Help SSD sometimes not read on Mac

[azzuredev]

This problem sometimes occurs, when I connect my external SSD to my Mac, the SSD cannot be read. You can see it in the disk utility application, it just spins. in the Tuxera application it can be read, but cannot be mounted or ejected.
The only way is via the terminal by typing the instruction "diskutil unmountDisk force disk2" and waiting a long time, after that the SSD can be read.
You can see in the second picture, after force unmounting, the SSD is read in the disk utility application, after that, just mount it, the SSD is ready to be used.

Do I have to do this every time I want to access data on the external drive? is there a way so i don't have to do that?


Macbook pro 2019 16"
macOS Sonoma 14.1
Lexar 1TB Exfat SSD.

 

[DarkPremiumCho]

I suspect the exFAT filesystem. Similar issues happened to me. I had to switch to HFS+ or APFS from then.

Some software that adds 3rd party filesystems support to your Mac could also cause similar problems, especially those require admin privileges.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Lexar 1TB Exfat SSD."

Erase the drive and choose either:
HFS+ (Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format)
or
APFS (with GUID partition format).

 

[azzuredev]

I suspect the exFAT filesystem. Similar issues happened to me. I had to switch to HFS+ or APFS from then.

Some software that adds 3rd party filesystems support to your Mac could also cause similar problems, especially those require admin privileges.

"Lexar 1TB Exfat SSD."

Erase the drive and choose either:
HFS+ (Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format)
or
APFS (with GUID partition format).

The problem is that I have to work on two OS, Mac and Windows, it would be very troublesome if I didn't use exfat.
what about NTFS?
because it is easier for me to open and access NTFS on macOS than to open APFS on Windows.

 

[misterlwc]

Somona 14.1 fixes an issue where encrypted external HDD/SSD's may not mount correctly as per the release notes about this update, therefore if your external drive is encrypted, potentially installing a software update may resolve this issue. When it comes to NTFS, support is limited on Mac OS, from personal experience I installed MacFuse to extend macOS's native file handling capabilities via third-party file systems including NTFS which greatly helped me.

Apart from that I may recommend running First Aid on your external disk/volume, the disk doesn't always need to mount to run this check, via terminal to check the disk its "diskutil verifydisk (insert disk identifier eg, disk1)" and to check the volume it's "diskutil verifyvolume (insert disk identifier eg, disk1s2)" although checking the volume only supports narrative file systems, a repair can be attempted by changing the "verify" command to a "repair" command, although there is a possibility this will result in data loss, again only supporting Apple file systems.

 

[Fishrrman]

You probably don't want to use NTFS on a "shared drive" between Mac and PC.
One can do it -- but it could prove to be troublesome.
And I think you'll need additional software on the Mac side to read the drive.

 

[azzuredev]

Somona 14.1 fixes an issue where encrypted external HDD/SSD's may not mount correctly as per the release notes about this update, therefore if your external drive is encrypted, potentially installing a software update may resolve this issue. When it comes to NTFS, support is limited on Mac OS, from personal experience I installed MacFuse to extend macOS's native file handling capabilities via third-party file systems including NTFS which greatly helped me.

Apart from that I may recommend running First Aid on your external disk/volume, the disk doesn't always need to mount to run this check, via terminal to check the disk its "diskutil verifydisk (insert disk identifier eg, disk1)" and to check the volume it's "diskutil verifyvolume (insert disk identifier eg, disk1s2)" although checking the volume only supports narrative file systems, a repair can be attempted by changing the "verify" command to a "repair" command, although there is a possibility this will result in data loss, again only supporting Apple file systems.

once detected, I tried to First Aid & diskutil verifyvolume in terminal, there is a difference between the two.

terminal says "Problem -69842 occurred while restoring the original mount state" and after. The SSD cannot be remounted.

You probably don't want to use NTFS on a "shared drive" between Mac and PC.
One can do it -- but it could prove to be troublesome.
And I think you'll need additional software on the Mac side to read the drive.

Yes, you're right NTFS is very troublesome, but the Exfat problem has not been resolved, there is no other choice for me to use a format that can be read on Mac & PC.
Currently I have used additional software, "tuxera" really helped me in managing NTFS drives.

 

[DarkPremiumCho]

The problem is that I have to work on two OS, Mac and Windows, it would be very troublesome if I didn't use exfat.
what about NTFS?
because it is easier for me to open and access NTFS on macOS than to open APFS on Windows.

NTFS is proprietary as well, hence there could be potential problems on a not-natively-supported OS.