Monterey cannot erase external SSD

[darkinners]

I am on Monterey 12.01 with my new 14" Macbook Pro M1 Max.
I tried to use disk utility to erase 2 of my external SSD from exFAT into APFS.

I tried the GUI Disk Utility and Terminal command, basically tried everything that I could search on Google but was not successful.
Every time MacOS just unmount the disk and process stuck there for a few hours without any progress.

Does anyone run into the same issue and know any way to solve this?

 

[darkinners]

By the way very strange. It can erase and format Samsung T7 2TB but it cannot erase/format the Sandisk Extreme Pro 4TB (SKU: SDSSDE61-4T00-G25)

 

[chabig]

Some ideas:
1) Make sure you've selected GUID as the partition map.
2) Erase to some other format, such as HFS+. Then try to go to APFS.

 

[darkinners]

Some ideas:
1) Make sure you've selected GUID as the partition map.
2) Erase to some other format, such as HFS+. Then try to go to APFS.

Thanks for the advice chabig, I basically tried every combination possible.
1. erase the disk and erase the volume itself
2. Tried to erase in the Disk Utility GUI mode/Terminal command/Recovery mode Disk Utility
3. Tried to erase into all combinations of GUID parition/MBR/Apple MAP
4. Tried to erase into all combinations of MacOS Journaled(case sensitive or not)/ExFAT/APFS(case sensitive or not)
5. Tried all the USB cables, all different ports
6. Tried to directly connect the SSD to the MBP ports/connect via Caldigit TS3 Plus dock / Connect via Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock/connect via Belkin USB-C hub/ connect via Hyperdrive USB-C hub.
7. Tried first aid/fix permission

I basically tried every method under the sun that one can google and I am sure the SSD is 100% working, I can read/write perfectly fine on both Windows and macOS

I can delete volume, secure erase, partition, create volume, format...everything on Windows.
Sadly I don't have the 16" MBP under BigSur with me anymore, so I cannot verify if this is a hardware compatibility issue or a Monterey bug

 

[Jack Neill]

I had this problem yesterday with a NVMe I took out of a X5 I wanted to repurpose as a TM drive. I just let it do its thing and it finally worked but it took like 35 min to partition a 500 stick. I had to partition it because it wouldn't erase it .

 

[Fishrrman]

Have you tried erasing the Sandisk on ANOTHER Mac (not the one you're having the problems with)?

Have you tried erasing the drive to a "PC format" (such as exFAT) INSTEAD OF a Mac format (such as APFS)?

 

[darkinners]

Have you tried erasing the Sandisk on ANOTHER Mac (not the one you're having the problems with)?

Have you tried erasing the drive to a "PC format" (such as exFAT) INSTEAD OF a Mac format (such as APFS)?

Yes, I did, I erase on another Intel-based MBP 13" under Big Sur erase and formatted it into APFS and 2014 Macbook Air running under El Capitan erase and format it to macOS Journaled.
Both took like 3 seconds to erase and format and automatically mount the drive after erase/formatting.

But after that I plug the formatted drive to my new 14" MBP, it won't mount like below screenshot

I also tried to format it into ExFAT from Windows PC, no problem at all but it won't reformat as HFS+ or APFS on the 14" MBP.
But the 14" MBP can successfully mount and R/W under the PC formatted ExFAT.

 

[darkinners]

I literally pulling my hair out, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what's going on.

 

[darkinners]

I had this problem yesterday with a NVMe I took out of a X5 I wanted to repurpose as a TM drive. I just let it do its thing and it finally worked but it took like 35 min to partition a 500 stick. I had to partition it because it wouldn't erase it .

Unfortunately, not in my case, I tried to Partition it and erase/format both doesn't work. I left it there for over 4 hours and the progress bar still scrolling, no progress.
If I did the same task via Terminal command, it will be stuck at 50% and stopped. every time.

I also tried to write zero to the whole drive (which took 5 hours) task completed but also the same issue, couldn't erase/format into APFS or if I erase/format from another Mac/Windows. the drive won't mount.

 

[Fishrrman]

I will guess that this could be:
- a problem with the disk controller on the Sandisk drive v. Monterey (which might or might not be corrected with a firmware update on the drive)
- a software problem with Monterey v. USB external drives (this has been reported by other users).

You might have to wait until:
- there's a firmware fix from Sandisk
or
- Apple's software engineers fix the USB glitches in Monterey.

Fishrrman's dumb workaround:
Use the drive with your other Mac for now, and stop tearing at your hair...

 

[darkinners]

I will guess that this could be:
- a problem with the disk controller on the Sandisk drive v. Monterey (which might or might not be corrected with a firmware update on the drive)
- a software problem with Monterey v. USB external drives (this has been reported by other users).

You might have to wait until:
- there's a firmware fix from Sandisk
or
- Apple's software engineers fix the USB glitches in Monterey.

Fishrrman's dumb workaround:
Use the drive with your other Mac for now, and stop tearing at your hair...

Thanks man, I contacted Sandisk and their engineering team confirm is a known issue on Apple Silicon under Monterey and they are working on a fix and should have new firmware release soon.

 

[macsbug1]

I have had this problem on several Macs running Monterey.

When trying to erase an SSD on a 2017 MacBook Pro, 2019 MacBook Pro, and a new 2021 M1 Max all hung. Letting them sit even for a few hours did not make a difference.

Erasing the SSD on a Mac running Big Sur works perfectly though.

 

[randm]

I have the same problem. I have a 4TB SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD (model SDSSDE61-4T00). I tried both a 2021 MacBook Pro (M1 Max CPU) and a 2016 MacBook Pro. They both have MacOS Monterey. Doing an Erase from Disk Utility (to format to APFS) just hangs at "Creating the partition map". Don't know if this SSD supports firmware updates or if the issue is with Monterey. Wondering if I should just format it with an older MacOS, but could be a future problem if I ever have to reformat it in the future (and I no longer have an older MacOS). Or, just return the SSD while I can still return it.

 

[AlteMac]

This is why perhaps updating an OS should wait until the XX.1 version. IMHO Apple has gotten a bit sloppy with its initial OS releases and Monterey is no exception.

 

[ISKOTB]

I am on Monterey 12.01 with my new 14" Macbook Pro M1 Max.
I tried to use disk utility to erase 2 of my external SSD from exFAT into APFS.

I tried the GUI Disk Utility and Terminal command, basically tried everything that I could search on Google but was not successful.
Every time MacOS just unmount the disk and process stuck there for a few hours without any progress.

Does anyone run into the same issue and know any way to solve this?

I can not access my TM SSD drive at all now https://www.iphonetricks.org/fix-usb-ports-not-working-in-macos-monterey/

 

[randm]

Seems like from other posts in this thread that this issue isn't due to M1 but due to MacOS Monterey? If so, maybe a Monterey update will fix the issue as opposed to requiring a firmware update to the SanDisk (assuming it even supports firmware updates). Just wondering if I should return the SanDisk instead if waiting for a fix.

 

[zarathu]

NO WONDER!. All my back drives are HDD’s.

 

[Morcopy]

Same experience this week with Sandisk Extreme 4TB and Oyen U32 Shadow 4TB, which I need to backup the 4TB SSD in my 2019 MBPro. What a massive waste of my time for something you would think Apple could anticipate.

 

[zarathu]

Same experience this week with Sandisk Extreme 4TB and Oyen U32 Shadow 4TB, which I need to backup the 4TB SSD in my 2019 MBPro. What a massive waste of my time for something you would think Apple could anticipate.

All depends on what the beta testers had/have.

 

[rajs]

Posted this in another thread going to mention here as it's the same issue:

I've a 500 GB Sandisk Extreme (v1) USB C. The device takes FOREVER to get recognized by Monterey [no issues and super fast on High Sierra (iMac), Catalina (MacBook Air) and Big Sur devices (M1 Mac Mini)]. On Monterey (M1 MacBook 14) its dog slow / almost inoperable.

When you hook up this small drive (500gb) - encrypted APFS - it takes way too long to attempt to mount. Eventually it'll mount (~ 5 - 10 mins) but once mounted will be slow. Accessing files via Finder is like slow motion animation as you click on a directory and it expands to show contents, etc..

Running any speed test (Black Magic or AJA) with that disk as a target on Monterey you'll initially see speeds of approx 1-5 MB/sec. If you leave your machine alone (not running any tests) for another 10-15 mins and run the test again you may see improvement and speeds of ~ 250-350 MB/sec. You'll face the same issue again if you reboot your machine (and most likely if it goes to sleep and wakes up again).

If you decide you want to ERASE and reformat the drive -- that will take a LONG time. With this 500GB drive - an ERASE and Format operation (APFS Encrypted) - it must have sat there erasing for around 10-15 mins and then partitioning the drive for ~ 1 hr and then it finished the operation successfully (I've done the numerous times on prior MacOS versions and it all happens within 2-10 seconds or less with this very drive before and again after I did above).

So definitely some issue with the interaction of the Sandisk Firmware / controller stack with Monterey USB / storage / filesystem drivers.

I know there has been zero change on my Sandisk from a firmware perspective. It's obvious something changed in Monterey's USB / storage / file system stack (might well be for the better long term) that is impacting this and possibly other devices.

I have a feeling this is going to have to be addressed by Apple and not Sandisk (as they don't have a way to update firmware for MacOS only users). If Apple doesn't do something to enable these devices to actually be functionally usable again they most likely bricks for us end users as they aren't really functionally usable.

Just my two cents on this. Any line Apple is feeding all of us that its a Sandisk (or XYZ vendor) issue isn't actually helpful at all. It well might be a Sandisk issue and their implementation of some standards (or lack of proper implementation) in the past. BUT that issue didn't seem to rear its head until Apple made some changes to the Apple controlled software stack. Apple should have implemented their change(s) in a manner that it supported the older method as well as their newer method in interacting with these devices (you'd think they actually do some QC with various popular accessories such as external USB C drives ... LOL)

Not sure if this is impacting all Sandisk Extreme variants. Sandisk makes the following models:

• Sandisk Extreme (V1)
• Sandisk Extreme Pro (V1)
• Sandisk Extreme (V2)
• Sandisk Extreme Pro (V2)

[edited to fix a few typos / grammar / etc]

 

[Clix Pix]

I don't know for sure, but IMHO it's definitely Monterey. A couple of months ago I bought a Sandisk 4 TB external SSD and had absolutely no problem in formatting it to APFS in Big Sur. I decided last week that I needed a second one of these as backup so ordered it, the drive arrived from Amazon, I plugged it in and went to Disk Utility to do the formatting and....uh.... Something was wrong. I tried a couple of times. OK, let's try another machine....same results.

Frustrating? Yes. I started mulling things over and realized, bottom line, when I thought about anything that had changed, the fact that I'd just recently done the upgrade from Big Sur to Monterey in my machines elevated the index of suspicion. I did a Google search and found similar reports of the problem, describing the exact same experience I'd been having, and at least one person mentioned that the solution, at least for now, was to simply find a machine which still runs Big Sur and do the formatting there. That's exactly what I did: went to a friend's home, used her Mac with Big Sur to go into Disk Utility and make the magic transformation to totally APFS and voila! My 4 TB drive now performs as expected and no further problems.

Hopefully Apple will resolve this problem with whatever Monterey is doing to interfere with Disk Utility and the ability to format external drives, either HDD or SSD, to APFS without any hassle.

 

[rajs]

… My 4 TB drive now performs as expected and no further problems …

Yup to everything above in regards to the 4TB Variant. But for others on different variants am sure their issue isn’t limited to just format on older OS and it works perfectly. For me and others the issue persists in it being slow.

Separately, I wonder if it’s possible to spin up a VM with Big Sur on Monterey and use that VM to format your drive … might be something useful in the future so you don’t need to drive over to a friends place should a reformat be needed.

 

[Clix Pix]

In my case, not a big deal to go to my friend's home -- she lives in the same condominium community as I do, and so no driving involved, just a simple walk to her place.

I suspect that one of the things which will be included in the next software update for Monterey will be this whole situation around the use of disk utility to properly format a drive in the format one desires......

 

[DirkSchreib]

I have nearly the same problem on an Intel iMac 27“. My TM disk was a 4TB Samsung 860 QVO in an USB-C enclosure (Raidsonic ICY-Box). After upgrading to Monterey the disk was no longer accessible. Erasing/(re-)formatting not possible.

My first thought was a hardware defect and I bought a new SSD (this time an SanDisk Ultra 3D).
This drive worked error-free in the same enclosure on an Apple Silicon MacBook Air M1.

After connecting it to the Intel iMac, it was briefly visible and then unreachable. (Meaning it will show up in Disk Utility, unmounted. Every action (First Aid, Partition, Erase) results in an error.

To create an backup on the Intel iMac, I used it in Target Disk Mode and made a SuperDuper clone from the MacBook Air to the SSD.

Looks like a bug in Monterey to me.

 

[zarathu]

There were several discussions on Monterey and SSD’s on the Apple Community forum on Apple, but starting today, they were all deleted by moderators, and those of us who were responding about things to do or even that there is a bug in Monterey as the issue have had our posts removed and we have received warnings for violating the rules, and that if we persist in talking about problems with Monterey we will lose our ability to post on the community.

They appear to want to shut down any discussion that there are any issues with Monterey at all.