I have a new MacBookPro and am having to re-learn some everyday usage techniques. I’m a long time iMac user (ie, computer and peripherals always plugged in) so never had to worry about external drive mounting/unmounting.
Here’s where I’m stuck. I assume I’m overlooking something.
When at my desk my MBP is connected to an external HD via USB-C. If I want to grab the laptop to use somewhere else in the house I eject the drive in Finder and continue as planned.
My issue is when I return to my desk and plug the USB-C cable back in, the drive doesn’t mount. Nor does it show up in DiskUtility. I have to reboot for the external drive to mount.
Is there a workaround for this? Ideally, when I return to my desk and plug the USB-C cable back in the ext drive would mount on its own.
What you expect to happen is what should happen but external drives can be a nasty business. I keep the Jettison app by St. Clair Software loaded on my Mac. It seems to help.
I always have best luck using the cable that came with the disk drive. No dongles.
I previously used Automounter (I think that was the name), which would automatically reconnect disconnected drives. It worked well. What I don’t know is if it would try to re-connect when you didn’t want to.
Unfortunately, Jettison is not reliable. On multiple occasions after eject via Jettison, the ext drive was visible as mountable in Jettison but could not be mounted. No error messages. The drive just doesn’t mount.
The only option is to toggle power to the drive. Unfortunately, the ext drive is in a cabinet and not easily accessible so that is a really inconvenient process.
I’m stuck again. It seems the issue could be the cabling. The ext hard drive (USB) is connected to a USB-C dock which is then connected to MBP.
I’m in a similar situation, trying out a single Mac lifestyle (docked MacBook) as opposed to switching between a Mac mini and MacBook. My issue is that I have a dock connecting the MacBook to monitors, and I keep the lid shut all the time, so I need to remember to eject before taking the MacBook with me. I’m using Jettison on trial for its menubar app, but I suspect I could cobble that feature together on my own. Any other suggestions from people who use their MacBooks in docked mode, hooked up to screens, to make the ejection of drives easier?
Well, I’ve solved my problem, but in a bit of a backhanded way! I purchased a LunaDisplay to enable use of my old iMac as a secondary display for MBP. Works quite well, so far.
By doing that, I now can depend on the always on state of the iMac. I moved the external drive back to the iMac and turned on file sharing on the iMac. I now have full access to the external drive as a shared drive on my MBP. I have repointed Carbon Copy Cloner to this new destination.
Now, I have a second screen for the MBP and I can move around at will without the eject/mount issues. Win-win.