Since updating my MacMini M1 to Sequoia, there is an issue that devices connected to external USB-hubs are not recognized. I have seen this issue in various discussion groups, but have not found a solution yet - may be somebody here knows it? There should be a system setting under “Privacy and Security” named “allow accessories to connect”. When searching for it in the system preferences, it appears in the search results, but the entry itself is missing. Is there a way to bring it back? All suggestions are welcome - it is a pain that most USB-devices don’t work any more!
I don’t see that “allow accessories to connect” option in “Privacy & Security” either on my M1 Mac mini. I believe according to this Apple article If your Mac asks you to allow an accessory to connect - Apple Support that the option only exists for laptops.
I’m not seeing issues with USB devices on my M1 Mini running Sequoia. Do you have details on the USB hub and devices where you’re seeing the problem? Are the devices visible if you connect them directly to the USB ports on the Mini?
My USB-hub is in a Seagate Backup Plus external drive. The issues arrive for instance with my Sony Alpha 6000 camera or my Garmin receiver. They do work when connected directly to the MacMini, but it is a pain having to change cabling all the time. Even my iPhone SE or my iPad are not recognized when connected to the hub.
I would be inclined to blame the Seagate device, based on past experience with their externals. Do you have another hub you could try, preferaby powered?
Which model of Seagate Backup Plus drive do you have?
What does a system report tell you about the USB configuration?
Do you have another USB hub (preferably USB3) that you could try and see if the devices can be seen when connecting to that? If that works, I’d suspect something awry with the built-in hub in that drive (some kind of incompatibility or a bug – the macOS USB implementation has been giving some users problems in later releases).
As a point of reference I have an OWC USB3 drive enclosure that has a second USB port on it. I attached a CD burner to that port and find that it’s working fine.
Which version of Sequoia did you install? I think ever since macOS 15 has been out there have been problems with USB disks not being recognized in one version, then being recognized in the next while some new problem is fixed, then that new problem being fixed and something else newly not working. The details are too complicated for me to keep up with.
In my case, with a MacPro7,1 (Intel Xeon processor), in 15.5.2 bugs were fixed that for years had made some systems mounted on PCIe cards unreliable for mounting. During all that time my Promise R4i hardware RAID, mounted on a PCIe card, had been stable. With the update to 15.5.5 my R4i mounts, but as read-only. The R4i is a hardware RAID of four HFS+ disks. The controller shows internal housekeeping functions of the RAID, such as Media Patrol and Redundancy Check, continuing to work as expected. When my Mac is first started the R4i mounts as read-only, but only after a long time during which Disk Utility tries, unsuccessfully, to inspect the disk. Disk Utility finally quits and posts an Error Dialog saying the disk cannot be repaired.
I also have two HFS+ USB disks in an external drive from OWC. Since updating to 15.5.5 these exhibit what appears to be the same mount as read-only problem as the R4i. These drives had been off-line for a while, so I cannot be sure this issue began with 15.5.5. This drive is attached directly to a USB port on the MacPro.
In common among the read-only drives is being spinning HDDs formatted HFS+. Drives which work are SSDs formatted APFS.
Apple introduced many undocumented changes in 15.5.5, seen only as updated version numbers in user-visible apps and unseen system apps and library elements, such as APFS. Lots of changes related to security.
I have had extensive written exchanges with Promise tech support, and conversations with Apple support. Promise can’t reproduce the issue, but their level 2 support is still investigating. The best guess is some change in Apple security is blocking something. Apple says a few reports of possibly similar issues have been filed. Apple suggests repeated reinstallation of macOS from Repair mode might help.
So far, such repeated installations of macOS have not improved things.
To give a more complete description of my issue, I should say that when I first installed macOS 15.5.5 my system became very unstable, with frequent kernel panics. Stability was restored by reinstalling macOS from Recovery. About then looking on the Promise web site showed me updates were available for the firmware of the R4i controller and Promise Utility software, even though checking for updates with Promise Utility had said, “You have the most recent version.” I add this so other R4i users will know to go to the Promise web site to find the updates.
The “Keep reinstalling from Recovery” suggestion from Apple may not be as strange as it first seems. This problem may be with security aspects of macOS, and Apple continues to change security with unannounced updates. Maybe one of those will fix the issue.
The “Allow Device to Connect” message ONLY appears on laptops, not on the iMac, Studio or Mini. Apple design decision.
I use a TEKERA Powered USB Hub connected to an LG monitor that has a USB-c cable to my Macbook Air (for video, power & data). My SSD drive was not mounting until I used a powered USB hub.
So, as suggested above, maybe try a powered hub.
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That’s a good call. I’m wondering if there’s a power draw issue on the disk drive’s daisy-chained USB port.
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I don’t know the interiors of the Seagate Backup Plus, but I doubt that in my case, the difficulties arise from missing power supply. My reasoning is as follows: the hub has worked in the past, thus if it is not working now, it is not by construction but something must have broken down. Against a breakdown seems to speak that my iPhone and iPad when connected to the hub are charging as always, but they don’t appear in the Finder: this makes me think that there is sufficient electrical power but the data transfer is blocked.
It might be that the software of the Seagate hub is not compatible any more with Sequoia. But then Apple has implemented more stringent processes with Sequoia to authorize USB devices to connect, and I vaguely remember that the system once asked me that autorization question, but now the setting is nowhere to be found. Initially, this process was reserved for mobile devices only, but again I believe to have read that it now is applied to all computers with Apple silicon.
I think I solved my problem. In my case this was the key hint:
In common among the read-only drives is being spinning HDDs formatted HFS+. Drives which work are SSDs formatted APFS.
For my R4i the solution was to have Disk Warrior rebuild and replace the directories. Nothing else worked. (Seems like I have heard this story before.)
The R4i is a Pegasus hardware RAID5 of four HFS-formatted Toshiba disks mounted on the PCIe bus of my MacPro7,1. At first Disk Warrior could not unmount the R4i, and so could not rebuild its directories. When I dragged the disk to the Trash Finder offered me the option to Force-Eject the disk. I agreed, the R4i was unmounted, and Disk Warrior rebuilt the directories. The rebuild proceeded as usual. Before running the Directory Optimization Index was 4, not unusual but suggesting a rebuild would help. After the rebuild the DW report noted all files were found easily, and comparison of old and new directories showed nothing extraordinary. The main symptom I was dealing with was being blocked from writing to the disk. I was pleasantly surprised when, with no problem apparent, DW wrote the new directory to the disk and the R4i mounted. When I examined the disk in Finder everything worked as it should.
I a still examining my other two disks that have the read-only problem. One contains my Time Machine backup. DW has been rebuilding its directory for about 12 hours. Time Machine is known to create very complex directories, so a long process is expected. I will report when I have a result. The other disk I have not yet examined.
I will discuss these results in Feedback to Apple.
I wonder if Apple will ever provide developers a description of APFS, so APFS can be supported by products such as Disk Warrior.
USB or HFS+?
USB, including devices such as iPhone or iPad.
Contrary to my comment above, I doubt there was a a problem with the directory, My guess is writing the new directory to the disk overwrote some glitch that blocked the previous directory from being written to.
Is there an iOS tool that enables rewriting the directory on an iPhone of iPad? I suspect such a tool would be a security risk. I am in over my head here.
2 posts were split to a new topic: The utility of Disk Warrior in today’s APFS world