Macbook ejecting Ext USB SSD on waking?

[james090]

I have a 2013 Macbook Pro with 10.15.7 Catalina. All working fine.

I have 2 x external USB 3.0 drives connected, and sometimes use the AC power, and sometimes the battery.

I do put this to sleep a lot when not in use, but it seems one of my external USB 3.0 SSD drive (Samsung T7) keeps ejecting on waking containing all my Kontakt Libraries?
Obviously this could ruin the drive as it thinks I am ejecting it, or pulling it out randomly?

Is there a setting or something I can do to stop this?
I don't really want to upgrade my MacOS as its all working fine and some programs aren't compatible moving forward so I dont want to upset the apple cart!

Any help would be appreciated

[MarkOne]

I have no real answer for you. It seems that other users have solved this with various sleep settings in system preferences.

My wife had a WD passport for Mac that was doing this with her M1 mini running Big Sur. In the end we replaced it with a LaCie d2 on USB C as she is a photographer with 2TB of RAW files*, and for her at least that worked. Strangely I've recently hooked up the WD passport to her machine following the most recent Big Sur update and now that too seems to be behaving itself.

Both WD drives were fine on my 2020 M1 MBP, but I had issues with an old iOmega drive I've had running flawlessly on my 2012 MBP on Catalina, when I plugged it into the M1 MBP. That also seems to have been resolved since the most recent Big Sur update.

I have a sneaky feeling that Apple probably know there is an issue there but it's not a big priority because external drive users aren't a huge slice of their perceived user base.

*backed up daily to an offsite cloud server

[james090]

Thanks, this is a weird one.

I used this drive fine on an old iMac 2011 on a powered AC USB hub, with no problems on USB 2.0

Now when I use it on a 2013 Macbook plugged directly in, AND now USB 3.0 it seems to disconnect when either running from battery or sleeping (still not identified which)?

Could this be down to it 'always' needing a powered USB hub ?

This means i'd have to bring this along with my laptop and plug it into AC power, but as long as it works, and doesn't keep ejecting the drive (and potentially ruining it) I guess that is a work-around?

[Luke W]

It may be worth a look at the Energy Saver settings in System Preferences. There are separate tabs for running from battery and power supply, and each one has an option for "Put hard disks to sleep when possible". I don't know it for certain, but if that box is ticked under the battery power tab then that may be messing you around.

[james090]

It may be worth a look at the Energy Saver settings in System Preferences. There are separate tabs for running from battery and power supply, and each one has an option for "Put hard disks to sleep when possible". I don't know it for certain, but if that box is ticked under the battery power tab then that may be messing you around.

Yes this was the 1st thing i did, and unticked these for both power and battery on 'sleep' but im sure this was still happening after?

[james090]

Its almost like when I wake the Mac from sleep, usually on Battery, that about 30 secs in, the SSD corner alert comes up saying the SSD has been ejected?