External SSD ejecting randomly on M4 pro mini but fine on MacBook Pro M3

Question

External SSD ejecting randomly on M4 pro mini but fine on MacBook Pro M3

Every time I try to transfer a 2tb(ish) folder from my crucial X9 pro ssd via mac mini M4 pro thunderbolt port (any of the ports) using the included usb c cable from crucial to my synology NAS, the disk randomly 'ejects' part way through transfer. The cable connects properly, I have tried another crucial cable, another port, no power saving options on and no hub or other cables attached other than to the monitor. No joy.

Always ejects with no obvious reason. I have just tried the very same task on my macbook pro M3 and it’s working without a problem. Any suggestions why this may be the case? There’s no point having so many thunderbolt ports on an otherwise very capable desktop computer if I have to use an older laptop to manage lengthy transfer tasks, no?! 🫤

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

ps I used rsync via terminal and then carbon copy cloner and it happened without both.

Mac mini, macOS 15.6

Posted on Sep 13, 2025 1:39 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

68,444 points

Sep 13, 2025 9:15 PM in response to Gareth Roberts

Try using a good high quality USB3/4 cable. The cables provided by the device manufacturers are usually of lower quality.

I have also seen some people report having better success by connecting an external drive to a USB3 hub (powered would be best, but a couple people said an unpowered hub worked for them).

Also, is the Mac going to sleep or logging out during the file transfer? If so, then keep the Mac awake during the transfer to see if that makes any difference.

What file system is being used on the external SSD? Are you using the SSD's built-in hardware encryption feature which requires the manufacturer's third party proprietary software?

Make sure your current OS is fully patched with all of its minor updates. No need to upgrade to a new major OS version as that will just complicate troubleshooting.

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