7 Useful Solutions to Fix Mac External Hard Drive Sleep Issue

Hard Drive Issue: Mac External Hard Drive Sleep

Whenever your Mac external hard drive turns sleep mode, it will turn off the hard drive motor and stop all the operation that is working. Besides, Mac users cannot perform any operation on the computer and it will cause your applications to jam.

Therefore, when you encountered the Mac external hard drive sleep issue, don’t panic and learn all the useful solutions below to fix the Mac external hard drive sleep issue!

Useful Solutions to Fix Mac External Hard Drive Sleep Issue

Solution 1: Reconnect the Hard Drive

Disconnect and reconnect the external hard drive to check whether it is visible again after a few tries because sometimes it can be a temporary connection error too.

Solution 2: Reboot System

If it doesn’t work after reconnecting the external hard drive, then you can try to reboot your Mac system to find and fix the misconfiguration or errors. This can help to activate the device for future use.

Solution 3: Configure macOS Sleep Settings

Step 1: Go to the Apple menu and choose System Preferences, then go to Energy Saver.

Step 2: Go to Battery/Adapter menu from the Energy Saver window and unselect the put hard disks to sleep when possible mode.

After that, you can try to reconnect the external hard drive and check whether the Mac external hard drive sleep issue has been fixed or not.

Solution 4: Reinstall Hard Drive Software

When the hard drive software is not compatible with the macOS, this issue can happen too. If this the case, you need to uninstall the driver and download the latest or compatible driver version to overcome this issue.

Solution 5: Upgrade to the Latest OS

Step 1: Go to the Apple menu again and choose System Preferences. Then choose Software Update.

Step 2: If there are any new updates, click Upgrade to upgrade to the latest version.

Follow the guided steps below if you are macOS Sierra, High Sierra, or older versions.

Step 1: Go to App Store and click Updates from the setting bar.

Step 2: Tap on the Update All button to start the download and install the latest update.

While if you are macOS Snow Leopard and Lion, then follow the steps here:

Step 1: Proceed to the Apple menu and choose Software Update.

Solution 6: Fix External Hard Drive

Refer to the steps below to fix the Mac external hard drive:

Step 1: Press the Command + Spacebar to open Spotlight.

Step 2: Type Disk Utility and tap Return to open Disk Utility.

Step 3: Select the external hard drive and choose First Aid.

Step 4: Choose Run to start the verification and repair process.

You can use the file system consistency check (fsck) to fix the issue.

Step 1: Restart your system and press Command + S keys together.

Step 2: In the command line, type the command: /sbin/fsck –fy: and press Return.

Step 3: Please wait for the command line for the repair process to complete.

Step 4: Run the same command and wait for the drive to check OK.

Step 5: Last, type reboot and press Return.

Suppose that all the solutions above cannot fix the Mac external hard drive sleep issue, then you will need to reformat your external hard drive but it is important for you to back up all your data first because reformat the hard drive will erase all the data in it.

Backup Data using Best Mac Data Recovery Tool

Therefore, for a safety measure, we recommend Bitwar Data Recovery Software for Mac as it provides a 100% clean and fast data scan. Besides, it can recover data from any internal or external storage devices such as SD card, flash card, hard drive, and more.

Step 1: Go to Bitwarsoft Download Center and Download the Mac data recovery software.

Step 2: Launch the data recovery and choose the external hard drives from the list of devices.

Step 3: Choose the scan mode and click Next to continue.

Step 4: Select the File type you want to back up or and click the Next button again.

Step 5: Preview and Click the file that you need from the scan result. Continue to click on the Recover button to start the backup process.

Solution 7: Format the Hard Drive

Make sure you follow the data backup process above to keep all your data safe before you continue the steps below to format the external hard drive.

Step 1: Open Disk Utility on your Mac device.

Step 2: Click the affected external hard drive from the left panel and click the Erase option.

Step 3: Enter the name and format details, followed by choosing the Erase option.

Step 4: After the format process is complete, remember to transfer the backup data to the external hard drive again.

Fix-it Now!

There are many issues that are related to the hard drive such as the Mac external hard drive sleep issue. So all you need is to follow the solutions given above to fix it and back up your data from the hard drive first with Bitwar Data Recovery Software for Mac before starting the hard drive formatting.