External HDD disks getting ejected when MBP goes in sleep mode, issues ? what is the best set up ?

[Arthur75]

Hello there,
I am using my MBP (13" late 2016 with touch bar) a lot in clamshell mode on an external monitor.

And I have some HDD disks hooked up to it through and USB Hub (simple one : USB C towards the mac for power and data, USB 3 for the disks).

I often leaves my mac on for quite some time unattended (even at night sometimes), and when I get back to it, almost systematically the HDD are unmounted, and I have plenty of "disk not ejected properly" messages :

And really a lot fo them (trying to close them all taking ages) :

(in French but same message as above)

And most of the time I need to reboot to remount the disks (sometimes they remount themselves but quite rare, and unplugging replugging the hub when they are unmounted usually does not remount them, so reboot the way to go ...).

So I have several questions

Is this behaviour normal ?
Is it an issue for the disks ?
Is the issue with the hub ? (but I have another one and the issue is the same)

Would a hub with its own power supply solve the issue ? (but I don't see any with USB C cable to the computer, except for the "dock" style hubs)

Must I go for a USB C dock ? (caldigit TS3 plus or others)

But as these are quite expensive, I might as well go for a NAS then (synology ds620 slim or something), as I would use the dock only for these disks I think (disks used for time machine backups and plenty of videos and pics).

Thanks in advance for any advice !

 

[panzer06]

My external USB C enclosures DO NOT have this behavior.

Yottamaster 2 Bay USB 3.1 Gen2 2.5 Inch Type C Hard Drive Raid Enclosure 10Gbps for 12.5mm 9.5mm 7mm 2.5" HDD SSD

Yottamaster 2 Bay USB 3.1 Gen2 2.5 Inch Type C Hard Drive Raid Enclosure 10Gbps for 12.5mm 9.5mm 7mm 2.5" HDD SSD

www.amazon.com

They stay connected when I wake the machine in the morning.

 

[Arthur75]

My external USB C enclosures DO NOT have this behavior.

Yottamaster 2 Bay USB 3.1 Gen2 2.5 Inch Type C Hard Drive Raid Enclosure 10Gbps for 12.5mm 9.5mm 7mm 2.5" HDD SSD

Yottamaster 2 Bay USB 3.1 Gen2 2.5 Inch Type C Hard Drive Raid Enclosure 10Gbps for 12.5mm 9.5mm 7mm 2.5" HDD SSD

www.amazon.com

They stay connected when I wake the machine in the morning.

Thanks a lot for the info, this would indicate that the hub having no power supply is the issue for me.

And indeed another solution! (and quite cheap)

But having just bought 2 USB3 5TB disks with their own enclosure :

WD 5TB Elements Portable HDD, External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 for PC & Mac, Plug and Play Ready - WDBU6Y0050BBK-WESN

Western Digital elements portable hard drives offer reliable, high-capacity storage, fast data transfer rates and universal connectivity with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices to back up your photos, videos and files on the go. The small, lightweight design offers up to 5TB capacity.

www.amazon.com

Not sure I want to take the risk to rip the enclosure off and put them in a USB C enclosure. :/

If I take something like that I guess it should work ? :

Anker 7-Port USB 3.0 Data Hub with 36W Power Adapter and BC 1.2 Charging Port for iPhone 7/6s Plus, iPad Air 2, Galaxy S Series, Note Series, Mac, PC, USB Flash Drives and More

Anker 7-Port USB 3. 0 Data Hub Expand and accelerate your data transfer and charging. Ultra-Compact Small, lightweight design provides greater portability and conserves space when connecting multiple devices. Upward-facing ports enable effortless, one-handed plugging. 7 High-Speed Data Ports Inst...

www.amazon.com

Except I will need also a USB 3 to USB C cable to connect it to the Mac.

I don't find any of these Hubs (with their own power supply) and with a USB C connection for the link with the computer, aren't there any ?

 

[ght56]

It is not normal behavior, but I think you want to first determine if it is the computer (seems unlikely unless it is a Big Sur bug), your enclosures, your HDDs, or your dock/hub.

If you are using a passive hub, my attention would focus to that and I would try connecting one or more HDDs directly to the MBP's USB-C port (you may need to buy a USB-C-->A cable or adapter) and seeing if the behavior continues with those HDDs in particular. If it still continues, I would repeat the test but with different HDDs in place of the ones that fail the test.

If that does not work, you may wish to look at the sleep-wake settings in the power settings menu, which can allow disks to spin down during periods of activity. Sometimes this can cause issues. Changing this setting can sometimes fix issues, though my money would be on the hub. Also, if your hub has passthrough charging and it did not originally have this issue, I've also observed passthrough charging hubs to just sometimes randomly get nuked, especially when using both the passthrough + externals. I have no idea why, but I would theorize due to extended heat?

 

[panzer06]

Thanks a lot for the info, this would indicate that the hub having no power supply is the issue for me.

And indeed another solution! (and quite cheap)

But having just bought 2 USB3 5TB disks with their own enclosure :

WD 5TB Elements Portable HDD, External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 for PC & Mac, Plug and Play Ready - WDBU6Y0050BBK-WESN

Western Digital elements portable hard drives offer reliable, high-capacity storage, fast data transfer rates and universal connectivity with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices to back up your photos, videos and files on the go. The small, lightweight design offers up to 5TB capacity.

www.amazon.com

Not sure I want to take the risk to rip the enclosure off and put them in a USB C enclosure. :/

If I take something like that I guess it should work ? :

Anker 7-Port USB 3.0 Data Hub with 36W Power Adapter and BC 1.2 Charging Port for iPhone 7/6s Plus, iPad Air 2, Galaxy S Series, Note Series, Mac, PC, USB Flash Drives and More

Anker 7-Port USB 3. 0 Data Hub Expand and accelerate your data transfer and charging. Ultra-Compact Small, lightweight design provides greater portability and conserves space when connecting multiple devices. Upward-facing ports enable effortless, one-handed plugging. 7 High-Speed Data Ports Inst...

www.amazon.com

Except I will need also a USB 3 to USB C cable to connect it to the Mac.

I don't find any of these Hubs (with their own power supply) and with a USB C connection for the link with the computer, aren't there any ?

adapter is a passthrough adapter. The AC Adapter for the Mac connects to the USB C port and the cabled connector connect to any on the USB C ports on the MBP 16

 

[liya1201]

I have two USB-C to USB3 hubs, Aukey 8-in-1 and Uni USB-C to Ethernet Hub. I use one in office and one in home for my MBP13 2017 (4 TB3 ports).

The Aukey one:
"Disk Not Ejected Properly" happens to portable external hdd connected by USB3 cable to the hub.
Can charge iPhone via USB to Lighting cable.
Can't charge iPad mini via USB to Lighting cable.

The Uni one
No "Disk Not Ejected Properly" to portable external hdd connected by USB3 cable.
Can charge iPhone via USB to Lighting cable.
Can charge iPad mini via USB to Lighting cable.

 

[theSeb]

This happens on my macs sometimes. There is nothing wrong with your computer and nothing to be concerned about

 

[Arthur75]

It is not normal behavior, but I think you want to first determine if it is the computer (seems unlikely unless it is a Big Sur bug), your enclosures, your HDDs, or your dock/hub.

If you are using a passive hub, my attention would focus to that and I would try connecting one or more HDDs directly to the MBP's USB-C port (you may need to buy a USB-C-->A cable or adapter) and seeing if the behavior continues with those HDDs in particular. If it still continues, I would repeat the test but with different HDDs in place of the ones that fail the test.

If that does not work, you may wish to look at the sleep-wake settings in the power settings menu, which can allow disks to spin down during periods of activity. Sometimes this can cause issues. Changing this setting can sometimes fix issues, though my money would be on the hub. Also, if your hub has passthrough charging and it did not originally have this issue, I've also observed passthrough charging hubs to just sometimes randomly get nuked, especially when using both the passthrough + externals. I have no idea why, but I would theorize due to extended heat?

Thanks, I went back to my ohter hub but more importantly changed the power settings, still had a few errors, but really almost none.

 

[danmart]

I used to have this problem with my 2015 MBP and a LaCie external RAID. Never solved it, but the problem stopped when I switched over to using a Mac Mini.

Sorry, that probably isn’t much help...

 

[Zerpersande]

I used to have this problem with my 2015 MBP and a LaCie external RAID. Never solved it, but the problem stopped when I switched over to using a Mac Mini.

Sorry, that probably isn’t much help...

Well, your comment does help. Or at least has the potential to do so. I just made the same switch as you, a 2015 MBP to a Mac Mini M1. And I never had this problem with my MBP but am plagued with these messages now.

The difference that comes to mind was the use of a powered Landing Zone dock and a powered USB 3 hub when I used the MBP. Now I have unpowered hubs on my Thunderbolt ports.

 

[danmart]

My device is connected directly, LaCie to the Mini

 

[Zerpersande]

My device is connected directly, LaCie to the Mini

My Macbook had a JetDrive in its SD slot and two external SSD drives and a powered USB hub. The JetDrive is now in a USB 3.1 Hub/SD reader and the SSD drives are on a different USB 3.1 hub.

It appears that sometimes when the Mini goes to sleep drives will disconnect and then reconnect.

 

[AlDavis]

I have this same problem with the LaCie D2 Professional. When both of my Macs sleep, the LaCie hard drives eject and I have to reboot the Mac in order for the hard drives to re-mount.

I purchased three LaCie hard drives and only one works properly. I contacted the Seagate tech support and there is no fix. Seagate knows about this problem. I tried 3 new LaCie D2 Professionals WIRED DIRECTLY on my MacBook Pro and my iMac; the same problem exists on both Macs with 2 of the drives, but one of the LaCie drive worked flawless every time. When the Macs wake up, only 1 out of 3 external LaCie hard drives will stay mounded. How can the OS X pick and choose when to work properly as it relates to external hard drive? This makes me think that the problem is Seagate until now because Author is saying that his Western Digital external hard drive is doing the same thing. So now the problem appears to be within the operating system. Who knows...

By the way, I have a Caldigit hub and it works flawlessly with everything you throw at it and the Caldigit keeps the MacBook charged-up at the same time! These hard drives are problems even when wired directly to the Macs. Did anyone try with Windows?

 

[AlDavis]

Problem solved. The problem is Mac OS Catalina. The external LaCie drives works flawlessly on my Mac Pro with Mojave.

I updated the MacBook Pro to Big Sur with the external HD connected during the Big Sur installation and the problem is solved. The external HD eject problems is fixed with the Big Sur update.

 

[danmart]

I have been holding off upgrading my 2018 Mini to Big Sur, but I might do that tomorrow...

 

[AlDavis]

I have been holding off upgrading my 2018 Mini to Big Sur, but I might do that tomorrow...

Make sure the external HD is plugged-in and turned-on before the install. ?

 

[odysseus]

Well, I have my external USB drives connected to my CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 dock, and this forced eject never occurred when it was connected to my MacBook Pro 2018, even when running Big Sur, but it started happening all of a sudden once I switched to a MBP 13" M1.

 

[odysseus]

Make sure the external HD is plugged-in and turned-on before the install. ?

Why would that be necessary?

 

[AlDavis]

Why would that be necessary?

It depends. Programmers do weird stuff. It's just being pre-cautious. If the software sees it, the driver should be installed.

 

[Marty Hewlett]

I'm having this same problem. I have a MacBook Pro (purchased this past summer) with OS Big Sur. I've had two external hard drives (a Seagate and a Western Digital). With both I kept receiving the disk ejected improperly message overnight. Eventually, both drives failed and could not be repaired. The drives were connected directly to the USB-C port of the computer. Is this a Big Sur issue? I'm reluctant to buy another drive at this point and I'm considering using iCloud storage for backup. Any ideas?

 

[AlDavis]

I know this problem went away when Big Sur was installed while the external hard drives were turned-on and plugged-in the MacBook Pro. When the External Hard Drives are plugged-in the computer, I think the OS X sees it and make proper adjustments with certain drivers. This is what I have done and the problem went away permanently. It does not hurt to try it. First, back-up your system and re-install Big Bur with the external hard drives plugged-in and turn on.

I use to have this problem, but not anymore. I have LaCie external hard drives on my iMac and a MacBook Pro.

 

[TelegraphRoad]

My M1 Mac mini has a USB connection to an OWC Mercury pro with two 4TB drives in it. Both have been unmounting several times today. I can reconnect them by unplugging the cable and reconnecting it, but otherwise the drives have disappeared - they are not in disk utility. I'll wait a few days and perhaps[s do a full re-install.

 

[macattack80]

Hey, I have the exact same problem, probably since upgrade to macOS 11.0 Big Sur!


Problems:

1. Ejected while idle: with external disks plugged in, they get automatically ejected somehow after a while of not using the computer. Almost every time I come back to my laptop, there are a few notifications about improperly ejected disks.
2. Ejected while at sleep: the disks are also get ejected with this error when I explicitly put the computer to sleep and wake it up. This was never a problem in the past, but it's still more logical that the problem is present when the computer goes to sleep, than in the case 1. above when the computer is NOT put to sleep and it still happens after a while.
3. Time Machine disk becomes corrupt: at some point renders my Time Machine disk corrupt and non-repairable. By now I think I have needed to re-format, setup and make initial backup with Time Machine 3 times already because of this problem.
4. Can't re-mount disks: Once this problem happens, then for about 50% of the times, the disks are not possible to mount from Disk Utility even. They either appear greyed out or not at all in the list. Then the only solution is to reboot the computer. and then they show up.

My setup:

• MBP '2017 running macoS 11.2
• A few external USB SSD disks (WD, Toshiba) connected to a quality powered Type C Dongle with USB type A ports.
• MBP plugged in to power via my dongle at all times in regards to this problem.
• I had the same setup of hardware since 2017 - same dongle, same disks and there were no problems. Suddenly a few months back this started to happen for all disks I own. I think the problem somewhat correlates with upgrade to Big Sur.

What I've tried:

• I bought a new dongle to rule out it's about the dongle (and it was not), and also tried another one I had at home
• Experimented with all System Preferences settings regarding power settings. I've tried all combinations and none would make this problem go away (Do not put disks to sleep, power nap on/off etc).

Workaround:

• There is however a small workaround: System Preferences > Battery > Power Adapter > and set Turn display off after to "Never". I discovered that as long as the display is on, this problem does not occur! BTW when the display goes off, it does not mean that the computer goes off,so this is a surprising workaround for me. However it's not a real solution, because I'm not going to leave my 2 monitors on 24/7 obviously...
• There is an app called Jettison that unmounts disks before the computer goes to sleep. I'm currently trying this one out. It would be logical that is solves problem 2., but not 1. But who knows it might solve 1. as well. I'll report back here if this program is a workaround.
  • Update: Nope, it does not solve problem 1., that disks are ejected when the computer idles (and display goes to sleep)..

This problem is such a big hazzle, that I can't trust my Time Machine backup anymore as it goes corrupt by these disk ejections. I even registered here just to disucss this one.



It seems like this problem has also been reported at apple.com:

M1 MacBook Pro "Disk Not Ejected Properly… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Has anyone here made progress on understanding and preventing this problem? I has hoping that macOS 11.2 just released would address this but I can report that the problem is the same.

 

[seamusm99]

Same problem on my M1 Mac Mini, but only since I upgraded to 11.2.1 last night - and after a long phone session with Customer Support (despite their best suggestions and a complete reinstall of the system software) the problem remains. So... New (about 2 month old) Mini with and external 1TB SSD with 2 partitions plugged into a Thunderbolt port. 1 partition, containing my various documents, photos, etc. always mounted and visible on the desktop. The other, empty in anticipation of eventually having a bootable clone drive, always unmounted. (I have the Energy Saver System preference of 'turn off external drives during sleep' unchecked.) Until last night, there were only 2 occasions when I got the "Disk Not Ejected Properly" notice, and on both those occasions the monitor hadn't woken from sleep either, so I assumed the problems were related. (Also, possibly related, about one time in 10 or 20, when I choose Sleep from the Apple menu, it immediately wakes back up, and I have to put it to sleep a second time. This hasn't changed after the update.) So anyway, after the update last night, EVERY time I put the mini to sleep it dumps the external drive, but here's the interesting thing. With only one of the partitions mounted before sleep, when I get and close the 'not ejected properly' notice on waking, but do NOTHING to remount the partition, after about a minute, the Mini goes out and remounts both partitions by itself. I found this interesting, so then tried unmounting both partitions of the 1TB drive (but kept it connected), but plugging in an external 256GB into another slot, and leaving it mounted while I put the computer to sleep. On waking, I get the notice about the 256GB drive, do nothing, and the Mini tracks down and mounts BOTH external drives (both partitions of the 1TB and the 256 GB). So it somehow appears that if the external drive wasn't deliberately ejected before sleep, the computer 'knows(?)' something went wrong, and goes out polling its ports for connected drives. Perhaps that might provide a clue as to what's going on. Additionally, during the time with Customer Service, it was suggested to me a couple of times that a recommended preventative was to connect the drive to external power. I explained that these external drives A) are solid state, so don't need to be keeping disks spinning during sleep, and B) don't have anywhere to plug external power into anyway. Plus, given that the only variable between the computer working till last night and not working now, is the new system update - so there has to be something in the software causing this. I'm also wondering if there's something in the code to dump external drives during sleep to preserve the batteries of laptops, but it's not taking into account that that's not necessary for a plugged-in desktop unit. Anyway, open for suggestions - and if there's a specific place where it would be useful to submit these details to Apple for their bug solvers to peruse, let me know and I'll send it in there too. Thanks,

 

[macattack80]

I can sadly report that a upgrade to macOS 11.2.1 does not fix the problem. Disks still get ejected when the display goes to sleep (display only, not the computer itself).