.... are you saying that the comments were about just poor wifi performance or are you suggesting that wifi being on causes the tb3 ports to have intermittent disconnections?
because the second sounds quite unlikely if not impossible.
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Mac Mini 2018 External Drives Disconnecting (TB3)
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because the second sounds quite unlikely if not impossible.
Is it really? interferences can cause errors in digital connections if strong enough, the cable is copper in any case
The problem stated by OWC and noticed by several people in system info report is under powered ports.
I’m not an electrical engineer but I think any consumer wireless radio would be hard pushed to create interference over a wired connection.
I have noticed on Apple laptops that shutting off wifi gives a huge increase in battery time, therefore, Wi-Fi uses tons of power. Maybe the entire Mac mini is underpowered by it’s Power supply.
that said. I have had visits from cellular engineers to my little mac shop amd sure enough we found external DVD burner putting out enough rf interference to hamper cell calls up to 100 feet away. (they actually came for another idiot who took down half of hollywood with a cellular boost device setup incorrectly. I won’t say what he did so others won’t get any funny ideas.) lol.
And consider this. “This device must accept all interference and create non” which is still a law in the USA and elsewhere. (Despite those stickers disappearing)
Why? Because it’s a sick world outside the gates. Ergo, there are vans that run around every major city in the world detecting radiation as small as a woman leaving a chemo session shutting down the Holland tunnel or other in nyc a decade back.
if the right signal is picked up..a jet dumps an emp on the whole city and kills every single electronic device not in a military hands. Including every car computer.
those copper traces are very similar to antennas. Maybe that’s why Wi-Fi is doing this.
Once again, Apple let the design team trump the damn engineers (who don’t quit). The Mac mini should have external antennae. Even if that’s in a plastic bumper around the damn exterior to keep it external and not internal. Then maybe my rev 1 Apple magic Bluetooth keyboard would not disconnect every five minutes like it didnt with the 2014 mini I replaced with my new and apparently soon to be returned 2018 mini?
Why? Because it’s a sick world outside the gates. Ergo, there are vans that run around every major city in the world detecting radiation as small as a woman leaving a chemo session shutting down the Holland tunnel or other in nyc a decade back.
if the right signal is picked up..a jet dumps an emp on the whole city and kills every single electronic device not in a military hands. Including every car computer.
those copper traces are very similar to antennas. Maybe that’s why Wi-Fi is doing this.
Once again, Apple let the design team trump the damn engineers (who don’t quit). The Mac mini should have external antennae. Even if that’s in a plastic bumper around the damn exterior to keep it external and not internal. Then maybe my rev 1 Apple magic Bluetooth keyboard would not disconnect every five minutes like it didnt with the 2014 mini I replaced with my new and apparently soon to be returned 2018 mini?
So, interestingly, one of the known not-supported devices for the 2018 Mac mini is the OWC Envoy Pro line - and I've noticed that they now show it as incompatible with any 2018 or 2019 MacBook Pro and the 2019 Mac Pro.
I wonder if that's an indication of weird behaviour in the TB3 controllers Apple is using, or they are using...
I wonder if that's an indication of weird behaviour in the TB3 controllers Apple is using, or they are using...
Well so much for that theory.
As stated above, the OWC product page lists a bunch of current model Macs as incompatible. Their "sales" staff person I chatted to basically had no information about it, but the technical staff came through with this nugget of depressing news:
I asked about turning off Wifi as a possible solution, and he responded:
I remembered that the previous (when only the Mac mini was listed as incompatible, and it was believed to be power related) suggestion was that the Envoy Pro could be used if daisy chained via a TB3 device with it's own power supply, so I asked if that was a viable solution - using a device with a longer/changeable TB3 cable and then daisy chaining from it.
His response was:
@Stephen.R I can share my experience with you. I ordered 2 OWC Envoy Pro TB3 drives during the Black Friday sales for my new Mini setup. 1 1 TB for CCC and 1 480 for Parallels Win 10 . I had constant disconnects with the 1 TB drive and the other was fine while using WiFi and contacted OWC about this issue. They said the 1 TB must be faulty and cross shipped a new drive. +1 for OWC customer service. 👍
With only the 480 connected it started to randomly disconnect. Hummm something is not right. It was not disconnecting before. Strange. 🤔
I then recalled a mention in a forum post about turning off the Wifi to fix the problem. I'll give this a shot. Over the next few days I had to reconfigure my home network to get a Lan connection to my Mini. ( Erro Pro ) During this time the new drive arrived. I hooked everything up, Lan, the new 1 TB and the old 480. Turned off the WiFi. I have not had a single disconnect since. 😬
During the troubleshooting phase I noticed that as long as I was not surfing the web I had no disconnects. As soon as I started to send data via WiFi the disconnects started happening. That lead me to believe that the Wifi signals may indeed be the issue.
Hope this helps you and maybe someone else with these issues.
With only the 480 connected it started to randomly disconnect. Hummm something is not right. It was not disconnecting before. Strange. 🤔
I then recalled a mention in a forum post about turning off the Wifi to fix the problem. I'll give this a shot. Over the next few days I had to reconfigure my home network to get a Lan connection to my Mini. ( Erro Pro ) During this time the new drive arrived. I hooked everything up, Lan, the new 1 TB and the old 480. Turned off the WiFi. I have not had a single disconnect since. 😬
During the troubleshooting phase I noticed that as long as I was not surfing the web I had no disconnects. As soon as I started to send data via WiFi the disconnects started happening. That lead me to believe that the Wifi signals may indeed be the issue.
Hope this helps you and maybe someone else with these issues.
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Thanks for the detailed description.
It definitely seems to tie in with what they're saying, but unfortunately it rules it out as a viable product for me. While my main use would be connected to a Mini - I do occasionally need to use it with a 2018 MBP15 when I'm not at home, and being unable to use Wifi from the MBP would definitely be a huge issue in that scenario.
For now I'm using an M2 in a USB 3.1G2 case. Most tasks I need it for don't really suffer much, but the extra speed would have been nice when doing multi-VM operations.
First.... very glad that I found this thread. I just bought a new 2018 Mac mini and my hard drives are constantly disconnecting. In-fact it's so bad that I can't even make a backup. All this time I've thought that it was my hard drive enclosures that were bad, so I went out to buy new enclosures today, but here all along it is the Mac mini TB3/USB-C ports that seem to be buggy. I have had Mac minis since they first came out, and have always loved every one of them, but with this 2018 model I am a bit disheartened and disappointed.
Has anyone found a work around for this? As I understand it the hard drive enclosures from every brand around has had issues disconnecting with the 2018 Mac mini.
Has anyone found a work around for this? As I understand it the hard drive enclosures from every brand around has had issues disconnecting with the 2018 Mac mini.
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"Has anyone found a work around for this? As I understand it the hard drive enclosures from every brand around has had issues disconnecting with the 2018 Mac mini."
Check your cables.
I have several external drives -- USBa, USB3.1 gen2, USB3/SATA docking station -- all work fine with my 2018 Mini.
Do you use a hub?
If so, DISCONNECT it, and connect your peripherals directly to the Mini. Does that change anything?
Check your cables.
I have several external drives -- USBa, USB3.1 gen2, USB3/SATA docking station -- all work fine with my 2018 Mini.
Do you use a hub?
If so, DISCONNECT it, and connect your peripherals directly to the Mini. Does that change anything?
I have 3 external SSD hooked directly to my thunderbolts. Samsung T5 and 2 crucial’s (mx300 & mx500), I only ever got the improperly ejected from the Samsung. It did not do it for months then I did some moving around reconnect and updated the software on the T5 and boom it was doing it every night again. I would have 5 + notifications. I unchecked the auto download software updates on the T5 and it stopped again. I haven’t had it happen in a few weeks now.
I believe this issue that everyone is having is only while using the TB3/USB-C ports WITH USB-C (mostly) 3.5 drives.
As with others, my SSD seems to be fine, but none of my 3.5 drives work.
I am not using a hub. The drives are plugged directly into the Mac mini.
I would invest in and buy a USB-C hub (as a work around) but I'm not aware of any manufacture that makes a USB-C hub with more than one or two USB-C ports in it. A USB A style hub is not going to support the speeds that I need (which is the whole point of USB-C for me) so that's not really an option.
I see 10.15.5 was just released...yeah 😃
Nothing in it to fix the Bluetooth issue, or the disconnecting hard drive issue...boo
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That is because the wifi still sends out some kind of signal at times when the user shuts it off. Hows that for sneaky? But I agree.. there still is a chance it's more than one thing or something else. But I thought it gets better with wifi off? Anyone? if so.. it's definitely related to that.
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Here is an update from OWC on this subject and my latest follow up questions for my clients who are holding off buying a Mac until they know it works as advertised. I keep getting the run around at apple as they claim they never heard of it. But I'll try calling the tech department number they gave me some time back when I was too busy to waste another hour on this question. Come on Apple.. I'll gladly implement the testing I did on the motherboard repairs we used to do. We had a 1 in 400 return rate.. I hear some apple departments have a 1 in 3. And that was an Apple tech saying that. I find it a little high myself.
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OWC Mark C @ 2:48 pm on July 22, 2020
An adjustment to the shielding is what brought resolution to the issue. Significant testing was completed before moving forward with this solution – something that shouldn’t have been needed or happen in the first place. But we are glad to put this into the rearview.
Reply
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John Parziale @ 6:58 pm on July 22, 2020
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I thought so.
OK.. just a few more for the online world and all who might be asking the same:
1-Can anyone find out if the airport card in the new Mac mini 2020 “reboot” has a different part number?
2-So we are sure it’s the airport card and not a bus power or power supply power issue?
3-I found all the older Mac wireless keyboards and Mice don’t work with this new Mac mini even 1/10th as far away.. as it did with the five other models we have here from 2007-2014 Mbp and mini’s. Have you guys seen this and
4-Is there any improvement with the new apple bluetooth devices? or some aftermarket one?
5- What is the current list of Mac models which have this issue? Even a rough estimate would be helpful.
Thanks again for being there for me and my clients.. since 1992 if memory serves.
Here is the link to the OWC blog discussing this.
blog.macsales.com
OWC Envoy Pro EX Now Supports All Thunderbolt 3 Equipped Macs
With Thunderbolt 3 compatibility issues resolved with Intel, OWC offers the enhancement to all existing Envoy Pro EX Thunderbolt 3 customers shipping cost only.
blog.macsales.com
I hear you.. in an ideal world.. but the frequencies your body puts out when you are in a ****** mood is ten times what all computers must accept by FCC laws. "must accept even undesirable interference" as it used to say on the back of all electronic gear until about 2000.
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If one of you want to beat me to it.. take some wifi cables out of an old MacBook Pro or better an Imac and use that to move the antenna out of the Mac mini 2018 somehow and maybe direct it to the opposite side of your drives or shield the antenna for the first several inches where it comes out. This would be a nice fix that wouldn't require non apple add ons.. and disconnecting the wifi card if it's even possible to do inside this model. Does anyone know?
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Because I may need to occasionally put my clients internal SSD drives inside some external case for transferring to larger upgraded internal drives, and because I am not even 10% sure you can open the premade built and drive populated Samsung or Sabrent etc external NVMe type hard drives, it may be better to purchase an external case and build one’s own super speed NVMe equipped 2 TB or larger SSDs for the Mac Mini 2018 we sadly purchased before learning of this issue, or any machine really.
Hopefully most of these manufacturers have heard from their customers and vendors about the disconnecting External hard drives issue and have put additional shielding in their cables and possibly drive? Just as OWC informed me was their fix for the issue. (They replaced tons of drives with newer ones, for free they said).
I wonder if Owc sells a better shielded cable now that they have experienced this issue?
Hopefully most of these manufacturers have heard from their customers and vendors about the disconnecting External hard drives issue and have put additional shielding in their cables and possibly drive? Just as OWC informed me was their fix for the issue. (They replaced tons of drives with newer ones, for free they said).
I wonder if Owc sells a better shielded cable now that they have experienced this issue?
Does anyone know if you can open the premade Samsung T7’s andetc?
And since TB3 has two issues for me:
1- I don’t want to carry three adapters to make thunderbolt 3 work with older macs or the very rare pc I might encounter..
2- TB3 is really only 20Gbps for data as half it’s band with is reserved for video.. (if anyone else can confirm that??)
I have decided to stick with usb products only. thoughts?
And since TB3 has two issues for me:
1- I don’t want to carry three adapters to make thunderbolt 3 work with older macs or the very rare pc I might encounter..
2- TB3 is really only 20Gbps for data as half it’s band with is reserved for video.. (if anyone else can confirm that??)
I have decided to stick with usb products only. thoughts?
.
Which models did you notice were putting out slightly more disruptive Wi-Fi signals? Imacs and especially 2019 16” Mbp’s
As seen when Owc said the sentence:
“.. These reports began with certain new Macs and PCs and this ended up being related to a WiFi change. ”
Which models did you notice were putting out slightly more disruptive Wi-Fi signals? Imacs and especially 2019 16” Mbp’s
As seen when Owc said the sentence:
“.. These reports began with certain new Macs and PCs and this ended up being related to a WiFi change. ”
Which model do you have?
This is what over found by digging into this more than I should:
- answer: “interestingly, one of the known not-supported devices for the 2018 Mac mini is the OWC Envoy Pro line - and I've noticed that they now show it as incompatible with any 2018 or 2019 MacBook Pro and the 2019 Mac Pro.”
- All of which was fixed by more shielding in that drive wirh a near free replacement.
- “.. These reports began with certain new Macs and PCs and this ended up being related to a WiFi change. ”
- My analysis is that if your particular drive doesn’t have just the right shielding
- Seems to me with this Wi-Fi change Apple May be violating the FCC laws of causing interference. Not the first time if you have been paying attention.. and they seem to get away with it. Remember when your iphone one would make your radios fo crazy? Total violation no other cell did that before it.
I know this is an ancient thread but I've had the same issues with my 2018 Mini. I've been going nuts with this. I thought it was a Bluetooth issue. I've now moved my TB3 NVMe enclosure as far as it will go (around two and a half feet), switched to an external Bluetooth dongle (I'd gotten beforehand), and took out all other Thunderbolt/USB 3.1 cables... and am looking forward to seeing if all that works!
Late to the party... but I have a 2018 Mac mini. Recently, I've had external hard drives just ... stop working. Finder or other applications that use the drives will stall or hang for a long time, and then say "Resource Busy." The drives themselves have no blinking lights, no tell-tale signs of a hard drive click of death. There's nothing logged on the Mac to indicate a problem. The only fix is to power-cycle the drives.
The drives that have suffered this fate were all connected via USB-C. It happened five times in a week to an otherwise reliable Glyph BlackBox, and now to a brand new USB-C SATA enclosure.
I've also had random issues with the built-in 10Gbps Ethernet interface dropping all traffic for seconds or minutes at a time, and occasionally leading to a kernel panic.
I genuinely believe the 2018 Mini has deep flaws in the circuitry and Apple cannot or will not admit it, because the issues all show up well outside the warranty periods.
The drives that have suffered this fate were all connected via USB-C. It happened five times in a week to an otherwise reliable Glyph BlackBox, and now to a brand new USB-C SATA enclosure.
I've also had random issues with the built-in 10Gbps Ethernet interface dropping all traffic for seconds or minutes at a time, and occasionally leading to a kernel panic.
I genuinely believe the 2018 Mini has deep flaws in the circuitry and Apple cannot or will not admit it, because the issues all show up well outside the warranty periods.
I've been using a 2018 Mini very heavily for three years and have three 2tb SSD's directly connected via USB-C all the time. This has been very stable, but every now and then one or two of the drives will disconnect unexpectedly. It doesn't happen often (maybe once every couple months) and never happens while they are in use - it can happen when I leave the computer on overnight, for example.
I also have 4 additional 2tb USB-C SSD's that I use regularly to backup the internal and external SSD's. All together, I have four Samsung T7's, two WD Black game drives and one Samsung T7 Shield. All of them are 2tb capacity. No real problems with any of these.
Your conclusion that "the 2018 Mini has deep flaws in the circuitry" really doesn't match my own experience (but maybe I'm just lucky?). I also have the 10gb ethernet option but only use it at 1gb speed - no problems there, but I've seen other reports about issues.
I also have 4 additional 2tb USB-C SSD's that I use regularly to backup the internal and external SSD's. All together, I have four Samsung T7's, two WD Black game drives and one Samsung T7 Shield. All of them are 2tb capacity. No real problems with any of these.
Your conclusion that "the 2018 Mini has deep flaws in the circuitry" really doesn't match my own experience (but maybe I'm just lucky?). I also have the 10gb ethernet option but only use it at 1gb speed - no problems there, but I've seen other reports about issues.
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