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: Mac Pro, macOS Ventura

Top Rated Comments

EugW Avatar
10 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
10 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
10 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
10 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
10 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
10 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)

Popular Stories

Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature 1

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
macbook pro purple february

Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple's M3 MacBook Pro for Members

Thursday April 25, 2024 7:41 am PDT by
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...