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

AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Friday April 18, 2025 5:16 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iphone 17 air dummy unbox therapy

iPhone 17 Air's Extreme Thinness Demoed in New Video

Tuesday April 22, 2025 10:22 am PDT by
Apple plans to release an all-new super thin iPhone this year, debuting it alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We've seen pictures of dummy models, cases, and renders with the design, but Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy today showed off newer dummy models that give us a better idea of just how thin the "iPhone 17 Air" will be. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
ipad air windows 11 arm

M2 iPad Air Runs Windows 11 ARM via Emulation, Thanks to EU Rules

Tuesday April 22, 2025 5:01 am PDT by
A developer has demonstrated Windows 11 ARM running on an M2 iPad Air using emulation, which has become much easier since the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect. As spotted by Windows Latest, NTDev shared an instance of the emulation on social media and posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) demonstrating it in action. The achievement relies on new EU regulatory...
maxresdefault

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Sunday April 13, 2025 7:52 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.5 Includes Only a Few Changes So Far

Monday April 21, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 18.5 to developers today, and so far the software update includes only a few minor changes. The changes are in the Mail and Settings apps. In the Mail app, you can now easily turn off contact photos directly within the app, by tapping on the circle with three dots in the top-right corner. In the Settings app, AppleCare+ coverage information is more...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Triad

Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone May Finally Go All Screen

Tuesday April 15, 2025 6:31 am PDT by
Apple is preparing a "bold" new iPhone Pro model for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. As part of what's being described as a "major shake-up," Apple is said to be developing a design that makes more extensive use of glass – and this could point directly to the display itself. Here's the case for Apple releasing a truly all-screen iPhone with no...
CarPlay Hero

Apple Releases Wireless CarPlay Fix

Wednesday April 16, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
If you have been experiencing issues with wireless CarPlay in your vehicle lately, it was likely due to a software bug that has now been fixed. Apple released iOS 18.4.1 today, and the update's release notes say it "addresses a rare issue that prevents wireless CarPlay connection in certain vehicles." If wireless CarPlay was acting up for you, updating your iPhone to iOS 18.4.1 should...

Top Rated Comments

EugW Avatar
23 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
23 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
23 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
23 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
23 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
23 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)