Problem Samsung T5 and MacMini 2018

[Zdigital2015]

May I ask if using the USB A port gives you the same write speed as the C port?

I’m in the process of picking an external drive and it seems to be either the T5 or the cheaper MX500.

Also, slightly off topic but does anyone know if there’s m.2 enclosures that support both SATA m.2 and NVMe, since the connection pins are different? I’d like to start with a SATA until the NVMe become more affordable.

You might consider the Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD as well. I have a pair of the 500GB models and they have worked great for me.

Rolling your own with the MX500 and a quality m.2 external case (Vantec NexStar SX) gives you a bit more flexibility than the Samsung T5, and frankly, I have never been a big fan of that particular drive. Something about it seems off, although I use Samsung's 860 EVOs all the time in other applications and love them.

However, the cost differential between a quality SATA m.2 and a quality NVMe m.2 is small enough that you would probably be better off starting with NVMe, given the speed advantages of the drives themselves. Carpe diem.

 

[nampramos]

That enclosure is only usb 3.0, which is much slower than 3.1 gen 2.

The difference between random read/write speeds is much smaller between a good SATA m.2 and a nvme, which is what interests me.

 

[open0]

Does anyone uncheck "FileVault" ?
I connect 2 ext HDDs though USB 3 without any problems. Your issues here may be of T2 chip or USB-C thunderbolt port with ext SDD.

 

[Jorbanead]

Does anyone uncheck "FileVault" ?
I connect 2 ext HDDs though USB 3 without any problems. Your issues here may be of T2 chip or USB-C thunderbolt port with ext SDD.

This thread isn’t about HDDs. I also have two HDDs connected to my 2018 mini and I haven’t had any problems. AFAIK there’s no issue with HDDs but specifically SSD and T5. Also the issue isn’t USB-C or T2 either. Users have tried both USB-A and USB-C and still get the issue. This issue also doesn’t occur on the iMac Pro and MBP 2018 which also have T2 chips.

ElectricPotato has made an interesting discovery possibly linking the monitor/HDMI cable to this unusual issue.

 

[philipma1957]

No change. APFS/encrypted with the latest firmware still ejects when sleeping overnight.

I'll try out HFS+/unencrypted tonight to see what that does. Then I'm out of things to try. I'm guessing this regression is something that must be worked around (manual unmount/mount when sleeping or don't sleep).

Sleep issues have occurred with Mac mini’s since 2006. Best advice is stop it from going to sleep.

 

[moep]

I'm seeing the same issue with the 2018 Mac Mini and a 1TB Samsung T5 (APFS). Woke the machine over night and found the drive was ejected. No monitor connected to the device.
Will try a different port now (drive was connected to the one closest to the USB-A ports).

 

[Fishrrman]

moep wrote:
"I'm seeing the same issue with the 2018 Mac Mini and a 1TB Samsung T5 (APFS). Woke the machine over night and found the drive was ejected. No monitor connected to the device."

Go back and read post #27 of this thread:
#27

 

[Ethosik]

This isn't anything new. I have had this back since macOS Mavericks with bus powered spinning drives attached to my 2010 Mac Pro. macOS is just overly sensitive with the issue. With Windows 10, I can unplug the drive without "safely removing" and do not get any error messages that it should have been safely removed first.

 

[moep]

moep wrote:
"I'm seeing the same issue with the 2018 Mac Mini and a 1TB Samsung T5 (APFS). Woke the machine over night and found the drive was ejected. No monitor connected to the device."

Go back and read post #27 of this thread:
#27

I specifically bought a new mac mini because my old one was so reliable to wake from sleep, making it very economic as a home server that's available on demand but not idling @ 10-30W all day (or night) when not in use.

 

[dia3olik]

I specifically bought a new mac mini because my old one was so reliable to wake from sleep, making it very economic as a home server that's available on demand but not idling @ 10-30W all day (or night) when not in use.

Did you use wakeonlan?

 

[moep]

Did you use wakeonlan?

Yes and no. Not directly, because the airport express sends the magic packet to the machine whenever one of the advertised bonjour services sees network activity... so it is a transparent process, zero additional interaction required other than waiting an extra 5-10 seconds for the connection to be established because the machine needs to wake up first. This always worked great and reliably since all the way back in 2009, not even NAS manufacturers in 2019 can do this. It would still work great if it wasnt for this (T5 related?) bug.

 

[jacklivehere]

I have T5 on USB-C port. never had any issues with Mac mini 2018 and T5. USB info shows required is 896mA

Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 896

 

[harriska2]

I specifically bought a new mac mini because my old one was so reliable to wake from sleep, making it very economic as a home server that's available on demand but not idling @ 10-30W all day (or night) when not in use.

I’m afraid the sleep wake issue isn’t 100% resolved. Everyone I know with a mac still disables it. Except our 2015 mbp running el cap - I think that does sleep wake perfectly.

 

[IngerMan]

Hate to mention the obvious but have you T5 owners checked that you have the latest Firmware installed?

Just a thought as their seems to be people with and without the issues.

Link Here - Scroll to bottom.

Thank you for the Tip Dr. Stealth.

I was running in Journal Encrypted for a week with no eject issues but It was only writing 300 mb/sec and disk marks would show that after the 1st or 2nd run it would slow down on the bench mark from 400's to 300.

Yesterday I reformatted to APFS encrypted and the write speeds was identical as Journaled. But I had an eject during sleep overnight so it brought me to this thread again.

I just downloaded the latest firmware and tested the disk speed and it has improved. I am hoping the firmware update also fixes the eject issue. If not I am confident I can run in Journal extended encrypted with out issues.

I will report back later of any eject issues.

Thank you again. I have new confidence in my T5.

 

[IngerMan]

I got the ejected during sleep with APFS format so I formatted again in Journal Extended but that as well ejected overnight. APFS does have higher random writes then Journal so I went back to APFS again.

All in all I will say if I open disk utility it sees the Samsung drive in either format and I can press the mount button and all is good. It is inconvenient but at least I don't have to unplug and plug in again. I am not sure why this is a Samsung T5 thing for I never had it happen to the Crucial MX500 sitting below it.

Let's see if a fix is coming down the road from either Samsung or Apple. I have the Samsung app and will continue to check for updates.

 

[JeffPerrin]

Been researching USB 3.1 card (and potential issues) for my cMP and the general consensus I'm finding is that USB drives should be ejected before sleep.

Macs were designed for sleep. USB 3 appears not so much... eSATA drives are similarly supposed to be ejected before sleep. However, sometimes I forget and many times they stay connected, other times I get the "Disk Not Ejected Properly" message on wake.

These long-standing external connectivity issues are exactly why I prefer a tower-based design with internal drive bays for mission-critical, everyday work.

 

[Fishrrman]

I've posted this before, and like a broken record I'll state it again:
There's no reason to put a 2018 Mini "to sleep".
The Mini will use marginally less power "sleeping" than it uses while "awake".

Just put the display to sleep, or even better, reach forward and power it off!

 

[harriska2]

My 2 usb3 external drives work fine without getting ejected because I turned computer sleep OFF.

 

[chrfr]

Been researching USB 3.1 card (and potential issues) for my cMP and the general consensus I'm finding is that USB drives should be ejected before sleep.

Macs were designed for sleep. USB 3 appears not so much... eSATA drives are similarly supposed to be ejected before sleep. However, sometimes I forget and many times they stay connected, other times I get the "Disk Not Ejected Properly" message on wake.

These long-standing external connectivity issues are exactly why I prefer a tower-based design with internal drive bays for mission-critical, everyday work.

I have several USB devices (including a T5) attached to my 2018 MBP through a CalDigit TS3+ dock, and have no issues at all with drives unmounting when the computer is put to sleep.

 

[moep]

I did notice that the 2018 mac mini will not recognise my old Apple keyboard in the T2 UI (pre-EFI) until I plug in any device into its USB port. Others have observed similar behaviour.
The theory is that the power consumption of the keyboard is too low so that the mac thinks there's nothing connected to the port and leaves it disabled. The same could be happening to the Samsung T5 during slees: its power consumption may be too low, so the port gets shut off and thus the disconnect/reconnect until USB ports actively get polled during wake. Has anybody observed what the blue LED on the T5 does in the various power states?

 

[sheck]

I've posted this before, and like a broken record I'll state it again:
There's no reason to put a 2018 Mini "to sleep".
The Mini will use marginally less power "sleeping" than it uses while "awake".

Just put the display to sleep, or even better, reach forward and power it off!

Or, instead of making excuses for Apple and Samsung, say that sleep is a feature that was sold to me and needs to work.

The answer to a software bug is not to change user behavior, it’s to fix the bug!

 

[Fishrrman]

"The answer to a software bug is not to change user behavior, it’s to fix the bug!"

If that's "your answer", well... ok.
It's not mine.

Fishrrman's philosophy:
Go with WHAT WORKS for you.

The "sleep issue" may or may not be an "Apple bug", but it's NEVER been an issue for me. I don't "sleep the Mini". Thus, I don't experience any "sleep issues".

That "works" for me.

 

[K.B.]

I am having a major problem with my 2018 MacBook Pro and the Samsung T5 - I have several of them but the one I carry with me is set to be encrypted and if my MacBook goes to into standby or sleep it's all over.

I can't re-unlock the disk, I can't eject it and I can't do anything with the computer. I have to pull the USB C and restart my computer.

 

[yukari]

I think this issue is related to Samsung's own security program.
I had the same issue, but after removing Samsung's security (but kept Apple's filevault on) the problem no longer is there.

--
Edit - open SamsungPortableSSD app and change the security setting to OFF

 

[K.B.]

I think this issue is related to Samsung's own security program.
I had the same issue, but after removing Samsung's security (but kept Apple's filevault on) the problem no longer is there.

--
Edit - open SamsungPortableSSD app and change the security setting to OFF

ahhh--- I was thinking that because I actually have both running on the disk. Thanks for the tip on how to do it... just turned off the Samsung security and left the FileVault on.