Why does Ventura notify me that my external hard drive has not been removed correctly?

[MacLover2011]

Every since I updated my MacBook Pro to Ventura, I get a notification stating I did not remove my external hard drive correctly when my MacBook Pro goes into sleep mode.

Is this an issue with Ventura? Has it indeed cause possible damage to my external hard drive?

I sure hope not!

 

[pm-r]

Is this an issue with Ventura? Has it indeed cause possible damage to my external hard drive?

According to a quick Google search, it seems that Ventura has not completely solved the problem for many users.

Google Search

Did you have a similar problem before installing Ventura or have you made any external drive connection changes???

If your Mac is not doing any read or writes to the external drive during such a shutdown, I would doubt if it would be causing any problems to your data on the external drive.

EDIT:
If it were me, I think I would be inclined to double-check your system preferences and put drives to sleep when possible or anything else you could do to isolate the problem to make it appear that it is not doing anything.

Set sleep and wake settings for your Mac

Set when your Mac goes to sleep and wakes up.

support.apple.com

- Patrick
=======

 

[MacLover2011]

According to a quick Google search, it seems that Ventura has not completely solved the problem for many users.

Google Search

Did you have a similar problem before installing Ventura or have you made any external drive connection changes???

If your Mac is not doing any read or writes to the external drive during such a shutdown, I would doubt if it would be causing any problems to your data on the external drive.




- Patrick
=zz

Thanks for your feedback.
I never had this issue before I updated to Ventura.

 

[pm-r]

I never had this issue before I updated to Ventura.

Re-read my post at the end in case you missed the EDIT: I added when you were replying.

No guarantee it will work, but it shouldn't do any harm to try. ;-)




- Patrick
=======

 

[Rod]

I never have that problem on Ventura but I am on an M1 MBP. I occurs to me that Ventura was really designed with the SoC generation of Macs in mind and has some significant differences when run on an Intel Mac. I can only imagine these differences will increase in subsequent macOS releases.

For example; Put hard disks to sleep when possible, Enable Power Nap and Wake for network access don't exist on my 14" M1 MBP. Apple states; "Note: Some of the options may not be available, depending on your Mac." in the ? page of Battery Settings.

So, MacLover2011, you may be right, this may be an issue related to Ventura on your device. My wife has a 2018 13" MBP running Ventura and has the above settings, I have turned Put hard disks to sleep when possible ON and left Enable Power Nap and Wake for network access OFF. She also seldom if ever gets that connection warning so Patrick may be right.

Of course you should check your connections, cables and USB ports could be at fault too.

 

[MacInWin]

What I have found is that almost every case of what you are seeing, it is because the drives have spun down the platters to save energy when not being actively used. Then when they are asked to provide some information, it takes longer to spin back up and perform the task than the OS is set to wait, so the OS declares the drive "offline" and throws up the error message. f

If you keep the CPU awake and just let the display go dark, and then run something like Amphetamine (Search for it), to "tickle" the drives to keep them spinning, the problem should go away, unless the problem is a dodgy cable. But a dodgy cable should also have the drives dropping out when the Mac is awake, so if that isn't happening, just when the Mac sleeps, then most likely it is the drive spinning down that is creating the issue.

 

[krs]

................... then most likely it is the drive spinning down that is creating the issue.

I had to chuckle when I read that.

The way I see it, it's not the drive spinning down ad then having to spin uo again that's the issue, spinner drives have been doing that for many, many years - the issue is the macOS.
Seems Apple thinks everyone is now using SSDs for external drives where there is no spin up time.

 

[MacInWin]

Seems Apple thinks everyone is now using SSDs for external drives where there is no spin up time.

Or, that spinners, uh, spin, you know. The drive manufacturers want to sound all eco-friendly, so they bake in the shutdown to "save energy" and you end up with a non-useful brick. Or you get something to keep it awake, like Amphetamine, or similar.

Not everything is Apple-bad.

 

[Rod]

I just wonder if the M1 ever actually goes to "sleep". Given that the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible, Enable Power Nap and Wake for network access" don't appear in the settings maybe the SoC never sleeps.
As for Ventura on Intel well it's not the only time we have had this issue reported and not just with Ventura. I have never had this problem with my Transcend spinner HDD on either Intel or M1, the activity light never goes off whereas my wife's HP HDD does.

 

[MacInWin]

I just wonder if the M1 ever actually goes to "sleep". Given that the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible, Enable Power Nap and Wake for network access" don't appear in the settings maybe the SoC never sleeps.
As for Ventura on Intel well it's not the only time we have had this issue reported and not just with Ventura. I have never had this problem with my Transcend spinner HDD on either Intel or M1, the activity light never goes off whereas my wife's HP HDD does.

Put hard disks to sleep is in Settings, Battery, Options. So is Wake for Network Access. A search for "Power Nap" says it is under Battery as well, but I didn't find it there. Don't know why, I don't use Power Nap.

 

[ferrarr]

A search for "Power Nap" says it is under Battery as well, but I didn't find it there.

It's the top item under Options in Battery, at least on my MBP it is.

 

[MacInWin]

It's the top item under Options in Battery, at least on my MBP it is.

Not for me. I have noticed that Settings is dynamic, adjusting what is visible for different users. I'm on mains power, maybe it's visible when on battery?

 

[Howard Brazee]

Every since I updated my MacBook Pro to Ventura, I get a notification stating I did not remove my external hard drive correctly when my MacBook Pro goes into sleep mode.

Is this an issue with Ventura? Has it indeed cause possible damage to my external hard drive?

I sure hope not!

I've had that longer than Ventura. I check and Finder still sees that drive. I've had it with memory cards and with other drives.

 

[Rod]

MacInWin, not on my 14" M1 MBP

But I stand corrected, Wake for network access is. So much for that theory.

 

[MacInWin]

I've had it with memory cards and with other drives.

Curious, I've never seen it with anything but rotating drives.

 

[MacLover2011]

According to a quick Google search, it seems that Ventura has not completely solved the problem for many users.

Google Search

Did you have a similar problem before installing Ventura or have you made any external drive connection changes???

If your Mac is not doing any read or writes to the external drive during such a shutdown, I would doubt if it would be causing any problems to your data on the external drive.

EDIT:
If it were me, I think I would be inclined to double-check your system preferences and put drives to sleep when possible or anything else you could do to isolate the problem to make it appear that it is not doing anything.

Set sleep and wake settings for your Mac

Set when your Mac goes to sleep and wakes up.

support.apple.com

- Patrick
=======

It's never happened with any other OS systems.

 

[pm-r]

It's never happened with any other OS systems.

Have you changed any of your system preferences before the problem or even tried after the problem started???



- Patrick
=======

 

[ferrarr]

Not for me. I have noticed that Settings is dynamic, adjusting what is visible for different users. I'm on mains power, maybe it's visible when on battery?

On my Intel MBP, it's there both when on battery and when on power adapter. The only difference I can see is you have an M1 MBP.

 

[MacLover2011]

Have you changed any of your system preferences before the problem or even tried after the problem started???



- Patrick
=======

Sorry for my late reply.
I wouldn't know what to change in my systems preferences. I can research it.
Thanks!

 

[pm-r]

Sorry for my late reply.
I wouldn't know what to change in my systems preferences. I can research it.
Thanks!

I gather you are still experiencing the same problem???

Not much you could change in SystemPreferences that I can think of that might cause the problem or stop it from happening... But check your energy saving pref pane settings for hard drive sleep options and maybe change it to the opposite of what it currently is.
No guarantee that that will fix things for you... ;-)


- Patrick
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