Apple Fixes 2023 Mac Pro Hard Drive Issue in macOS Ventura 13.5

In a support document published last month, Apple said certain SATA hard drives might unexpectedly disconnect from the 2023 Mac Pro after the computer wakes from sleep. Apple said it was aware of the issue and would fix it in a future macOS update, and the company followed through on that promise today.

Mac Pro Feature Teal
Apple updated the support document today to indicate that the issue has been resolved in the macOS Ventura 13.5 update released today, so users simply need to update their Mac. The issue will also likely be resolved in the macOS Sonoma beta.

The Issue

While the Mac Pro is configured with SSD storage, it has SATA ports for connecting internal hard drives, and sometimes the drives could 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."

New Mac Pro

Unveiled at WWDC last month, 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 Forums: macOS Ventura, Mac Pro

Popular Stories

iphone 16 pro ghost hand

5 Reasons to Skip This Year's iPhone 17 Pro

Thursday July 10, 2025 4:54 am PDT by
Apple will launch its new iPhone 17 series in two months, and the iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to get a new design for the rear casing and the camera area. But more significant changes to the lineup are not expected until next year, when the iPhone 18 models arrive. If you're thinking of trading in your iPhone for this year's latest, consider the following features rumored to be coming...
apple tv 4k new orange

New Apple TV Expected Later This Year With These New Features

Saturday July 12, 2025 3:09 pm PDT by
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the next Apple TV, according to rumors. Rumors Faster Wi-Fi Support The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports ...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 16 New Features

Friday July 11, 2025 12:40 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are only two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:A redesigned Dynamic Island: It has been rumored that all iPhone 17 models will have a redesigned Dynamic Island interface — it might ...
macbook pro blue green

M5 MacBook Pro No Longer Coming in 2025

Thursday July 10, 2025 12:38 pm PDT by
Apple does not plan to refresh any Macs with updated M5 chips in 2025, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models are now planned for the first half of 2026. Gurman previously said that Apple would debut the M5 MacBook Pro models in late 2025, but his newest report suggests that Apple is "considering" pushing them back to 2026. Apple is now said to be...
iphone 16 pro pro max

iPhone 17 Pro Models With BOE Displays Will Be Sold in China Only

Thursday July 10, 2025 11:59 pm PDT by
iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models with displays made by BOE will be sold exclusively in China, according to a new report. Last week, it emerged that Chinese display manufacturer BOE was aggressively ramping up its OLED production capacity for future iPhone models as part of a plan to recapture a major role in Apple's supply chain. Now, tech news aggregator Jukan Choi reports...
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Complications

Apple Watch Ultra 3: What to Expect

Sunday July 13, 2025 10:30 am PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 is nearly over, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the Apple Watch Ultra 3:Satellite connectivity for sending and receiving text messages when Wi-Fi and cellular coverage is unavailable 5G support, up from LTE on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Likely a wide-angle OLED display that ...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

Apple Says iPhone Driver's Licenses Will Expand to These 8 U.S. States

Tuesday July 8, 2025 11:26 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states, Puerto Rico,...
iPhone 17 Air Colors Thumb 2

iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air Rumored to Come in These 9 Colors

Friday July 11, 2025 12:30 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air will be available in a total of nine color options, according to new information coming out of Asia. The iPhone 17 Air's expected color options. According to the leaker going by the account name "yeux1122" on the Korean blog Naver, accessory manufacturers are now producing camera protector rings for the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air in colors to match their...

Top Rated Comments

EugW Avatar
26 months ago
Good to hear. Now if they could only fix this issue with USB drives, that'd be great.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HobeSoundDarryl Avatar
26 months ago
Amen. Limited only to Mac Pro or does this bug fix also apply to all other Macs? It would be nice for external enclosures hooked up via USB to make the U mean what it is supposed to be mean again... instead of being a "hit or miss", works-for-some-enclosures-but-not-all proposition.

I have a Mac Studio Ultra and a very important enclosure will not maintain a connection for more than about 3 hours, even without any sleep during that 3 hours. In fact, it "unexpectedly ejects" even when actively transferring files to/from it (so neither end is asleep).

Unhook it from Studio Ultra and hook it to old Intel Macs running macOS BEFORE Big Sur and all is fine again (same cable, same enclosure, same drives, same connection type).

* 2 Old Macs or a PC = stable connection.
* 1 "latest & greatest", "most powerful" Mac = unexpected ejections within about 3 hours.

I know this is not a problem for everyone: some enclosures (including some of my own, including one from the same brand) work just fine. But I'm far from the only one with this problem (many threads about this, identifying many different enclosures with this issue). And I've tested enough to feel very confident that this is a bug(s) in macOS (so please fans/ADF: no "redirection" posts trying to blame enclosure, cable, firmware, etc. Been there, tested through ALL of that more than a few times). Hopefully this fix for Mac Pro is actually a fix for all Macs.

I'd love to see some people not enjoying this same bug (too) chime in that this update resolved it for their (not Mac Pro) Macs.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
26 months ago
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213778

Nice typos with MacOS version, it’s suppose to be 13, not 12.

[HEADING=2]If you see 'disk not ejected properly' on your Mac Pro (2023)[/HEADING]
If an internal SATA drive unexpectedly disconnects from your Mac Pro, update to macOS Ventura 12.5 or later ('https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201541').

Certain models of internal SATA drives might unexpectedly disconnect from your computer after your Mac wakes from sleep. This can occur if your Mac automatically goes to sleep or if you manually put your Mac to sleep.
To resolve this issue, update to macOS Ventura 12.5 or later ('https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201541').
Published Date: July 24, 2023
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macduke Avatar
26 months ago
This the most Apple story ever.


* $7000 machine
* Spinning disk drives
* Took a month and a half to fix
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jupeman Avatar
26 months ago
The irony is that on my 2019 Mac Pro, it kernel panics with its various internal PCI-E storage whenever the Mac starts to think about sleeping. Apple has chased the issue with me, sent me a new machine, same problem. I get around it by never having the computer sleep and using a mouse jiggler to keep the Mac from ever thinking of sleeping. Pathetic. Thanks for the vent forum, but glad they are making fixes for the new Mac Pro...
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oogje Avatar
26 months ago
13.5 apparently also fixes SoftRaid ('https://forums.softraid.com/ventura-forum/kernel-panics-softraid-7-5/paged/4/#post-19651') related Kernel panics with M2 Studio and 2023 Mac Pro.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)