External NVMe drive spontaneously dismounts

[James Steele]

This is an issue that has cropped up lately. I have a WD Black SN-770 is a fully TB3 external enclosure. I get read/write speeds up around 2600-2700 MB/s. A few times over the past couple of days, the drive has spontaneously unmounted itself. If I recall correctly, using Disk Utility to remount wouldn't work. The drive was AWOL. Even Disk Utility couldn't see it. Unplugging it and replugging it brings it back.

It happened today and I just plugged it into a different port and it's fine for now, but haven't been using it long enough to know if that's it. It may well be the cable, which is a decent quality third party TB3 cable that's only about 1.5 ft. long. If it happens again I will try swapping cables. It may or may not coincide to my adding a second monitor yesterday (LG 32" 2560x1440) via a USB-C to HDMI adapter. The monitor only has HDMI inputs. Doesn't seem like that would cause an issue. I may have to just experiment with which devices are connected to which port. I have a UAD-2 TB3 Satellite coming next week, so daisy-chaining off that may be an option also.

[mikehalloran]

When I Google WD Black SN-770, it shows an NVMe blade. What is it in?

[James Steele]

When I Google WD Black SN-770, it shows an NVMe blade. What is it in?

Its in: "Ankmax USBC 40Gbps Enclosure for NVMe M.2 SSD, UC4M2 USB Type-C 40Gbps Interface Compatible with Thunderbolt 4/3 USB4.0/3.1/3.0, Tool-Free Aluminum External Hard Drive Enclosure"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KQBYQHM

Was pretty highly recommended online and as I said, I've been great performance with it. (See screenshot). I'm using it for my sample libraries. The spontaneous dismounting thing only cropped up a couple of days ago and has happened perhaps 3 times in last 2-3 days. I changed ports and may change cable... so far hanging in there.

Screen Shot 2022-08-27 at 2.47.11 PM.png (495.17 KiB) Viewed 1717 times

[mikehalloran]

The ad claims USB 4 compatible with TB 3/4. It doesn't actually claim to be a TB3 enclosure. License fees have to be paid to Intel for that and certification. USB 4 doesn't.

Return it. Get an actual Intel Certified TB3 enclosure. This can be had with a Crucial P2
https://www.amazon.com/Certified-TEKQ-T ... _1_10?th=1


Nothing wrong with that WD blade. It's rated the same as a Crucial P2. Slower than a 970 EVO but still plenty fast enough.

[cuttime]

External drives unexpectedly dismounting is a problem I've had with every Mac I've ever owned. It usually is worse if the Mac sleeps, but not necessarily. Since I've moved to Monterey, this problem seems to be a lot worse. I've Google the issue for hours, only to see hundreds, perhaps thousands of people complaining about the same issue. It seems to be an Apple thing. Let's hope the next MacOS addresses this problem - if not, it may be something we just have to learn to live with.

[James Steele]

The ad claims USB 4 compatible with TB 3/4. It doesn't actually claim to be a TB3 enclosure. License fees have to be paid to Intel for that and certification. USB 4 doesn't.

Return it. Get an actual Intel Certified TB3 enclosure. This can be had with a Crucial P2
https://www.amazon.com/Certified-TEKQ-T ... _1_10?th=1


Nothing wrong with that WD blade. It's rated the same as a Crucial P2. Slower than a 970 EVO but still plenty fast enough.

For an enclosure that's not claiming to be a TB3 enclosure, it's getting TB3 speeds, is it not? Well that's interesting... maybe it's running USB 4. Sigh... so ANOTHER $120 later I guess. Sigh. I have to see if I even kept the box that it came in. Probably within my 30 days to return to Amazon.

[James Steele]

The ad claims USB 4 compatible with TB 3/4. It doesn't actually claim to be a TB3 enclosure. License fees have to be paid to Intel for that and certification. USB 4 doesn't.

Return it. Get an actual Intel Certified TB3 enclosure. This can be had with a Crucial P2
https://www.amazon.com/Certified-TEKQ-T ... _1_10?th=1


Nothing wrong with that WD blade. It's rated the same as a Crucial P2. Slower than a 970 EVO but still plenty fast enough.

Yeah... well looks like that link is not just an enclosure. I have to buy the drive inside of it. Howe much faster is a 970 EVO? Do I need any faster than 2700MB/s to occasionally load a Kontak instrument or drum library. I went rummaging around in my recycle bin and found the box the enclosure came in, but it's been working okay with USB4 so I guess I'll live with it as long as it doesn't unmount anymore. I don't feel like having to return the blade as well at at this point. If I could get that enclosure without a drive in it and use my blade that would be a different story.

[James Steele]

Nothing wrong with that WD blade. It's rated the same as a Crucial P2. Slower than a 970 EVO but still plenty fast enough.

BTW... I was checking this out. Here's link to 970 EVO on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-EVO- ... B07BN5FJZQ

Description says:

Read speeds up to 3,500MB/s* with a 5-year limited warranty and exceptional endurance up to 1,200 TBW* (* May vary by capacity)

Here's the link to the WD Black SN700 Gaming Drive I have:
amazon.com/dp/B09QV5KJHV

Description says:

Get into the game fast as you zoom past load times with blazing speeds of up to 5,150MB/s* (1TB and 2TB models). Based on read speed.

Maybe it's the "Gaming" designation, but doesn't that look like it's actually FASTER than the 970 EVO? If so, my "bottleneck" is USB4 I assume. Maybe I can find a true TB3 unloaded enclosure if I feel like I need to do that.

[James Steele]

I was perusing Amazon trying to find a TRUE TB3 enclosure that did not contain a drive so I could use the NVMe blade I already have. Seems like every one that I found, if you read the fine print is using USB4 protocol/technology/whatever for actual transfer at around 40Gbps. Honestly, as long as my drive behaves and doesn't dismount, I'm happy enough. For context, my sample libraries used to reside on a 3G SSD on the SATA bus of my MacPro which was considerably slower. I can live with 2700MB/s so long as I don't have any more unmounting incidents. Knock on wood.

[HCMarkus]

OWC Envoy Express is a true TB3 enclosure. Only two lane, so you max out at 1550mb/s. I've had no disconnection issues.

[James Steele]

OWC Envoy Express is a true TB3 enclosure. Only two lane, so you max out at 1550mb/s. I've had no disconnection issues.

Thanks!!! Good to know. I don't know if the 2700 MB/s I'm getting now is THAT much better in real life than 1550, but I'll keep that in my back pocket. If I go that way, then it's a little bit of a shame I bought a faster NVMe drive than I needed, however. Hopefully I won't have any more disconnections.

[HCMarkus]

OWC Envoy Express is a true TB3 enclosure. Only two lane, so you max out at 1550mb/s. I've had no disconnection issues.

Thanks!!! Good to know. I don't know if the 2700 MB/s I'm getting now is THAT much better in real life than 1550, but I'll keep that in my back pocket. If I go that way, then it's a little bit of a shame I bought a faster NVMe drive than I needed, however. Hopefully I won't have any more disconnections.

So you spent an extra $20? BFD. But, maybe those 4k reads and writes will still be faster on your speedy SSD despite the slower connection.

[James Steele]

OWC Envoy Express is a true TB3 enclosure. Only two lane, so you max out at 1550mb/s. I've had no disconnection issues.

Thanks!!! Good to know. I don't know if the 2700 MB/s I'm getting now is THAT much better in real life than 1550, but I'll keep that in my back pocket. If I go that way, then it's a little bit of a shame I bought a faster NVMe drive than I needed, however. Hopefully I won't have any more disconnections.

So you spent an extra $20? BFD. But, maybe those 4k reads and writes will still be faster on your speedy SSD despite the slower connection.

Haha... you'll have to translate for me. The NVMe blade was about $200 for 2TB. I know the enclosure was initially a bit more expensive as well. I'm going to have to see if it is a persistent problem. I found the box it came in and have time to return this enclosure, assuming that's what the problem is. Maybe I'll order the one you have and then see how it reacts over a few days. I have till Sept. 9 to return this enclosure I think.

[James Steele]

I ordered an Envoy Express. I was all jazzed about getting 2700 MB/s speeds with the other enclosure... I'll see if that solves the issue for me. I do have another cable here I can try in the meantime and see how that goes.

[Michael Canavan]

Ugh I hate saying it, but you all ignored cuttime here and he's right. External drives on Mac OS have had issues for years. It bounces around, but even recently I had an NVME M.2 in an USBC enclosure that worked fine through a USB PCI card mounted in my Mac Pro running Mojave, and would unmount after a couple minutes all the time under Monterey on the M1 Air, running directly from the TB port or through an OWC Thunderbolt hub. The recent update to Monterey solved this issue for me, but I would not be surprised if randomly some brand of drive is not recognized at all by Mac OS, this is a QA issue IMO, too little interest in keeping third party support running smoothly by Apple these days.

Again, the unmount issue I had consistently happened under Monterey, disappeared under 12.5.1, and never happened plugged into an old Mac Pro running Mojave. It was a supremely consistent bug.


So if you're not on 12.5.1 I would update yesterday, if you are try another computer (to check if it's an M1 or Monterey issue), or interface to the computer, i.e. if you're hooking it up directly try through a hub, if through a hub try directly.