Prevent drives from mounting when connected?

Software
1

Hi

How can I, on a M! Pro MacPro running Monterey, prevent the OS from automatically mounting certain drives when connected?

Background: I have a CalDigit Thunderbolt dock, to which Time Machine drives for me and my wife are connected. When I connect my computer, I do not need (want) her drives to mount automatically.

Id this possible?

2

You could write an AppleScript that automatically disconnects the drive after it’s mounted, and have it run via Keyboard Maestro whenever that drive attaches. But it would still mount for a couple seconds.

3

True - I am always forgetting about Apple Script.

But I am looking for a build in solution as I am not keen on building something like that. But I might look into this.

4

I am happy to share a similar script I wrote to help get you started, if need be.

5

There’s some (likely) helpful information here: macos - How to Disable USB Auto-mount - Ask Different

The Unix way would be to add a noauto flag in /etc/fstab, something that’s covered in the first answer, though Apple sometimes diverges from the Unix way for Apple reasons. (I think this will work though)

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6

Perfect - I love that macOS is so similar to Linux. Made the changes and it is working.

Thanks @ACautionaryTale

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