRO (and its protocol), makes the ejection of the drive after hibernation. I repeat, ONLY after hibernation. if the system never hibernates, the Lacie TB2 drive will NEVER disconnect and runs smoothly. So, TB2 disconnection after hibernation IS the problem. I hope these tests help Apple to come up with a fix quickly.

Recently I installed El Capitan. This was not a clean install. I went from all 3 external drives ejecting to now only the drive that I'm using for Time Machine is ejecting. The Time Machine drive is connected by USB3. The other 2 drives are connected by Thunderbolt-2.

I'm getting this continuously for both USB3 (Seagate Backup Plus - used for time machine) and a LaCie Rugged SSD va thunderbolt.

Every time my mac goes to sleep they are ejected. Highly problematic as running bootcamp particition through VMWare via one of these external drives.

Have changed power settings so disks not put to sleep, run disk utility etc. etc. all no joy. Replacing cables next but don't think it's that...

Will try Spotlight trick next, else clean install maybe?

My external drive is OWC 1TB - when connected with USB3 it will not go to sleep. When connected via a Thunderbolt/Firewire 800 adapter it does go to sleep. Does support the theory that the drive interface is the problem.

I Confirm interface is the problem. In my case USB3 connection is fully stable.

My own report :

It started happening on my 2014 MacBookPro after upgrading to El Capitan.

It happens only with the USB 3.0 connected Time Machine backup disk, and only when doing a subsequent backup - if I format the hard drive and do a first Time Machine backup, even right after the previously mentionned backup append failed, the disk will not eject.

No problem with any other disk, and had zero problem using that disk for backups under Yosemite.

My rig is stable and has been now for several weeks after months of torture.

I removed an 8Tb My Western Digital My Duo Thunderbolt from my setup and performed an SMC reset on Mac / Thunderbolt monitor.

I decided to re-arrange my workflow, replacing the WD Thunderbolt drive with a 5Tb LaCie to store legacy data only. The LaCie has a rocker switch on-board, although permanently connected to my Mac with firewire I only power it up when needed. Backups are performed by Carbon Copy Cloner on a scheduled weekly basis to a separate USB drive which I only connect for this purpose. I religiously eject each external connection manually and do not rely on a system power down.

My conclusion is that the newer drive interfaces have not been on the market long enough for all the bugs/issues to be ironed out with every platform. The 'Drive Not Ejected Properly' issues caused mayhem with my data and Thunderbolt monitor. The screen suffered bad flickering, a horror show for something costing so much. But this issue has also now disappeared without the WD Thunderbolt drive attached to it.

Apple/Intel have a lot to answer for here. They are clearly not admitting to these problems and instead seem content to push on with USB-C and Thunderbolt Mark 2. The lesson for me is to never embrace a new interface (Thunderbolt in my case) for my data so early in its lifecycle. Its very disappointing that so many users are having the same issues with the USB-3 on older Mac's. After all, we bought our machines in good faith.

It will be interesting to hear of anyone having these problems with a 2015 Mac shipped with El Capitan.

On El Capitan and still had the issue (not as bad) and it stopped once I didnt let my computer sleep. This is less than ideal for many but since I'm using my Mac Mini as a media server, it makes sense. I'm running my drives through USB. The mini is a 2012 model.

Sorry guys but it is totally unacceptable trying to bypass the bug with workarounds from an "end user perspective". I did NOT spend 5k with my macpro and apple display just to not use it the right way. I will ONLY accept a fix (temporary or final) from Apple. Of course that preventing the mac from going to sleep avoids the problem, but it is NOT acceptable. The system should wake up thuntherbolt-2 interface w/o ejecting the disc. I love apple bug this is not serious from them.

Mendocini wrote:

Sorry guys but it is totally unacceptable trying to bypass the bug with workarounds from an "end user perspective". I did NOT spend 5k with my macpro and apple display just to not use it the right way. I will ONLY accept a fix (temporary or final) from Apple. Of course that preventing the mac from going to sleep avoids the problem, but it is NOT acceptable. The system should wake up thuntherbolt-2 interface w/o ejecting the disc. I love apple bug this is not serious from them.

I agree. It is totally unacceptable and if I weren't running my machine as a media server I'd be infuriated. We've all invested good money in our machines and having this issue go on and on without even an acknowledgement from Apple is pretty bad. This has gone on for far too long.