Correct. I posted this in another thread but perhaps it better belongs in this one...
Just received my new Mac Studio Ultra. Same external drive issues:
won't remain consistently mounted... seems to
randomly eject and the notification warning about ejecting pops up like I pulled the cord. It will eject on sleep but will also eject if I don't let the Studio go to sleep, such as when consistently using it. It will also eject if I don't let the drive go to sleep, including one ejection
WHILE transferring files from it (so definitely not asleep).
This does not seem to be a tiny problem. Searches for this issue will point to a fair number of posts here, on other sites and in Apple support forums about THIS issue since BigSur but seemingly even greater since Monterey.
This SAME drive using the SAME cable hooked back up to Intel Macs running earlier macOS remains connected in a stable state for days... as it did for months at a time before I opted to upgrade to this new Mac Studio.
I purchased this enclosure new in 2018 from OWC. It is a 2-disc RAID box and I purchased both HDDs inside at the same time. RAID-0 makes it 28TB (yes, I have backups) and I have about half that holding mostly media to stream to AppleTVs around the house via home sharing: home movies, DVD/BR collection, etc. Since 2018, it has worked exactly as expected on my Intel iMac. Now I feel lucky if it will remain connected to this Studio for even 3 hours.
I think I've tried everything that a user can try:
- 2 new cables USB-A to USB-B
- testing both USB A jacks on the Studio
- tested 2 reliable hubs in-between to see if that might work better than a direct connection
- attaching, manually ejecting, rebooting, attaching
- attaching, manually ejecting, shutting down, attaching, rebooting
- on an idea that maybe only the Studio USB-A jacks might have a bug, I ordered a USB-C to USB-B cable and that yields the same result too. So the bug seems to affect ALL of the jacks.
- there's several references online to using terminal app option: sudo command to change disk sleep from 10 to the maximum number. Tried that, no difference.
- tried a THIRD USB-A to USB-B cable just in case I happened to have 2 bad ones (even though the primary has worked and continues to work fine with Intel Mac connections)
- every combination of Power Saver options. I think there is probably something there as I can almost make the eject happen by putting it to sleep- but not EVERY time. Many times the eject happens while actively using the Studio.
I didn't use migration assistant for this new Mac. Instead I have
manually installed the apps I use one by one to have the cleanest possible install. Since it is brand new, I'm doubting the (zap the) PRAM-type options apply and as a cleanest install, I'm confident I don't have junk stuff migrated from the Intel Mac because I didn't migrate anything.
The LAST thing I could try myself is reformatting it in Monterey, though First Aid confirms nothing wrong and again it works exactly as it should when hooked back up to Intel Macs running earlier macOS versions. It's already in APFS and has been for a few years. I feel like the reformat option will simply have me hooking it and a backup to an old Mac to reload the drive with the same files (about 15TB) to get it back to as it is now. Besides, given how readily it (self) ejects, I'm chicken about trying this option out of concern that it ejects WHILE the formatting process is underway.
At this point- through a good effort at process of elimination- I increasingly feel the problem is in Monterey... but am wide open to anything else I could try myself. On Apple support forums, someone suggested that some drives work and some don't but there doesn't seem to be a way to tell WHICH, so it would be a game of consumer roulette trying to guess... then hope it will maintain a stable connection. Besides this is a 2-drive RAID setup and there is less of that kind of input from the "works perfectly fine for me" crowd.
I really want the U in USB to apply here
This new Mac cost over $6K and seems "latest-greatest." Of all things that could be wrong with a first-gen device, I would think a standard that has existed for what- 20+ years now- should be well implemented and thoroughly debugged by this point. Didn't those FIRST iMacs come with USB jacks?
Obviously, I'm very frustrated with this situation. I miss "just works."
If there's anything else I can try, I'm all ears.
