External disk's encrypted volume not automatically mounting

Tech Support
1

I have an external disk, formatted as APFS and encrypted.
When I connect it, it shows in Disk Utility, but the volume is always unmounted.
It only mounts if I right-click and Mount, or if I run the Carbon Copy Cloner task to back up.

In Keychain, both passwords are saved. The default for when I connect the disk, and one for CCC to unlock it and back up.

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I don’t think this was the default behavior up until a few days/weeks ago.

Is these anything I could try to fix this? Is this the normal behavior since it’s encrypted? I don’t think it should, because the password is already saved, but…

Thank you

2

I had the same thing happen with my Time Machine drive this morning. First time it has happened. Curious.

3

What macOS are you using? If there’s a recent upgrade, that could be the culprit

4

macOS 15.7.1

5

I had a similar issue with only one hard drive that ended up dying within a few months after not automatically mounting. Have you run any diagnostics on the external hard drive?

6

It is a brand new external hard drive, I just acquired this week. Replacing one that was dying.

For fun I just ran disk first aid on it and it found no issues.