I'm glad I ran into this thread. I rearranged my desktop power a few weeks ago and inadvertently didn't plug my Time Machine drive back in so it hasn't been backed up for a few weeks. I just plugged it back in and it's running a backup now.
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Sonoma won't mount external drives
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This has also been the only consistent & reliable way to reconnect my External Drives.
Have to shut down, then disconnect drives, then startup & login, then reconnect each drive one at a time while entering the Password for each as it prompts... If it wasn't for having so many other random issues on my end requiring a reboot, I'd be alright for now with this. Very time consuming, though.
Mac mini (Intel, 2018)
None of my drives are encrypted.
Meanwhile, I went thru a reboot, and while all the drives showed up (and were accessible), I still got a window popup saying that it couldn't access one. Hit 'Ignore' and everything still seems fine.
No idea, but too many reporting issues to suggest that we're 'holding it wrong', and its our fault.
Similar issue - I have a SABRENT 4tb SSD and since Sonoma 14.0 update i've been able to see it very shortly and then disappears - doesn't show in disk utility on Mac OS BUT does show in settings under system report - apple experts are baffled - apparently I'm the only one - mmmm doubt it
I will say with mine, the disks always were shown in Disk Utility, it was just an issue actually getting them to mount.
In Settings app for Storage, it never listed my HFS+ drive, even when it was mounted.
because this is not everyone's experience. and because every OS, regardless of what moment we're in, has issues for some people. there's no moment where we arrive at 'perfection'. so we update if we want to. simple 👍
Still, you'd think that if you're the only source for the OS for hardware that you build, and you go through months of in-house Betas, Developer Betas and Public Betas, you'd think that some of these more repeated issues would have popped up somewhere along the line in advance. No?
- Can we ensure that external drives open without issue? Because that's pretty much the point of the added ports and of external drives.
- Can we ensure that using the HDMI port in a Mini will work as advertised on a monitor, or will we end up accepting that it works better thru a USB-C? And we're still not sure why.
- Maybe we avoid screwing with whatever worked in the last OSs, when adding a 'Squirrel!' moment?
if not everyone is having the same issues, then some of these things will rear their (ugly) heads when an OS is out 'in-the-wild'... as is happening for some people with external drives.Still, you'd think that if you're the only source for the OS for hardware that you build, and you go through months of in-house Betas, Developer Betas and Public Betas, you'd think that some of these more repeated issues would have popped up somewhere along the line in advance. No?
- Can we ensure that external drives open without issue? Because that's pretty much the point of the added ports and of external drives.
- Can we ensure that using the HDMI port in a Mini will work as advertised on a monitor, or will we end up accepting that it works better thru a USB-C? And we're still not sure why.
- Maybe we avoid screwing with whatever worked in the last OSs, when adding a 'Squirrel!' moment?
my externals (both HDs, APFS, encrypted) have mounted without issue thru the betas and presently. but if they hadn't, would have reported it in feedback assistant.
moving tech forward brings new issues and challenges (and hopefully, benefits). that whole 'why fix what isn't broken' thinking would leave us all running 1995 macs with picture-tube monitors, and having to wait 10 minutes for a document to print so we could resume using our macs.
progress rules...
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Had a similar issue with my MyCloud NAS not linking to my M1 anymore once updated to Sonoma.
WD's solution is to use their MyCloud software that it no longer supported or working so they were no help.
Could see the drive and it would partially mount, meaning I could read from it but not write to it (you can tell its doing this because the custom Icon changes from the WD default to a standard drive share Icon).
After a few attempts and much swearing I was able to get it to disconnect correctly, finally. Then putting the passwords back in, it has mounted correctly, this time (let's see for how long).
WD's solution is to use their MyCloud software that it no longer supported or working so they were no help.
Could see the drive and it would partially mount, meaning I could read from it but not write to it (you can tell its doing this because the custom Icon changes from the WD default to a standard drive share Icon).
After a few attempts and much swearing I was able to get it to disconnect correctly, finally. Then putting the passwords back in, it has mounted correctly, this time (let's see for how long).
Don't get me wrong - I'm all for progress. Just make sure that when you do progress, you don't break something else that already works and has nothing to do with the progression you made.
I appreciate that not all folks are having the same issue - and that in itself is a concern - but it shouldn't be up to tech-savvy('ish) consumers to have to come to Forum sites for solutions and / or to report it to Apple. The whole advertising direction of Apple for the average user is 'plug and play', and for them, there is the expectation that what worked on the last OS (or yesterday), will work again today. Or be even better.
IIABDFI (If It Ain't Broke...) does apply here.
Hi,
So I've hit this problem today, and it's baffling how did this ship, and how a full work week went by without a fix being released for this issue (we already had two updates for iOS 17). Anyways, less ranting, and more useful information: you can work around this using "diskutil" on the command line.
This depends on how your disk is formatted (the new APFS Container layout, or the older Core Storage). If you don't know, no worries, try the first method and if it doesn't work, diskutil will instruct you to run the second. So, after plugging your disks, and assuming they are encrypted, open a terminal and run:
You will see a list of all the volumes the Mac can see. Search for your external disk, and grab the identifier (should be something like "disk3s2"). Then, assuming the "disk3s2" example (replace with the actual identifier for your disk), run:
Note that up to two prompts asking for passwords will appear, which may be confusing. "Password:" is asking for your Mac's admin password, due to "sudo". "Passphrase:" is asking for the disk password.
If everything goes well, you should have the disk properly mounted now. If not, you may see the following error:
Follow the suggestion and run:
This will list all the CoreStorage volumes. Look for the one you want. Note this may be confusing due to how the hierarchy is presented. You usually want the "Logical Volume Family" one (the second from last on the tree hierarchy) and not the "Logical Volume". Grab the UUID that is right next to that name (something that looks like 2DFBD430-5FD7-11EE-A8B4-5F1EC8397ED9). Then, assuming that UUID as example, run:
Again, mind the Password/Passphrase prompts. Your disk should now be mounted.
Hope this helps, and also that Apple releases a fix for this real soon. Mounting disks on the CLI is something I expect to have to do on other operating systems, not macOS…
Regards,
Miguel Arroz
So I've hit this problem today, and it's baffling how did this ship, and how a full work week went by without a fix being released for this issue (we already had two updates for iOS 17). Anyways, less ranting, and more useful information: you can work around this using "diskutil" on the command line.
This depends on how your disk is formatted (the new APFS Container layout, or the older Core Storage). If you don't know, no worries, try the first method and if it doesn't work, diskutil will instruct you to run the second. So, after plugging your disks, and assuming they are encrypted, open a terminal and run:
Bash:
diskutil listYou will see a list of all the volumes the Mac can see. Search for your external disk, and grab the identifier (should be something like "disk3s2"). Then, assuming the "disk3s2" example (replace with the actual identifier for your disk), run:
Bash:
sudo diskutil apfs unlockVolume disk3s2Note that up to two prompts asking for passwords will appear, which may be confusing. "Password:" is asking for your Mac's admin password, due to "sudo". "Passphrase:" is asking for the disk password.
If everything goes well, you should have the disk properly mounted now. If not, you may see the following error:
Follow the suggestion and run:
Bash:
diskutil coreStorage listThis will list all the CoreStorage volumes. Look for the one you want. Note this may be confusing due to how the hierarchy is presented. You usually want the "Logical Volume Family" one (the second from last on the tree hierarchy) and not the "Logical Volume". Grab the UUID that is right next to that name (something that looks like 2DFBD430-5FD7-11EE-A8B4-5F1EC8397ED9). Then, assuming that UUID as example, run:
Bash:
sudo diskutil coreStorage unlockVolume 2DFBD430-5FD7-11EE-A8B4-5F1EC8397ED9Again, mind the Password/Passphrase prompts. Your disk should now be mounted.
Hope this helps, and also that Apple releases a fix for this real soon. Mounting disks on the CLI is something I expect to have to do on other operating systems, not macOS…
Regards,
Miguel Arroz
Same issue for me. I have an M2 Mac Mini with an external drive (8TB HDD) that is formatted AFPS encrypted. It is where I store ALL my music, video and photos. After upgrading to Sonoma, a message stating "The disk "the name of the external drive" can't be unlocked. A problem was detected with the disk, which prevents it from being unlocked." Oddly, I can't even connect it to my two other computers: a late 2008 laptop running El Capitan and a 2013 iMac running Catalina. I am getting the same error message. Did the upgrade do something to the external HDD or am I the one at fault. Hoping a solution pops up somewhere. Thanks.
Just bought a new iMac and stupidly/mistakenly upgraded to Sonoma while transferring files from my other iMac to this new one.
I have the Lacie 1TB Rugged SSD Pro External Drive which mounted easily before Sonoma. Afterwards no, it would not and I received a message saying so but after two simple reboots it now works.
I have the Lacie 1TB Rugged SSD Pro External Drive which mounted easily before Sonoma. Afterwards no, it would not and I received a message saying so but after two simple reboots it now works.
Thanks Miguel! That worked for me. I have a WD 8TB USB 3.0 enclosure (encrypted APFS+, used for Time Machine and storage) that mounted after a reboot, but I still have a Thunderbolt 3 NVME SSD (DIY with a Pluggable enclosure and my own NVME M.2 SSD) that is APFS+ encrypted that refused to mount. Your method worked!
interesting, as i bragged on this thread about how my AFPS encrypted externals were working fine since sonoma beta 1... now, on the 14.1 beta, they're not showing up on startup.
one of them doesn't respond to the password entry when i try to access it from Disk Utility (am stuck on the password screen). and the other mounts without it's password entered 🙄
will report to apple and read thru this thread for a temp fix 👍
EDIT: a reboot let me enter the password for one drive and then that mounted. but the 2nd drive is mounting without it's password requested
one of them doesn't respond to the password entry when i try to access it from Disk Utility (am stuck on the password screen). and the other mounts without it's password entered 🙄
will report to apple and read thru this thread for a temp fix 👍
EDIT: a reboot let me enter the password for one drive and then that mounted. but the 2nd drive is mounting without it's password requested
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HERE! M2 Pro Mac mini. I have an external APFS formatted ADATA M2 2TB external ssd in Xcellon USB C 3.2 enclosure (NOT encrypted). Worked perfectly until the update to Sonoma. I was concerned that the update somehow corrupted something, but is certainly not the case as the drive and usb cable still work as expected on other non-sonoma systems i've plugged it into.
After the update, the drive in question (which is the only one of my two external drives having problems, more info below) stopped mounting, with a window popping up (will get a screenshot later) saying that it could not mount, and some options which included ignoring, and initializing anyway. Clicking on initialize does nothing. Diskutil and Disk Utility see that a device is connectd, but cannot read any info from it, and it shows a capacity of 0K. One attempt at a reboot did result in the drive being mounted for a few seconds, long enough that I was able to navigate to the drive in finder and see the data i have there. Shortly after, unmounted and have not been able to do anything about it since.
I am discouraged in that among the subset of people who are experiencing this, I dont know how many also have un-encrypted drives, and as such i'm not sure the proposed solutions are applicable.
Oddly enough, I have a samsung T5 external ssd, with an encrypted partition for time machine, and an unencrypted partition for additional data, that IS working as expected, upon reboot i need to enter the encryption password, and then mounts fine. Did not expect this kind of err on the part of Apple when it comes to their OS.
Sonoma certainly broke something for some of us, and I hope this is taken seriously.
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Have you tried a shutdown vs a reboot? I was not having much luck with a reboot, but a full shutdown was working. Note I didn't disconnect anything on shutdown, I just let the system shutdown and the drives spin down, then I started back up again.
I'm in the process of getting ready to clone one of my external HDDs to a new external SSD enclosure. So this morning I removed the drive from the OWC enclosure and plugged it into an external dock. I restarted and all 3 drive (I only mount 3 of the 4 on boot) did mount fine.
I did a lot of switching drives to AFPS instead of HFS+, but I don't think that did anything in the end, especially as yours are already AFPS.
i'll try a shutdown. one drive does mount after it's password entered, the other mounts without any password request. but will see if that changes, and report back 👍
Just to be clear, this one mounts without a password because there is a saved entry in Keychain for it?
Just wanting to make sure you aren't saying an encrypted drive is mounting without any password being required.
that's a really-good point, and... it IS in the keychain, but i can't delete it there, nothing happens when i try. it explains, at least, why that drive is being logged in.
i did not ever click 'remember this password in my keychain', so... it's still a problem.
thanks for the idea! 🙏
EDIT: went into keychain access, selected the problematic drive, and then checked "ask for keychain password" it was unchecked). shut down. rebooted. and that drive still mounts without the password 😔
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That's really interesting as the "can't delete record from Keychain" was happening to me right after my Sonoma upgrade. This is what initially led me down a path of thinking maybe the upgrade corrupted the Keychain somehow. Annoyingly, I reset my login keychain to see if that helped. While it cleared everything out, it didn't initially help with the drives mounting.
However, as of my latest cleared Keychain, I am able to delete entries. So now idea whether the reset fixed that, or some random reboot.
One last thing to suggest for troubleshooting - try a new user account and see if they mount. Again, initially after my upgrade when I was having the problems that I thought might be the Keychain, I created a new user account. That account mounted the drives fine after entering the password. However, somewhere along the way, I tried in that same user account and it also started having issues mounting.
I HATE these types of problems where it seems the goal line is constantly shifting so you never know exactly what and where to troubleshoot.
Something is now preventing me from unlocking my Mac. Looks like it's taking my Password but then I get the spinning circle and then after a brief moment it reverts back to the screensaver. I've had to hard reboot twice today, now 3 times. Each time I'm having to remember to unplug all of my External Drives and then manually reconnect them after signing back in.. What a **** Sh0w