Takes FOREVER To Boot From External APFS SSD

[Del Rei]

Hey, guys. Try this:
https://www.paragon-software.com/home/apfs-hfs-converter/#

Same issue here. Bought a 1TB Samsung EVO 860 in a Black Friday deal with Sabrent enclosure, was super excited for those fast boot times but for me it’s 2-3 mins before the Apple logo even appears. Once booted apps load almost instantly, but that boot time kills me. Is this Apple not wanting us to boot from third party SSDs? Or a bug? Desperately hoping I have not wasted my money.

How faster is your SSD comparing to Fusion Drive? Did you ran any speed test?

 

[Partron22]

but for me it’s 2-3 mins before the Apple logo even appears.

I get that when I have a external HD on in addition to the boot external SSD.
I'm developing a habit of turning off that second drive before booting.
The trouble crops up very soon in the boot process. If you've heard the bong, and your spinner is on, it's too late to expect a fast boot, even if you turn the spinner off.

 

[kubuntux]

Anybody were able to solve this?

I am using Samsung T5 500GB, and it works well. But since I barely restart my iMac, when I restarted it last week, I now experience the slow boot.

And I think it started when I updated to Mojave, converting the drive to APFS.

 

[Fishrrman]

I've setup "test drives" for High Sierra and Mojave using an external USB3 SSD (connected via an adapter/dongle).

Both boot up quickly.
BUT... I keep my external SSDs in HFS+ (NOT in APFS).
High Sierra and Mojave run as fast under HFS+ as they do from APFS.
No "slow boots", either !!

 

[e_ch]

My External USB 3.0 UASP APFS SSD shown as non-bootable in DiskUtility, but system boots with approx. minute blank white screen since powered up. I have an idea, but don't know how to implement it on Mojave. Last time I did something like that was back in Leopard times when I used Hackintosh with OS X software RAID.

There were a hack to make OS X created RAID bootable: custom editing EFI booter partitions plist files to point boot loader on virtual drive UUID. Is it possible to make built-in hdd bootable without macOS installed there and edit boot plist to point it on an external drive?

 

[Ronis_BR]

This is an old thread I know, but I need to inform you guys that the problem seems to be fixed in Mojave 10.14.5. The boot from and external SSD formatted with APFS using USB 3.1 Gen 2 is taking 40s +- (I have a slow SSD...).

 

[Del Rei]

This is an old thread I know, but I need to inform you guys that the problem seems to be fixed in Mojave 10.14.5. The boot from and external SSD formatted with APFS using USB 3.1 Gen 2 is taking 40s +- (I have a slow SSD...).

I'm using 10.14.6 + APFS + USB 3.1 (thunderbolt port) but still taking about 20-25 seconds to show apple logo...