Disk not ejected properly

[mattmower]

I've found a couple of notifications from macOS about my external HDD not being ejected properly.

It's cabled directly to the back of the Mac Studio and has its own power supply.

MacStudio 14,13 — macOS 13.5.2.

"Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is off.

I am making the assumption that when the machine goes to sleep it put external disks into a safe state first. Perhaps that is not a safe assumption?

For now I have installed Lungo and told it not to let the studio go to sleep at all.

Anyone know what's likely to be the problem here?

Thanks,

Matt

 

[MarkC426]

I have two external SSD drives connected which have never notified me of 'not ejected properly' either when Studio is restarted or put to sleep.....🤔
One is USB-C powered the other with power brick on TB3.
Both go into standby when Studio sleeps.

It might be a spinner specific bug.

 

[ColdCase]

It is well known that the current OS will disconnect extermal disks on a whim, especially USB disks, but not limited to USB. I have two identical LaCie enclosures, one will randomly drop, the other is solid. I have two SSDs that when installed in a TB4 enclosure, randomly drop, but are solid in a TB3 enclosure. I haven't seen a satisfactory explanation, but I'm guessing the OS doesn't like marginal devices or connections.

 

[mattmower]

It's annoying because I didn't have this with the 2019 MBP the Studio has replaced. Both on Ventura. Given how cool it runs and how little power it draws I don't have a great problem just not letting the Studio sleep. But it's not an ideal solution. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[genexx]

Mac´s or better MacOS can be picky with external Storage USB/TB Drives when going to Sleep.

I had this sometimes @ my M2 and the Problem was gone after an Update but i just bought Jettison APP which unmounts and remounts Disks when Sleep/WakeUp to be Safe and do not have Data corruption.

It could also be the USB Hub i used @ that Time.

Now i do not use it, also because i disconnect these Disks 99,9% of the time.

 

[ColdCase]

There are several reports here of drives being dropped when the machine is fully awake, my drives do that. It is an OS feature not limited to sleep. The last stable OS, I think, seems to be High Sierra.

Currently My studio is on full time, with drives allowed to sleep and its much more stable, but still it will drop one... a cable connect/disconnect brings it back for days. I've not seen data corruption, seems to drop when in an idle state.

 

[MarkC426]

My Studio has been on since July (except for OS update restarts..only sleeps), both external SSD's have never ejected by themselves.

 

[colodane]

I had this problem intermittently for months and replacing the cable to the drive enclosure fixed it.

Use a high quality cable brand.

 

[maverick100]

It happens to me all the time; 4bay Akitio thunderbolt 3 enclosure. When ever it wakes from sleep one or more of the drives will get the error. Makes no sense to me.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

What do you USE the external drive for?

Does it really need to be connected and powered on ALL the time?
Or... do you just access it occasionally?

If you don't need to have "live access" to it all the time, my suggestion is:
- dismount it from the desktop
and
- power it off (but leave it physically connected).

When you need to access it, power it on.
Use it for as long as you need to, then power it off again.

 

[mattmower]

OP:

What do you USE the external drive for?

Does it really need to be connected and powered on ALL the time?
Or... do you just access it occasionally?

If you don't need to have "live access" to it all the time, my suggestion is:
- dismount it from the desktop
and
- power it off (but leave it physically connected).

When you need to access it, power it on.
Use it for as long as you need to, then power it off again.

It was, and is intended to become again, my Time Machine volume and also a document archive. While I could only mount it when strictly necessary it wouldn't be my preference.

 

[handheldgames]

I've found a couple of notifications from macOS about my external HDD not being ejected properly.

It's cabled directly to the back of the Mac Studio and has its own power supply.

MacStudio 14,13 — macOS 13.5.2.

"Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is off.

I am making the assumption that when the machine goes to sleep it put external disks into a safe state first. Perhaps that is not a safe assumption?

For now I have installed Lungo and told it not to let the studio go to sleep at all.

Anyone know what's likely to be the problem here?

Thanks,

Matt

It's a known issue with Apple Silicon/USB attached hard disks. It's also the reason why I use OWC Thunder Bay 4 Thunderbolt enclosures for my external hard disks.

 

[th0masp]

Randomly ejecting USB discs is not limited to Apple Silicon in my experience. I've dealt with that several times over the last decade or longer on a number of machines (all Intel). The only solution that ever worked for me was .... (drum roll) ... to wait for an OS update that finally fixed it (for that major OS version).

But yeah, they broke it a few times again over the years, not sure what's so tricky about it. Never seen that happen on any other OS either - unless the drive was faulty or the enclosure was powered insufficiently.

 

[CC88]

Apologize for raising the thread again.

I have the same problem. Both raid external disk ejected. They are connected with original cable +
Apple adapter from Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C).

One Aikitio Thunderbolt2 mini raid and one G-Technology G-Raid Thunderbolt 2.
I put my mac studio to sleep and I find it waked up with the drive ejected messages.

Any help?

 

[PaulD-UK]

Connecting external devices through an Intel-chipped (JHL7440) Thunderbolt 3 dock has cured this problem for me.
That way the Mac only sees a compatible device connecting to it - Apple collaborated with Intel over the Thunderbolt specification.

 

[CC88]

Connecting external devices through an Intel-chipped (JHL7440) Thunderbolt 3 dock has cured this problem for me.
That way the Mac only sees a compatible device connecting to it - Apple collaborated with Intel over the Thunderbolt specification.

Thank you very much.

But it's a joke I have to buy another device instead of using 6 usb-c ports on the mac studio

 

[PaulD-UK]

You could compile a large book of all Apple's 'jokes' of incompatible or intermittently incompatible port connectivities:
Displays
Bluetooth
Ethernet
Audio
Audio over ethernet
USB
TB, especially TB4
etc etc

Apple does it Apple's way.
Solving the 'problem' is part of the grand scheme of things once you venture out of the strict Apple ecosphere. 😃
But once solved 'life is good' haha

 

[CC88]

You could compile a large book of all Apple's 'jokes' of incompatible or intermittently incompatible port connectivities:
Displays
Bluetooth
Ethernet
Audio
Audio over ethernet
USB
TB, especially TB4
etc etc

Apple does it Apple's way.
Solving the 'problem' is part of the grand scheme of things once you venture out of the strict Apple ecosphere. 😃
But once solved 'life is good' haha

LOL!

So what external RAID for my Mac Studio without using a Thunderbolt 3 dock?

Can you link the Thunderbolt 3 dock?

 

[PaulD-UK]

I don't have current RAID experience, so others must advise on that.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of possible docks.
I personally prefer to choose a manufacturer who has some sort of direct relationship with Apple - and a reputation to uphold...

Docks that work on Thunderbolt 3 AND USB-C (Titan Ridge JHL7440)

[Updated 2020/05/06 with more product info] – IT admin guide for deploying one dock to rule them all…

dancharblog.wordpress.com

EDIT: Also the JHL7440 section of this:

List of fastest USB4 ASM2464PD & TB3 JHL7440 SSD enclosures (May 2024)

[2024/05/22 – Additional models] IntroductionFastest external M.2 SSD enclosuresThunderbolt 5 JHL9480 enclosuresUSB4 ASM2464PD SSD enclosuresRetail modelsODM modelsThunderbolt 3 JHL7440 enclo…

dancharblog.wordpress.com

 

[Plutonius]

Apologize for raising the thread again.

I have the same problem. Both raid external disk ejected. They are connected with original cable +
Apple adapter from Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C).

One Aikitio Thunderbolt2 mini raid and one G-Technology G-Raid Thunderbolt 2.
I put my mac studio to sleep and I find it waked up with the drive ejected messages.

Any help?

As a quick check, try replacing the cables.

 

[CC88]

As a quick check, try replacing the cables.

I'm using original cables... Can you suggest an alternative?

Thank you very much.

 

[Plutonius]

I'm using original cables... Can you suggest an alternative?

Thank you very much.

The cables may not be the issue but a few people claimed that replacing them has cured the problem (cheaper fix than trying a new enclosure).

I'm not sure what you have for original cables but Amazon has lots to choose from if you decide to try replacements.

 

[CC88]

I don't know if it's a solution that can work for you.
But (finger crossed) I think I have found a solution that work for me.

In google search I found a post about formatting the disk as extreme try. So firstly I bought an 8tb drive to backup only my fcp and lr library from my working raid.

After that I re-created my raid0 and formatted it with APFS file system.

Than I restored all the data in it using my TM disk.

After checked that all is ok I formatted and re created my TM disk (a 16tb raid0 unit).

At time of writing after two days in sleep mode my mac studio no more wake up randomly with disk eject messages (prior to do this it woke up every 20 or 30 minutes).

 

[Brian33]

After that I re-created my raid0 and formatted it with APFS file system.
...
After checked that all is ok I formatted and re created my TM disk (a 16tb raid0 unit).

At time of writing after two days in sleep mode my mac studio no more wake up randomly with disk eject messages (prior to do this it woke up every 20 or 30 minutes).

Thanks for the report -- that's really good that you seem to have gotten the problem solved by reformatting. I may try it too, but it's a pretty painful process. Plus, I want to keep some drives as HFS+ (I wonder if formatting in APFS was necessary or not??).

If by bad luck you experience the "disk not ejected properly" again, please come back here to report that it wasn't a perfect fix! In the meantime I'm keeping my machine awake for awhile...

 

[CC88]

If by bad luck you experience the "disk not ejected properly" again, please come back here to report that it wasn't a perfect fix! In the meantime I'm keeping my machine awake for awhile...

I will but at the moment all is ok 🤞