External USB Hard Drive spins up/down all the time

[rowlands]

Hmm good to know. I guess the only solution is to leave my computer on 24/7. So they make super efficient CPUs, and then cripple the software to force us to leave them on 24/7? So much for the environmental impact.

IMHO you should allow it to sleep to get some energy savings, and there are things you can do to reduce additional wakeups (like disabling notifications during sleep, turning off Bluetooth & Wi-Fi during sleep).

The sleep process is somewhat screwed up nowadays and I think that's down to poor management and business priorities. I even see more and more iPad users complaining that their iPads are dead within 3 days of sleep.

Apple even stopped publishing the maximum standby duration, because it causes a problem when they state it can sleep for 30 days, but barely makes it 14.

 

[ApexDE]

anyone tested 13.5 yet regarding the sleeping USB Drives? Looks promising.

Edit: the bug is still there in 13.5

 

[soloact]

I have 13.5 and an M2 max laptop. The bug exists for me and is similar to what others reported.

I trashed Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > and both apple.com.PowerManagement plists and restarted. After that, the drives in my thunderbolt 3 raid connected to a dock and to laptop with thunderbolt 4 cables stopped spinning down...for now.

I'll keep the laptop from sleeping and see if it changes. I power off my external LCDs at night.

FYI for those power off external LCDs, there's a display setting that triggers laptop sleep when a display is turned off. It's in settings > displays > advanced > battery & energy > "prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off"

That option was turned off by default so I turned it on in case it makes a difference.

After testing those settings, I'll sleep the laptop overnight.

I'll try to remember to report results from those scenarios.

 

[ApexDE]

i had a slight hope that the bug didn't make it into 13.5... 😞
i kept reporting the bug but didn't even get a answer from apple.


what about macOS 14? any beta testers here? I have a light hope again

 

[UMadBro]

I happened to have the same problem with my LaCie 5tb hdd on my m1 pro macbook. The disk was spinning down after 50-60 sec after any use.
I tried all methods mentioned above with little luck. It works until your mac goes to sleep (even after I set it out not to sleep).
After that I tried Amphetamine app to keep the disk spinning with 40 sec timer. Everything was great for a month until that LaCie hdd died. Had to pay a lot of money to restore the lost data.

To those who have been using this app be cautious with it. Tech guys who were restoring my disk said my hdd could be constantly overheating because of this app.

Let's hope macos 14 will fix that problem.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Tech guys who were restoring my disk said my hdd could be constantly overheating because of this app."

Get a 2.5" SATA SSD and put it into a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure.
In my experience, SATA-based SSDs run quite cool and seldom even get very warm to the touch.

Not like nvme-based SSDs, which can get HOT during extended usage.

 

[UMadBro]

The price is too high for a 5tb SSD (in any form and shape). I need a lot of space which will be in constant use (write/rewrite) due to my field of work.

If apple is not going to fix their bugged OS I'm gonna switch to some kind of NAS that doesn't have that problem.

 

[ApexDE]

After that I tried Amphetamine app to keep the disk spinning with 40 sec timer. Everything was great for a month until that LaCie hdd died. Had to pay a lot of money to restore the lost data.

To those who have been using this app be cautious with it. Tech guys who were restoring my disk said my hdd could be constantly overheating because of this app.

Let's hope macos 14 will fix that problem.

I was expecting reports like these... Apple needs to fix this bug but is completely ignoring it. I filed 2-3 reports but none of it did get attention.
Constantly powering up/down kills HDs, constant access via Amphetamine is bad too.

 

[Fishrrman]

What follows is my opinion only.

I don't think it's a good idea to have external drives (either USB or Tbolt) connected "all the time".
Unless -- there's an absolute reason why you need "all the time" availability for that particular drive (thinking of a time machine backup, but I don't use tm).

In my 35 years of Mac usage, my "standard procedure" has always been:
- If I need to access something on an external drive, I connect it.
- I do what I have to do with the drive, then...
- I "eject it", power it down, and physically DISconnect it.

Has worked well for me in all my Mac years.

An exception:
I have a backup (created with CarbonCopyCloner) that is a "bare SSD" in a USB3/SATA docking station. This is normally "plugged in" all the time, but the dock has an on/off switch, and the only time I turn it on (and mount the drive) is on "backup day".

 

[WebHead]

What follows is my opinion only.

I don't think it's a good idea to have external drives (either USB or Tbolt) connected "all the time".
Unless -- there's an absolute reason why you need "all the time" availability for that particular drive (thinking of a time machine backup, but I don't use tm).

In my 35 years of Mac usage, my "standard procedure" has always been:
- If I need to access something on an external drive, I connect it.
- I do what I have to do with the drive, then...
- I "eject it", power it down, and physically DISconnect it.

Has worked well for me in all my Mac years.

An exception:
I have a backup (created with CarbonCopyCloner) that is a "bare SSD" in a USB3/SATA docking station. This is normally "plugged in" all the time, but the dock has an on/off switch, and the only time I turn it on (and mount the drive) is on "backup day".

If sleep mode worked as it should, there should be no reason *not* to have external HDs connected all the time!

Though I agree there's no point with HDs you're not accessing frequently.

I've just tried re-enabling "put HDs to sleep when possible" in 13.5.2 but I'm not hopeful it's been fixed. Maybe Sonoma...?

 

[ApexDE]

this bug being fixed in Sonoma would be my only reason to update early...

 

[bernuli]

this bug being fixed in Sonoma would be my only reason to update early...

It could be the firmware of the drive spinning itself down. And if the drive is formatted APFS then macOS gonna hit it even when user is not. I always unmount or eject when not in use.

iMHO the spinning up and down not a big deal. I would think built to take it. But I still unmount when not in use

 

[WebHead]

It could be the firmware of the drive spinning itself down.

Nah, it's definitely an OS issue as I remember it started happening around the same time a bunch of others reported it. I even disabled my HD's built-in sleep just to be sure.

iMHO the spinning up and down not a big deal. I would think built to take it. But I still unmount when not in use

I'm happy to disable "put HDs to sleep when possible" and have the HDs spinning whenever my Mac is awake. Better than constant up and down. But of course the way it used to be - only spinning up when accessed - would be preferable.

 

[c.oberschneider]

Still not fixed in Sonoma.

 

[Fishrrman]

c.ober wrote:
"Still not fixed in Sonoma."

A Fishrrman "pretty-much fearless™" prediction:
The "spin down/spin up" problem with USB (and other) external drives is NEVER going to be fixed by a software update.

If the user wants that "fixed", he/she is going to have to find "their own way" to do so.

 

[ApexDE]

Still not fixed in Sonoma.

Oh boy... Apple WANTS us to buy SSDs, preferred expensive built-in ones.

 

[WebHead]

c.ober wrote:
"Still not fixed in Sonoma."

A Fishrrman "pretty-much fearless™" prediction:
The "spin down/spin up" problem with USB (and other) external drives is NEVER going to be fixed by a software update.

If the user wants that "fixed", he/she is going to have to find "their own way" to do so.

That really sux, given it was almost certainly a software update what broke it.

 

[MistD]

A Fishrrman "pretty-much fearless™" prediction:
The "spin down/spin up" problem with USB (and other) external drives is NEVER going to be fixed by a software update.

If the user wants that "fixed", he/she is going to have to find "their own way" to do so.

So , it is Apple Silicon hardware architecture related then ? … or just a ninja move to make us buy more internal storage ? 😎

I’m pretty sure the bug it’s not on the external device side of things (since it’s happening on a wide range of hdd brands/models) … and if i remember right my old Intel I5 iMac (late 2015) played nice with external hdds.

Anyway i’m gravitating more to a NAS anyway for some added benefits (off-site backup on it’s own, data scrubbing and S.M.A.R.T tests on a regular schedule etc.)

Hopefully they will not do some “magic” to kill the practical use of external SSDs aswell.

 

[Ryan0751]

Super frustrating. I was hoping Sonoma would fix it… nope.

M3? Maybe? lol.

 

[WebHead]

So , it is Apple Silicon hardware architecture related then ? … or just a ninja move to make us buy more internal storage ? 😎

I’m pretty sure the bug it’s not on the external device side of things (since it’s happening on a wide range of hdd brands/models) … and if i remember right my old Intel I5 iMac (late 2015) played nice with external hdds.

It affects my i9 iMac which is why I suspect a software glitch. But I could be in the minority.

 

[UMadBro]

Well, latest update didn't fix the problem and I said f*ck it. Bought NAS and put my HDDs into it. Works flawlessly.

Sadly I've encountered a new problem: I have my macbook randomly disconnecting from a router via wired internet connection (TB hub). Guess this is for another thread. Anyways one less problem to fix, one more to solve.

 

[MistD]

Well, latest update didn't fix the problem and I said f*ck it. Bought NAS and put my HDDs into it. Works flawlessly.

Same thing here !

I finally had enough and bought a NAS (5 bay) and de-cluttered my desk of externals and noise + i obtained the additional data protection and benefits that a NAS brings.

 

[UMadBro]

Same thing here !

I finally had enough and bought a NAS (5 bay) and de-cluttered my desk of externals and noise + i obtained the additional data protection and benefits that a NAS brings.

Yeah, I've been using my NAS for 2 weeks now and my love still grows for it. Not only it is very good for data protection, it is also very fast and responsive almost as a DAS (I use USB 5gb -> ethernet -> USB 5gb for direct connection to my Mac to ensure the fastest speed along with the standard one).

As it pains me to say I think Apple won't fix the problem at all. They update Safari once a year while competitors do it on a regular basis many times a year, each update brings more bugs than fixes. Now that I fixed my network problem I've got a new one - Finder freezing, not mounting flash drives and other things. Feels like Apple abandoning MacOS little by little.

 

[timbopic]

Hi - it is my thread quoted in the OP. The fix I found (after experimenting with cables and USB ports) was to delete the energy saver/power management plists and reboot.

Hey, this worked for me - brilliant! NB. the 2 preferences are in the Mac HD Library, not the 'hidden' library.

 

[WebHead]

Hey, this worked for me - brilliant! NB. the 2 preferences are in the Mac HD Library, not the 'hidden' library.

Cool, this has worked for me in the past but I was skeptical this time round. Worth a try I guess.