Thunderbolt atttached hard drive will not sleep when rMBP does

[Vigilant]

Problem Summary:
Externally connected LaCie thunderbolt 2 raid 1 array will not sleep when Retina MBP sleeps

Notes:
I'm sensing there is a systemic issue here that either lies directly with Apple or the with the Thunderbolt spec itself... There are numerous posts on this issue on various forums concerning Firewire and USB and many Thunderbolt. Interestingly I did not find anything that referenced Thunderbolt 2 or v2 exhibiting symptoms of this on latest version of Mavericks (10.9.5). Wanted to post to see if anyone else is seeing this? I'm honestly surprised given the designed use for this technology that this problem even exists. Seems like this issue would have been a release blocker for both LaCie (in my case) and Apple unless (1) it was never tested (2) go to market strategy override vs QA or (3) supporting HDD expansion is really just an afterthought to the primary objective of supporting higher resolution displays with this technology. What are your thoughts?

My Configuration Specifics:
- MacBook Pro 11,3 (Latest 2014) | Retina Display| Intel Core I7 2.5GHZ | 16GB RAM | Dual Graphics
- Mac OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks)
- LaCie 6TB 2big Thunderbolt 2 (configured for Raid 1)
- Apple wireless keyboard
- Logitech M705 wireless mouse
- Dell U2713HM (Display port connected)

Detailed Description:
Setup works fine as it applies to disk recognition, mounting, boot-up, etc.. However, when I sleep the MBP laptop the connected LaCie 2big TBT storage array never sleeps. The drives continues to cycle whirling up and down every 30 seconds or so... Unplugging the drive enclosure while the computer is asleep will stop it just as a point of interest.

Unsuccessful Steps Taken so Far:
(1) Contacted LaCie: Summary response... not our problem contact Apple. May not be your problem LaCie but I assure you the product is going back to Amazon if I can't get resolution... gotta love vendor finger pointing vs. cooperation and collaboration to better both products.
(2) Selected "Put hard disks to sleep when possible"
(3) Turned off "Wake for Wi-fi access"
(4) Turned off "Enable power nap"
(5) Replaced LaCie supplied cable with Apple Thunderbolt cable (MD861ZM/A)
(6) Removed External Dell Monitor connected via 2nd Thunderbolt Display Port

Wrap Up:
Not sure what else to try at this point. Functionally it's all good... but I'm certain this behavior can not be good for the longevity of the raid hardware, and it's persistently annoying as you sit next to it working on a second computer station.... Anyone? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any and all responses.

Cheers.

 

[Vigilant]

For those interested... the culprit in this case appears to be the Dell connected monitor. (U2713HM) The monitor is connected to the other TB port via DP to TB adapter. When I was previously trouble shooting this I thought by simply turning the monitor off it would eliminate it as a potential source of the problem. Turns out if I physically unplug it from the TB port on the rMBP the problem goes away and everything works, sleeps, as expected... for some reason the Dell is keeping the TB chain active when connected even if it is turned off... go figure!

Cheers,

Vigilant

 

[brkit2012]

I had this same issue after upgrading to Mavericks, so I bought a $5 app from the app store called "Jettison." It ejects external disks before sleep, and has worked perfectly for me.

 

[Vigilant]

Thanks for your reply and suggestion. Jettison is a nifity little app but unfortunately does not help me in my situation. Even if I unmount the external attached LaCie disk prior to sleeping the rMBP the LaCie thunderbolt attached array will still continuously spin up and down until I perform one of the following:
1) Bring the computer out of sleep and do a shut-down
2) Physically remove power from the Dell U2713HM monitor
3) Physically unplug the mini display port cable

Worked with Apple on this for well over an hour which resulted in my ticket being promoted to development... not holding my breath as I believe this is actually a Dell issue.. I think.
Submitted a question on the Dell monitor forum also.

Best Regards,

 

[Vigilant]

Yosemite has corrected this issue

Hopefully my last post to this thread. Upgrading to Yosemite has completely corrected this problem... wooo hooo...!

 

[johnnybg]

Same problem

Having the same problem with an Asus monitor connected

Monitor connected via Thunderbolt cable does not allow a Thunderbolt drive to remain asleep when mac is sleeping, when monitor is connected, it is sending a signal that keeps waking then sleeping the Thunderbolt drive every minute, everything sleeps fine when monitor is disconnected or turned off, running OS X 10.11.5 El Capitan, Top level Apple Support is supposed to call me back, so far their engineers are confused about the problem.

 

[ferrarr]

Maybe connect the Thunderbolt drive to the monitor, and the monitor to the Mac?

 

[johnnybg]

External monitor does not have a Thunderbolt connector, tried to connect monitor to TB drive and didn't work