Mac sticks when shutting down or restarting with thunderbolt connected

[chama98]

Hi all.



I have a problem with my external hard disk it is a LaCie 6TB thunderbolt 3 drive which is used as a backup drive.



The problem is when its connected to my iMac it backs up with no problems.



When I come to restart or shutdown the computer the mouse pointer moves around no problem and the shutdown or restart is halted UNLESS I disconnect the drive from the Mac and then the restart/shutdown carries on.



This is becoming annoying, What I have done is, reset the SMC thinking it was that. I have also reset PRAM and still having the issues.



I don't know what else I can think is the problem.



Many thanks

 

[Taz Mangus]

Open Disk Utility, select View->Show All devices, select the top listed physical device for the external drive, click on the First Aid button.

 

[chama98]

Thanks. I have done that and there are no reported problems.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Create a new clean user account, eject the drive, restart the computer, login to the new user account, plug in the drive and try to restart or shutdown the computer. Does it still hang?

 

[chama98]

Yeah

 

[Taz Mangus]

Eject the drive, boot into Safe Mode, login to your user account, shutdown or restart the computer. Does it hang?

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

To help determine whether an issue is caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up, you can start up your Mac in safe mode.

support.apple.com

 

[chama98]

Yeah

 

[Taz Mangus]

Have you tried another TB3 port to connect the drive? What year and model Mac are you using?

 

[chama98]

It’s a 2017 iMac. Also ran hardware checks and all came back ok. I have also changed thunderbolt cable and also plugged into a different port.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Do you have another Mac which you can plug the drive into and see if the hang happens on the other Mac. Does the drive have a USB3 connection on it?

 

[chama98]

Yeah I have a MacBook. I have also tried it and it doesn’t stick.

 

[Taz Mangus]

On your iMac, don’t plug in the drive, restart the iMac, login to your account, disable Time Machine backup, plug in the drive, shutdown or restart the computer. Does it hang?

 

[chama98]

Yeah

 

[Taz Mangus]

The next thing to try is download the full Catalina installer: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?mt=12. Eject the drive and disconnect it, after the installer downloads, run it and have it install on top of your current Catalina install. This will not erase and user data, it only will refresh the OS system files. Once that completes, login to your user account, connect the drive and try to shutdown or restart the computer. Does it hang?

If the hang still happens, then eject the drive an disconnect it, restart in Recovery Mode (Command (⌘)-R): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904. Open Disk Utility, create a new partition on your drive (new Container), download Catalina installer and have it install to the new partition. Once that is complete, restart to the new partition, setup as a new computer (don't install any third party software), create a user account, login to the user account, plug in the drive and shutdown or restart the computer. Does it hang? If it does not hang then you will want to consider doing a clean install on your computer. You can restart the computer to your current install and remove the new partition.

 

[chama98]

thanks. I have done what you have suggested and it didn't work,

 

[Taz Mangus]

Both the reinstall over the current OS and creating a new clean install on a separate partition?

 

[chama98]

no, done the first part, just doing the 2nd part

 

[chama98]

no, didn't work.

 

[Taz Mangus]

The last thing I can think of is to check if there is a firmware update for the LaCie drive. If it still hangs after a clean install then I am not sure what else to try.

I asked this earlier, does the drive have a USB3 connection? If it does try that connection and see if the hang hapoens.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Maybe give LaCie a call and see if they have any suggestions. Could also give AppleCare a call and see if they have any suggestions.

 

[chama98]

sorted it was back blaze stalling the shutdown/restart.

Thanks for your help