Western Digital My Book (Duo) drivers & sleep mode

[loekf]

Are there more people with a Western Digital My Book Duo (in RAID0) external drive ? Have the impression it started after a recent Monterrey update.

Since a few weeks I notice some strange behaviour:

- iMac goes to sleep (iMac 2019)
- Drive (via USB-C) goes to sleep
- USB (via USB-A) hub is off
- A few minutes later, USB hub is on again, drives wakes up again
- Few minutes later, drive goes to sleep
- Few minutes later, drive wakes up
- Few minutes later, drive goes to sleep
- etc.

I noticed this because the Duo at some point went into some kind of vacuum cleaner mode (loud spinning fan), guess
due to overheating.

I tried a few things, like turning off macOS "put drives to sleep when not in use" and making the My Book's internal sleep timer longer, shorter or turning it off.

Nothing helps. My suspicion is some macOS thing. My other regular MyBooks (using USB-A) seem to behave, when the Duo is not present. I tried an older Duo I also have (same case, smaller drives). Same effect.

 

[WebHead]

This just started happening for me too, with 12.3.1 (which coincided with a HD replacement). Not with a hub though, direct USB connection.

Prior to that my MyBook spun up and down fairly frequently, but now it's constant. I also have trouble mounting it initially, have to power the drive off and on.

 

[WebHead]

Have downloaded the WD Drive Utilities app and disabled built-in sleep. Hoping things stabilise with only the OS in control.

 

[WebHead]

Not spinning up and down as often, but still too much for my liking (roughly half-hourly).

Have disabled "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" and will just let the HD spin while the Mac's awake.

 

[chabig]

Macs do not require drivers for external drives and behavior is usually best when users discard, rather than install, and manufacturer provided software.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

There is something wrong, probably with Monterey, especially showing itself with HDD-based RAID drives. There are many threads about all kinds of wackiness revolving around externals not maintaining a consistent connection to Macs upgraded to Monterey (and some Big Sur) with the same drives, same cables, etc all working just fine on < Big Sur macOS versions. This seems to apply to both Silicon and Intel Macs and the key catalyst (variable) is macOS upgrades from something before Monterey to Monterey.

My own issue is a HDD RAID-0 won't stay consistently connected: "unexpectedly ejected" somewhere between minutes to a few hours after it is available to my new Studio. It has worked perfectly fine on the Intel Mac running macOS < Big Sur for a couple of years... AND works fine again when I re-attach it to those Intel Macs now using same cable, etc (no other variable changes).

Many share this problem with all kinds of RAID and non-RAID externals and some single HDD and SSD drives (but seemingly more of a problem with HDD than SSD). There are many threads about these kinds of issues. I've tested through everything I can test as a user and am mostly convinced Monterey has USB bugs. Hopefully Apple will get around to debugging it soon.

While that issue seems different than OPs, there may be some relationship between the two since both are about disconnecting externals.

That shared, others claim no problems at all (either way) so this seems to be "hit or miss" as far as whether the U in USB applies to any given piece of external hardware. Some things apparently work fine. Others don't. My single drive HDDs and SSDs seem to generally stay connected just fine but that RAID will not, even disconnecting while neither it nor the Mac are asleep (such as while transferring files from it to Studio or vice versa).

So far, there doesn't seem to be any common element to help determine which externals may work or won't work. Even some from the same manufacturers split: some work and some don't.

Having been working on this for weeks, I doubt you are going to find a solution in WD custom software, nor making any changes to power/sleep settings. I've tried EVERYTHING and find myself in a "give up" state, awaiting updated macOS versions in which maybe this part of things will finally get resolved. It will be nice to be able to reliably use a HDD-RAID again with this brand new Mac.

 

[WebHead]

Macs do not require drivers for external drives and behavior is usually best when users discard, rather than install, and manufacturer provided software.

That is normally my approach, only in this case I needed a method of disabling the drive's built-in sleep function.

My external HD now sleeps when the Mac sleeps and wakes when the Mac wakes. Probably preferable to spinning up and down a few dozen times a day.

 

[WebHead]

I've tried EVERYTHING and find myself in a "give up" state, awaiting updated macOS versions in which maybe this part of things will finally get resolved.

I think I just reached the same state :\

Have worked around the frequent wakeups but now HD contents are not appearing in Finder until the drive is rebooted.