Cable (?) incompatibility for NVMe drive

[cinq2]

Hello guys

I have an NVMe WD_Black SN750 in a Plugable enclosure supplied with 2 cables (USB 3 -USB C & USB C -USB C)
It works fine with my MacBook Pro (late 2013) but when I plug it to MBA M1 it just not working. Not even visible in Disk Utility.

When I plug it by using the iPad cable (USB C to USB C) it does work albeit at quite slow speed.

Any guesses why is that and how can I solve it?

Thanks in advance

 

[KPOM]

Cable compatibility has always been an issue with Thunderbolt and USB-C. Try a 0.5 meter Thunderbolt 3 cable, which should support full USB-C 3.2 capacity.

 

[cinq2]

Nope.
It can write (>800 Mb/s), but cannot read in Blackmagic.
In real world it's so slow that I had to abort the data transfer (of just 20Gb).

 

[Fomalhaut]

Nope.
It can write (>800 Mb/s), but cannot read in Blackmagic.
In real world it's so slow that I had to abort the data transfer (of just 20Gb).

Interesting! I have a 500GB Crucial SSD in a USB-3 enclosure that only writes and can not read in Blackmagic Disc speed test. It seems to read/write via the Finder, but has been a bit flaky, reporting errors in Disk Utility.

I attempted to use it as a boot disc to an old 21.5" iMac with an HDD, and had no end of trouble...it sort of worked, but not consistently. Replaced it with a naked 2.5" Samsung SSD with a SATA3-USB-3 cable and had no issues.

 

[cinq2]

Yes but the point is that I spent many $ for this 2T NVMe I don't want to buy another one.
Vendor from Shenzhen tells me that with the enclosure I got I should use USB-C 3.2 cable or change the enclosure.

 

[kylejc86]

I had issues with a 2tb Sabrent Rocket NVME drive using the Sabrent enclosure when plugging it in using the supplied USB C to USB C cable however it would work perfectly when the same drive and enclosure was plugged into a dock using a USB C to USB A cable. After researching this it seems that some Macs have issues with the JMicron controller used in these enclosures specifically the JMS583 which is used in your brand of NVME enclosure. I moved to the ROG Strix Arion NVME enclosure and it works perfectly now with the same 2TB drive. I also tried the Ugreen NVME enclosure and that worked perfectly although that would thermally throttle the drive after some light use so I stuck with the ROG Strix Arion as it had the best speeds and sustained performance.

 

[Heatboy]

This is very interesting, as I have had a similar problem, and wondering if it will carry over to my newly ordered M1. I have never seen this problem before.

I bought two OWC Envoy express TB3 enclosures and put an Intel P660 Ssd inside one of them. All fine on Big Sur 2018 MBP. Then I bought and A-Data XPG 8200 Pro 2TB ssd, and out it in the other. Mounted fine – but when testing in Blackmagig, it crashed, and after that, I could not for the life of me get it to mount. Tried to swap enclosures with the Intel...No-go. The Intel mounted fine and worked 100% in the enclosure the A-datas didn't work in.

Then put the A-data inside my Plugable USB-C enclosure. No problem at all. Blackmagic worked fine and a full 1.2 TB clone worked just as it should.

I have no idea what causes the problem, as it seems neither the enclosure nor the A-data is faulty, but the combination of some of them are.

I also find it hard to find information on which external SSD's are the fastest on the new M1's. I need more than 1,000 Mb/sec, and it will be interesting to see if the Envoy express/A-data combo will work on my MBA M1.

 

[cinq2]

I had issues with a 2tb Sabrent Rocket NVME drive using the Sabrent enclosure when plugging it in using the supplied USB C to USB C cable however it would work perfectly when the same drive and enclosure was plugged into a dock using a USB C to USB A cable. After researching this it seems that some Macs have issues with the JMicron controller used in these enclosures specifically the JMS583 which is used in your brand of NVME enclosure. I moved to the ROG Strix Arion NVME enclosure and it works perfectly now with the same 2TB drive. I also tried the Ugreen NVME enclosure and that worked perfectly although that would thermally throttle the drive after some light use so I stuck with the ROG Strix Arion as it had the best speeds and sustained performance.

Just to clarify.. Are we talking M1 here?

On other note, I went at an electronics plaza, tested some combination of encloses & cables nothing seemed to work..

 

[cinq2]

If anyone has a NVMe enclosure that works with M1, no matter 10 MB/s or 40 Mb/s please let me know the brand and I'll order it.

I moved to the ROG Strix Arion NVME enclosure and it works perfectly now with the same 2TB drive.

I tried this enclosure today, the enclosure is looking great but does not work with my MBA M1.