Preventing automatic sleeping on the power adapter when the display is off

System Settings -> Battery -> Options -> [X] Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off.

chuck3400 wrote:

SSK Portable SSD 2TB External Solid State Drive - 2 months old

Thunderbolt

Baseus Docking Station, Spacemate(Win) 11 in 1, 2 months old (Triple Display, 4K HDMI and DP, 10Gbps USB A/C Ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 100W PD, Audio, Laptop Docking Station for Windows/Dell/HP/Lenovo/Asus/Acer/Mac)

Standard troubleshooting step, maybe you have tried this already: disconnect the dock and operate with only the external SSD connected directly to the Mac. This is temporary, it is to test to see if the dock is involved. Run a SuperDuper backup to see if the drive ejects without the dock. After the SuperDuper run, then use the Mac for various things with the dock disconnected to see if the dock causes the problem.

Regarding Etracheck: No clue what it found. $20 to buy before report can be uploaded here?

The free version of Etrecheck can be used to upload its report, no need to pay the $20 (but I did pay because I think it adds value and wanted to support its developer).

I personally get away with using the “Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off” setting.

However, at work, a lot of users like the app Amphetamine from the App Store.

Try what BobHarris suggests.

If you run into further difficulties here, however, you can do what the SuperDuper creator suggested, which is to install Coca which absolutely prevents that undesired sleeping. I have never seen this problem on my personal Macs, but I did see it on a workplace Mac that had all kinds of employer stuff on it (Big Fix, anti-virus, other managed Mac things) and installing Coca eliminated that issue on that workplace Mac.

Of course your situation may be different but no harming in trying ...

Maybe some more information about your setup would help:

(1) What make/model of external drive? How old is it?

(2) What type of cable is used to connect to Mac?

(3) Is an adaptor or dock being used? Is so, what make/model?

(4) Download and run Etrecheck and post the report here with the Additional Text button below -

How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

Did you try adding the Etrecheck report this way:

Copy the report

and after clicking on the Reply button use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

chuck3400 wrote:

Let's get on the same page here:

Thunderbolt TO Thunderbolt

I have old equipment, ergo, some old cables.

I'll consider buying more hubs, drives, cables, etc. when more money lands in my bank account. I'm a writer. Not a gamer or user of any sophisticated stuff. So I keep it simple.

I just upgraded to 15.7.2. Didn't get notice when it came available.

My MacBook is M1 late 2020

I'm not familiar with Etrecheck. Tried to upload once. Tried again here. Seems "Extra text" not working.

Follow Old Toad's instructions for Etrecheck.

You don't need expensive Thunderbolt cables, inexpensive USB-C cables will work. And you really just need one. But unless you try this direct connection of the external drive to your Mac, you will always have the uncertainty of older docks, hubs which might be the cause, but it could also be something installed (Etrecheck helps with that). By the way, hubs and docks can work fine for years and then simply fail in a variety of ways (specific functionality fails; or entire device fails).

chuck3400 wrote:

I can't connect the drive directly to my Mac. I don't have a thunderbolt 2 thunderbolt cable.

WAIT ... why do you need anything having to do with Thunderbolt 2? The oldest MacBook Air 13" models that can run Sequoia came with Thunderbolt 3. You can connect directly between your SSD and that MacBook Air with a USB-C cable which should support some ~ Gb/s.

Anyhow, I pulled out an old hub & ran SuperDuper. SD finished but disk did not eject. So I did it manually. No error message. Continued on with email, Safari, etc. without issues. This has happened without error before with various hubs before I got the docking station.

However "disc not ejected properly" did pop up frequently with several hubs. (which is why I got the Baseus in the first place).

I would dispose of the old hubs or cables that don't seem to work right. They may be obsolete or incompatible with a modern MacOS.

That Baseus hub is indeed "frequently returned," which might not speak well to its build quality. Also, there is a note that some of its advertised capabilities don't work on Macs. I would suggest a better choice would be a hub from OWC or Pluggable that are advertised for and known to work well with Macs.

By the way, why are you on MacOS 15.6? Many bugs have been fixed with subsequent versions and the latest version is 15.7.2.

So, if I can't find a solution maybe I'll just replicate the SD backup infrequently and rely mostly on Time Machine.

You should be doing both Time Machine and SD backups frequently without any issues. It is good practice to have different types of backups and to do them often. You should be using only modern high quality equipment (drives, cables, docks) that works reliably. I would not keep a drawer with old questionable cables and hubs and try reusing them.

You mentioned having a history of improper drive ejection. That is one reason I suggested posting the Etrecheck report, there may be clues in there for the root cause(s). The drive itself might be faulty, let alone cables or old hubs. If so, your backups might be at risk or could be corrupted. The worst time to find that out is when something happens and you really need them. Improper drive ejections can easily corrupt the data on those drives, but may also be indicative of a problem with the Mac itself. What year/model is your Mac?