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Problem Samsung T5 and MacMini 2018

A

Alwis

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 12, 2017
440
508
Hi,

I have the 2018 MacMini, i7, 32GB 512GB SSD. Via USB-C a 1TB Samsung T5 is connected (formatted as APFS).

This worked without any problems, but after waking up the Mini from Sleep I got dozens of Notifications, that the Samsung external drive has not been properly ejected before sleep.

Why this? I am working with external drives on my iMac for ages and hd never any issues after waking up the iMac from sleep... Is this a known problem with the T5?

Thanks for your help!

Alwis
 
Sun Baked said:
When checking the USB device tree, does yours list 500ma available, 896ma required, 0ma extra for the 1TB T5?
Click to expand...
That is what I have listed under the USB 3.1 Bus where my Samsung 1TB T-5 is plugged (I am using the USB C cable it came with). Is this a problem?
 
KennethS said:
That is what I have listed under the USB 3.1 Bus where my Samsung 1TB T-5 is plugged (I am using the USB C cable it came with). Is this a problem?
Click to expand...
Just something I noticed when I had 2 bus powered USB-C SSDs plugged in, along with a USB-C Displayport cable.

Something seemed off, noticed this in the system report and unplugged 1 drive and the issues vanished.

I can see the forced disk ejects being related to the issue.

Hopefully it is something Apple fixes with a firmware update, and these ports are designed to deliver more than 500mA.
 
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I've had my mini for about a month now with a 500GB Samsung T5 attached, and, on just one occasion, I experienced the same issue with the T5 ejecting while the mini was in sleep mode. The only other device attached to a USB C port at the time was a 32B thumb drive. I have no idea what caused this.
 
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Just to let you know that I got the same issue with my external WD SSD passport, look like they need a software update.
 
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In 26 days, during which I've owned two minis that are running about 14 hours/day, always with two external drives connected, I have yet to have a drive self-eject.

All I'm getting is the computer bitching at me every time that I fail to properly eject the external GPU, a new toy that I need to learn to treat like an external drive :)
 
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Problems, problems, problems. Why do I keep reading about all these problems with the new mini?! I spent over $3300 for my new mini and am seriously thinking about canceling the order. What are your guys thoughts on all these problems?
 
I have 2 spinning hard drives attached via usb3. Never a problem with either drive or time machine. I have turned off sleep. The drives take a few seconds to connect and start up but otherwise it has been solid. These are $180 10tb 5400 rpm drives and I’m really happy with it all. I even have the mini sharing a monitor, keyboard and mouse with 2 win7 machines - the monitor switching within the samsung monitor and keyboard/mouse switcher with usb keyboard, usb attached magic trackppad 2, and regular usb attach mouse.
 
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DomKud said:
Problems, problems, problems. Why do I keep reading about all these problems with the new mini?
Click to expand...

Because you’re visiting a forum, on the internet. A user that experiences problems and issues with a device is much more motivated to talk about, discuss and solve them. This is not limited to the Mac Mini, or any Mac or other computer. It‘s natural and easy to forget that those users running into issues are most certainly a minority regardless of how vocal they are.

Let me add the perspective of a satisfied user: No problems here at all with a Samsung T5 plugged-in 24/7.
 
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Exact same problem here. Samsung T5 1TB, Mac Mini 2018 base model (i3/8/128), macOS 10.14.2. When the machine sleeps overnight it wakes with the drive ejected and the message about not properly ejecting.

This new mini replaces a previous 2010 mini with an external spinning drive that never exhibited this behavior. The T5 is connected via USB-C. It also shows the same weird power information (in system information) as described in posts above. There are no other peripherals than the monitor and this single T5 SSD.

I've tried with "put hard disks to sleep when possible" both on and off.
I've tried with "enable power nap" both on and off.
Same problem.

If I only sleep for 30 minutes or so then it wakes with the drive still mounted. It has to sleep for some number of hours before encountering this problem.

For now, I manually unmount the drive before sleeping and manually mount after wake, but that is a regression from the 2010 mini behavior.
 
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Originalbitman said:
My i7 512 32 has had a T5 and an X5 plugged in and mounted 24/7 without issue for several weeks.
Click to expand...
Are you sleeping the machine for extended periods (> 8 hours)?
How are the drives formatted? Are they encrypted?
Do they exhibit the same power info as reported above in the system report?

My T5 is formatted APFS and encrypted. I would dearly love to find a way to sleep the system without being required to manually mount/unmount the external drive.
 
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ElectricPotato said:
Exact same problem here. Samsung T5 1TB, Mac Mini 2018 base model (i3/8/128), macOS 10.14.2. When the machine sleeps overnight it wakes with the drive ejected and the message about not properly ejecting.

This new mini replaces a previous 2010 mini with an external spinning drive that never exhibited this behavior. The T5 is connected via USB-C. It also shows the same weird power information (in system information) as described in posts above. There are no other peripherals than the monitor and this single T5 SSD.

I've tried with "put hard disks to sleep when possible" both on and off.
I've tried with "enable power nap" both on and off.
Same problem.

If I only sleep for 30 minutes or so then it wakes with the drive still mounted. It has to sleep for some number of hours before encountering this problem.

For now, I manually unmount the drive before sleeping and manually mount after wake, but that is a regression from the 2010 mini behavior.
Click to expand...
Excellent summary ElectricPotato. I am having the same problem intermittently with a T5 (APFS format, encrypted as well).
 
Over five weeks of use, I've encountered this issue only once, although I always turn off my computer at night. I'll leave it running but in sleep mode tonight to see what happens.
 
Have a Drobo 5C connected via USB-C and occasionally shows the Disk Not Ejected properly when wake up. Disk shows as connected at the time though.

Was also true when on USB-A on the MM 2018.

Drobo was solid on the 2009 MM.

After the 10.14.2 release then even done a recovery to clean install 10.14.2 instead of what came on and then patchers. USB on these doesn't seem that great.
 
F-Train said:
Computers have this thing called a power button that you can use to turn them off at night :)
Click to expand...

I haven't powered down my old mac mini for over 3 months. Some people like their workspace opened. I usually just put my mini to sleep every night.
 
It's conceivable that the phantom-unmounting problem could simply be the result of a crummy cable, no? Try getting a new, high-quality USB-C cable or two from a reputable source, and see what happens if you connect the drive using one of them instead.
 
I bought a Cheap Chinese TB3 -> NVMe Enclosure that was not in-expensive ($200.00 USD). I'll refer to this as the CCE enclosure (No-Brand Name). For one week I fought with this POS. Very poor R&W speeds, especially writes. Far below the specs of the Samsung 1TB 970 EVO that it encased. I would come into my office in the morning and be greeted with 6 or 8 notifications that the drive had not been ejected properly. So it ejected itself and re-connected multiple times during the night when NOT in use. My Mini is set to never sleep, so not a sleep issue.

After a week I had had enough and returned it through Amazon. I then bought the Samsung Portable SSD X5. I must have been brain dead when I bought the CCE. All is bliss now. No Issues. I figure if you're going to be running a Samsung NVMe SSD over TB3 you will have the least problems if using a Samsung enclosure. This has proven true.
 
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