El Capitan 10.11.6 not recognizing DVDs, CDs.

[Rojofo]

Hi to All,
My Mac Mini late 2012 recently updated to Mac OS 10.11.6 does not recognize CDs or DVDs in my new burner.

After updating to the latest Mac Os, I've had a series of problems with USB devices, particularly my Kobo reader which was not recognized (this problem was discussed by several users on MobileRead forum). After some use of DiskUtility and a reset of the reader, I solved that problem.
Just a few days ago, I bought a new optical disc burner, a Salcar USB3 super slim ODP95. This is recognized by my Mac: it appears in the "About my Mac" menu under storage, it is visible in the Toast Titanium with its characteristics and it reacts perfectly when I press an eject command on the Mac itself.

However, when I put in a CD (whether it be a bought musical CD or one I made myself from MP3s) or a DVD (whether it be one I bought, say a movie, or one I burnt myself, say photos), the burner spins with its green indicator on for about 20 seconds and then stops. None of these CDs or DVDs are recognized by the Mac. They do not mount and remain invisible. Blanc DVDs that I want to use to record photos are not seen either, so I cannot burn them.

This may be a problem of the burner of course which, however, has excellent ratings on Amazon with only very favorable reviews and no criticism of any kind as to the way it works.
I was about to send it back when I found several forums indicating problems with CD and DVD burners under El Capitan. There are a long series of posts on this site concerning only the Mac Superdrive, but my burner is a different brand. No real solution seems to have been found for those users with the Superdrive that stopped working when they updated to El Capitan.

There are also another series of problems concerning burning CDs and DVDs with El Capitan on Apple.com : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7266791?tstart=0

Again no easy solution is suggested, only a very complicated software work-around that is beyond my technical ability and which seems unstable.

Considering what I have read, I'm tempted to believe that the problem is El Capitan and not with my Salcar burner.

Any advice on this problem would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Rojofo.

 

[chscag]

I disagree. The problem is likely with your burner not El Capitan. I have two external burners: A Samsung and LG models. Both work without any problems with El Capitan, and that's with any type of CD or DVD. I suggest returning your burner to Amazon for a refund and buy another brand.

And welcome to our forums.

 

[IWT]

@Rojofo

A warm welcome to Mac-Forums.

I agree with chscag. This is not an El Capitan problem. Your Mac recognises the burner (About This Mac) and ditto Toast Titanium.

A few things come to mind:

Are you connecting the USB direct to the Mac or through a hub? The power needed may need to come direct from the Mac.

Is this a Blu ray burner? I am in the UK and a search on Amazon UK doesn't bring up your exact model, but several burners from the same source are Blu ray.

I noticed on the UK site that most of the similar burners are extremely slim (hence the name, no doubt) and it occurred to me that it wouldn't be difficult to have the burner upside down. Please don't be offended. It's easily done and could account for the device being recognised, accepting CD/DVDs but then spitting them out.

Just a few thoughts.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

Is your cable single or double headed? That is, does it have ONE USB connection or two? Most burners require two because the drive pulls so much power from the port. Of course if it has an external mains supply, the cable doesn't matter, but if you are pulling power from the USB ports, you may need a double headed cable.

 

[harryb2448]

Go into Funder > Preferences > General and make sure the appropriate radio button is selected.

 

[bobtomay]

Agreed with all the above. Before you return it, follow Harry's suggestion.

If you don't go into Finder Preferences and make sure you have checked CDs, DVDs in the Devices section in the General tab &/or the Sidebar tab.

If a blank disc does not show up in Toast, would believe it is the drive itself.

Even with great electronics companies, with the number of units being produced there are going to be some units that fail due to any number of reasons including handling during shipping.

 

[Rojofo]

Many thanks for these replies.

Despite my first impressions, I have come to beleive that it is indeed the burner that may well be defective, confirming IWT and Chcag's intuition. I have now tried it on an older Mac (an Ibook G4, which, yes!, still works!) with a much older Mac OS and the problem was the same; the burner is recognized but not the disks. I am going to try on another machine before sending the burner back.

Your help was most welcome.
Best,
Rojofo.