New Mac Pro Has Hard Drive Issue, Apple Planning Fix in macOS Update

In a support document published today, Apple said certain SATA hard drives might unexpectedly disconnect from the 2023 Mac Pro after the computer wakes from sleep. Apple said it is "aware of this issue" and will fix it in a "future macOS update."

Mac Pro Feature Red
While the Mac Pro is configured with SSD storage, it has SATA ports for connecting internal hard drives, and some can disconnect due to a bug.

"Certain models of internal SATA drives might unexpectedly disconnect from your computer after your Mac wakes from sleep," said Apple. "This can occur if your Mac automatically goes to sleep or if you manually put your Mac to sleep. If you see a message that your disk was not ejected properly, you can restart your Mac to reconnect to the drive."

As a temporary workaround, users can prevent their Mac Pro from automatically going to sleep by opening the System Settings app, clicking on Displays → Advanced…, and turning on "Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off."

Released on Tuesday, the new Mac Pro features Apple's M2 Ultra chip. The desktop tower has the same design as the Intel-based model from 2019, but lacks graphics card support and user-upgradeable RAM due to Apple silicon's unified architecture. Customers who do not need PCIe expansion should consider the Mac Studio instead.

Related Roundup: Mac Pro
Buyer's Guide: Mac Pro (Neutral)
Related Forum: Mac Pro

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro and Air Feature

Two iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air Colors Appear to Scratch More Easily

Friday September 19, 2025 10:02 am PDT by
As reported by Bloomberg today, some of the new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air models on display at Apple Stores today are already scratched and scuffed. French blog Consomac also reported on this topic. The scratches appear to be most prominent on models with darker finishes, including the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max in Deep Blue, and the iPhone Air in Space Black. Images Credit: Consoma ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.0.1 Coming Soon, Likely With iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Fix

Thursday September 18, 2025 9:17 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to release iOS 26.0.1, according to a private account on X with a proven track record of sharing information about future iOS versions. The update will have a build number of 23A350, or similar, the account said. It is likely that iOS 26.0.1 will fix a camera-related bug on the new iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro models. In his iPhone Air review, CNN Underscored's Henry T. ...
iPhone 17 Pro Colors

iPhone 17 Pro Max Teardown Reveals Qualcomm's Snapdragon X80 Modem for 5G

Friday September 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone Air is equipped with Apple's custom C1X modem for cellular connectivity, all of the iPhone 17 models are outfitted with Qualcomm modems still. A teardown video shared on Chinese platform Bilibili today (via Reddit) appears to confirm the iPhone 17 Pro Max is equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X80 modem in particular. The same modem is likely used in the iPhone 17 and iPhone ...
iphone 17 pro max techwoven

Here Are The Best Cases You Can Buy for Your New iPhone 17 and iPhone Air

Friday September 19, 2025 6:46 am PDT by
Apple's new iPhones launch today, and there are plenty of options to choose from when it comes to protecting your new device from drops and scratches. In this article, we're taking a look at some of the best options for iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Air cases, as well as a few charging accessories. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design Draws Criticism From Users

Wednesday September 17, 2025 2:56 pm PDT by
It's been two days since iOS 26 was released, and Apple's new Liquid Glass design is even more divisive than expected. Any major design change can create controversy as people get used to the new look, but the MacRumors forums, Reddit, Apple Support Communities, and social media sites seem to feature more criticism than praise as people discuss the update. Complaints There are a long...
iphone 17 pro inside

iPhone 17 Teardowns Confirm SIM and eSIM-Only Battery Capacities

Friday September 19, 2025 8:39 am PDT by
YouTube channel REWA Technology today shared an iPhone 17 Pro teardown video, offering a closer look inside the model with a SIM card tray. We are still waiting for repair website iFixit to share a more comprehensive teardown of the latest iPhone models, but this video provides a good look in the meantime. The device features various internal design changes, including larger rear camera...

Top Rated Comments

timborama Avatar
30 months ago
Left out “Affects only small number of users”. Isn't that the standard tagline for every Apple issue?!
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple Fan 2008 Avatar
30 months ago

Oh. Well, if you’re spending that much to get that much speed and performance, I don’t see why you wouldn’t use SSD.
To have a back-up drive or storage drive.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
retta283 Avatar
30 months ago

Oh. Well, if you’re spending that much to get that much speed and performance, I don’t see why you wouldn’t use SSD.
Traditional hard drives are still just fine for data storage, when access is irregular enough that the read/write speed is irrelevant. Possibly more reliable in the event of failure as there is higher chance of recovering data from a failing HDD than SSD, unless the tech has gotten more advanced than what I remember.

The term 'spinning rust' is asinine. SSDs are an inherent innovation, but the HDD technology is not outright junk. I have 10MB hard drives that still work, and SSDs bought a few years ago that are unusable, it's always a gamble no matter what the technology is.

Edit: not necessarily disagreeing with your point considering the price of the thing, just some comments. Don't mean to sound condescending with this post.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PieTunes Avatar
30 months ago

I thought all the configurations were SSD. I’m confused.
It’s regarding SATA hard drives you install yourself.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Weasel13 Avatar
30 months ago

I thought all the configurations were SSD. I’m confused.
Many SSD are SATA. Many people still use HD because they need more space than is practical with SSD. What if you need 50TB? That's a lot of SSD's... ;)
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
persona1138 Avatar
30 months ago
The Mac Pro is the dumbest machine. Just buy a Mac Studio.

PCIe slots are nice and all, if you need a ProTools card or a Blackmagic capture card. But you can get external PCIe card enclosures with Thunderbolt.

And in the film and TV world, trust me, you don’t need BOTH of those cards installed… because the same person who MIXES the movie or TV show isn’t also capturing/editing it. Two different fields. I don’t need a ProTools card AND a capture card in the same machine.

The lack of GPU support means that cards like the ones I mentioned (or extra internal hard drives) is the only real use for the PCIe slots. (And internal third party drives clearly have a temporary problem, as illustrated by this MacRumors article.)

And speaking of storage… Don’t go for internal storage. Just get either a NAS with 10 gig Ethernet or a DAS with Thunderbolt.

The Mac Pro costs about $4000 more than the Mac Studio, which has the exact same specs. (And you should do anything I described above with a Mac Studio.)

Apple couldn’t figure out what the purpose of a modular Mac Pro was with their (excellent) chip architecture, so they just said: “Screw it, let’s throw a Mac Studio in our leftover Intel towers and call it a day.”

Just buy a Mac Studio, if you need that kind of power. It does the same job for $4,000 less.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)