How to use an external CD/DVD drive with MacBook Air?

Portable bus-powered optical drives can have "insufficient power" issues, especially when you are burning discs with them. (Burning a disc requires turning on the laser at higher power.)

The Apple USB SuperDrive is notorious for wanting to be plugged

• Directly into a USB-A port on a Mac that does not have. built-in optical drive, or
• Directly into an Apple USB-C to USB adapter that is itself plugged directly into a USB-C port on a Mac

Many third-party bus-powered drives are "power-sucking aliens". They come with cables for plugging them into TWO of the USB ports on your computer. Only one is needed for data transfer – but the USB standards say that USB 2.0 ports only have to offer 2.5 watts of power (500mA @ 5V), and that USB 3.x ports only have to offer 4.5 watts of power (900mA @ 5V). By connecting to two USB ports, a drive that uses this cable arrangement is able to suck down up to twice as much power as would normally be available.

Other portable drives only require one USB cable connection. But given how many are "power-sucking aliens", one might wonder how many of the single-cable drives are operating at or over the official power limit.

Drivers for external cd/dvd drives aren't necessary for the Mac, so it probably should work.

What software are you using to do your CD copy? What's your process?

Will the drive read and play music CDs? DVDs?

Is it connected directly to the computer or through a hub/dock?

Best if connected directly to the computer. Use a USB adapter is necessary.

If this is the drive In question, it seems to connect via a single USB cable.

Amazon – External DVD Drive USB 3.0 Type-C CD Burner Portable CD +/-RW Drive DVD Player for ROM Rewriter Burner Compatible with Laptop Desktop PC Windows MacBook Linux Mac OS

You could try going into System Information (Option– > System Information…), selecting USB in the side bar, and looking through the entries until you find the drive. This might reveal "Current Available (mA)" and "Current Required (mA)" information.