External USB-C SSD will not mount with M1 and Big Sur

[deeddawg]

" I already have the SSD, so don't want the whole drive."

"not managed to find any non-TB ones that people confirm work"

Point was to show that USB3 *does* work, so whatever issue you're experiencing isn't because the M1's don't handle USB3.

Have you tried wiping and reformatting the drive with the M1 computer?

 

[Clix Pix]

Yes, got a 10GB NAS with 4 bays for redundancy. It's not about having one single device. It's about something that should work with an M1 Mac and doesn't.

Yes, I'll wait it out.

OK, that's good, then. Well, try the suggestions that have been offered in this thread. The issue is clearly something with that particular enclosure and external SSD rather than with the M1.

 

[pmiles]

Have you tried mounting it to a Windows based computer? I've had external drives refuse to mount and then magically work after having mounted it under Windows first.

Cable could also be the problem. Do you have another cable to use to connect to your M1? They can be fickle and work on some devices but not others (from computer to computer).

Neither of these suggestions would resolve a controller incompatibility in the enclosure however.

 

[megastuff999]

Have you tried mounting it to a Windows based computer? I've had external drives refuse to mount and then magically work after having mounted it under Windows first.

Cable could also be the problem. Do you have another cable to use to connect to your M1? They can be fickle and work on some devices but not others (from computer to computer).

Neither of these suggestions would resolve a controller incompatibility in the enclosure however.

Hi, yes tried different cables. One from each enclosure and also one from a SanDisk Extreme (which does work).



I’ll wait and see what updates to Big Sur happen in the next few months and see if it changes anything. Otherwise guess I’ll have to offload the ssd and pick up a ready-made one like the ones people mentioning here

 

[solouki]

Hmm, not managed to find any non-TB ones that people confirm work. TB ones considerably more expensive than USB-C/USB3 ones. I already have the SSD, so don't want the whole drive.

My Samsung T5 (USB3 connection through an USB-C plug) and X5 (PCI-Express/Thunderbolt3 connection through an USB-C plug) work property on both an Intel MBP as well as an M1 MBP. In other words, the M1 does work with at least some USB3 as well as TB3 connected SSDs.

Good luck getting your drive to work with the M1.

Solouki

 

[khollister]

I would suggest an OWC enclosure like this one - https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MEPMTCES/

Oops, just realized you probably have NVME drives, not SATA

 

[Ningj]

RTL9210 10Gb/s based enclosures seem to work reliably. I'm using a JEYI i9 GTR NVME Aluminium TYPEC3.1 mobile hdd box optibay hdd case TYPE C3.1 RTL9210 m. 2. Fairly long discussion about the relative performance of different enclosures on MacRumors - usb on m1 macs isnt actually 10gb also definitely not usb4

 

[jake_the_tester]

I have a Western Digital SN750 2TB NVMe SSD in a TB3 enclosure and it works great on my M1 Mac mini with Big Sur 11.3.1. No problems at all, so I don't think it's a systemic issue.

Have you tried a USB external HDD to a M1 Mac from Hibernation? I have a problem here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...e-silicon-m1-frozen-from-hibernation.2295912/

 

[solouki]

Have you tried a USB external HDD to a M1 Mac from Hibernation? I have a problem here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...e-silicon-m1-frozen-from-hibernation.2295912/

I have successfully used an old 3TB HDD using USB and an USB-to-USBC adapter on an M1 MBP -- no problems here, and the M1 wakes from sleep properly.

Solouki

 

[megastuff999]

The plot thickens!!!

If I stop using USB-C to drive my display, leaving both TB/USB-C ports free, then plug this drive into one of the ports, the drive connects and operates as expected. So there is obviously something that these two ports can't do at once, in this case, drive a display and a USB-C drive at once.

So, that's pretty bad. Good I can see the drive working but now I have a different issue. Driving my display (BenQ 3200u) with HDMI doesn't give me the same display scaling options I get with USB-C. It goes from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160! Misses out the 3072x1728 area option.

Beginning to think these M1's are turkeys.

 

[Clix Pix]

Well, no wonder you were having problems! By the way, wouldn't it be Thunderbolt 3/4 that would be driving the display rather than USB- C? The port uses a USB-C connector but the power of the actual device makes a difference. For example my Samsung T7 works just fine using the USB-C connector but is not Thunderbolt. The Samsung X5, though, requires Thunderbolt 3 in order to function, USB is not sufficient. The cables used for the two devices are different, clearly marked, even though each can plug into a USB-C port.

 

[megastuff999]

Well, no wonder you were having problems! By the way, wouldn't it be Thunderbolt 3/4 that would be driving the display rather than USB- C?

Yes, described as, ‘

uni USB C to DisplayPort Cable 3m/10ft (4K@60Hz, 2K@144Hz, 2K@165Hz), Thunderbolt 3 to DisplayPort Cable, Compatible for MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPad Pro, XPS15, Surface Book’​

 

[jake_the_tester]

I have successfully used an old 3TB HDD using USB and an USB-to-USBC adapter on an M1 MBP -- no problems here, and the M1 wakes from sleep properly.

Solouki

When the Mac wakes up, is everything okay with your 3TB HDD? Is your HDD in NTFS format using Paragon NTFS?

 

[jerryk]

Yes, I get that, but here I am with an SSD already It works fine on my iMac (Intel). I really think this is a M1 shortcoming.

Sounds like nothing is wrong with the M1, the problem is the enclosure or more accurately the electronics in the SSD holder in the enclosure. My guess is there are only 1 or 2 manufacturers of the enclosure and underlying electronics. Then various resellers put their brands and packaging on the same internal electronics. This pretty common.

 

[solouki]

When the Mac wakes up, is everything okay with your 3TB HDD? Is your HDD in NTFS format using Paragon NTFS?

Everything is fine ... but my HDD is formatted in HFS+ and not NTFS.

 

[jake_the_tester]

Everything is fine ... but my HDD is formatted in HFS+ and not NTFS.

Damn. I need to use NTFS for multi platforms...

 

[Fomalhaut]

Just to update. Tried a Sabrent one and that suffers the same. Emailed Sabrent and they advised, ‘If you are using BigSur version 11.2 or 11.3.1 The issue is related to the software in your Mac M1 computer.’

That sounds unusual. I have an M1 Mini and have been able to connect at least 6 external USB drives with a variety of enclosures. There *are* issues with the connection speed that is recognized, i.e. I have a USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure that supports 10Gbps but only connects at 5Gps.

I also have Samsung T5 and T7 drives, which connect at 10Gbps and have no problems.

The problem is *likely* to be the controller in your enclosure - you need to find the type of controller chip and search for known issues. A secondary possibility is that there is an issue with the NVMe to USB driver... all of my drives in 3rd party enclosures are SATA III.

Other things to consider:

1) Is your disk otherwise healthy?
2) Have you tried to repair using disk utility? Does the container or volume appear in Disk Utility?
3) What disk format are you using? e.g. APFS, HFS+, NTFS, ExFat....

 

[Ben J.]

The plot thickens!!!

If I stop using USB-C to drive my display, leaving both TB/USB-C ports free, then plug this drive into one of the ports, the drive connects and operates as expected. So there is obviously something that these two ports can't do at once, in this case, drive a display and a USB-C drive at once.

So, that's pretty bad. Good I can see the drive working but now I have a different issue. Driving my display (BenQ 3200u) with HDMI doesn't give me the same display scaling options I get with USB-C. It goes from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160! Misses out the 3072x1728 area option.

Beginning to think these M1's are turkeys.

Thanks for this.
I got my first NVMe ssd and Thunderbolt3 enclosure today. I tested it with nothing more than a hdmi screen and a USB audio interface in a usb port. Mesured it to about 1200mb write and 1500bm read per second. Played around a bit. Then I plugged in my usb-c drive in the other TB/USBC port and started a transfer of 800gb to my new, faster drive. About half way - the NVMe ejected and I got the 'volume improperly ejected' message. After that, havoc. Disk Utilities wouldn't recognize it. I had a hell of a time reformating, and it seemed like something was basically wrong with the blade or the enclosure.

I find alot of people with similar problems, very few solutions, then I try to not have anything connected to the second TB port (Thanks to this sole comment in this thread) and the clouds have lifted! I'll have to wait and see, of course, but it looks promising.

Then, what do I do? I need to use both TB/USBC ports.
I'll try to report back.