2015 iMac, Sierra 10.12.4
Hello, thank you for reading this long post.
My issue is when I wake my iMac from sleep I find my drive has ejected improperly. The issue is intermittent. My iMac has 2 users accounts, and I am pretty sure it is only happening to one of the accounts? Typically if I log out the issue won’t happen.
Another issue with the iMac is if I leave my iMac logged in only to my personal account, not the other account, sometimes, it will freeze shortly after waking from sleep. Both of these signs point to an issue with my account? Log in items? The freezing and ejecting do not happen simultaneously.
This iMac was recently purchased and the user account was transferred from my MacBook Pro using Migration Assistant via a Thunderbolt 2 cable. That MacBook has no issues.
I have two external 3 TB Western Digital My Book Studio USB 3 drives plugged into my 5k iMac. They are plugged directly into the iMac, not into a hub. Only 1 of the 2 drives has this issue.
I have tried different USB ports on the back of the iMac, issue persists.
I have reset SMC and NVRAM, issue persists.
Tried unchecking “Put hard disk asleep when possible.” in Energy Saver preferences, issue persists.
I have updated the firmware of the drives, issue persists.
I have repaired the drives, erased and reformatted, issue persists.
I even booted to Recovery and reinstalled macOS, issue persists.
I have sent the drives into WD and received two new replacement drives with new USB cables and power adapters, issue persists. What are the chances of these two replacement drives also having the same issue?
Tried removing preventing Spotlight from cataloging the drive’s contents, issue persists.
Please help, AppleCare and WD Tech support have not solved helped me with this issue.