When will there be updated drivers and utility software to support the new MacBook Pro M1 Max units? I now have two 32TB SSD Shuttles that are nice looking doorstops.
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Hi,
Western Digital is in the process of validating compatibility for Western Digital solutions with macOS Monterey.
We will be updating our support website with the latest information as it becomes available.
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I am in the same boat. Any news would be gratefully received!
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I received a note from support yesterday that folks are actively testing and that I should wait three to four days for an update.
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Hopefully this issue is identified and resolve (successfully) soon. Welshofer, would you please post back when you’ve heard/seen something and when you have resolution?
Thanks
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Certainly. So far crickets since the “give us a few days” email which was last week.
Apparently they were caught off guard since they only had since June to test Monterey. Sorry, maybe that is harsh but I have 64TB and $20K worth of door stops.
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Just received this bit of support advice:
"As per the previous E-mail, I would like to share the information that currently we have no update. However you can try to once backup the data and try to reformat the drive in Ex-Fat File format. I presume it should work. "
Since I’ve explained that the drive is invisible to my machine, formatting it might prove difficult, not to mention why in the world would I hamstring myself with Ex-fat? But that misses the point that the drive DOES NOT WORK.
Crack support and clearly and indication that macOS is a secondary priority for Western Digital. I miss the days when G-tech was concerned about the Mac.
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My follow up:
Thank you for your response.
The previous email suggest I wait 3-4 business days. I heard no response.
How would you expect me to format the drive if it won’t mount? The Mac can’t even see the drive!
And why in the world would I format it as EX-FAT!!! That is crazy. It is a Mac.
What is the ETA for a meaningful update of substance with a response from someone who uses and knows the Mac?
My apologies, but this whole thing is very frustrating. Apple gave manufacturers more than a year worth of heads up on the coming OS changes, the OS has been available to test (along with Apple Silicon) for 5 months, and the OS shipped as final GM weeks ago.
G-Tech (Western Digital) manufactures devices that are critical components of professional workflows. There is no excuse to be surprised by this. It is a simple matter of treating a small portion of your user base as a lower priority. It is a cold calculation driven by economics.
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Following…SAME ISSUE.
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I have same problem here with my G-Studio R 12TB, all my photos cannot access any longer, drive shows on the Thunderbolt port, but drive is not mounting or recognized as a disk.
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An update:
My response:
Thank you for the update.
Understand that formatting the drive as Ex-fat is a non-starter.
1 - I have two 32TB drives, each with unique content. How would you suggest that I format them? There are not a lot of places I can casually toss that much content while I format the drives.
2 - Ex-Fat is a terrible file system for Mac users and represents all sorts of ugliness in terms of compatibilities with apps and associated data that are critical parts of my workflow
3 - Your instructions blithely suggest this is a “Solution” but this requires another Mac that has not been upgraded to Monterey. I do not have other Macs not on Monterey. This approach is not a solution.
Your statement implies this issue is something wrong with Monterey, and not trouble with your (Promise) software. Is this truly the case? Do you expect new updates from Apple? Help from Apple? Do you have a Radar number that those of us dealing with this can comment on at Apple? Has Apple given you an ETA on a fix?
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We are right there with you Welshofer! I really hope WD gets their act together soon. I would really like to access the 48TB of information I have on my Shuttle XL.
Same problem. G-Speed software not fully compatible with Big Sur. Had to attach drive to a different machine to run command line utility to get it back online.
Latest response (11/15):
“As per the previous E-mail, we don’t have an ETA for this . However, it should be fixed soon and our engineers are working on it to provide a solution in terms of a driver update or something.”
Any updates on this? I have a 24TB paper weight and would like to start using it as a drive again soon. Why can large companies not provide better support? It is not like the change from kernel extensions and Monterey were surprises. Looking forward to the new drivers being released soon.
I have received no additional updates. G-Tech used to be a very Mac-focused company. Once WD bought them that essentially went away. macOS users represent a small market share for WD. Monterey was released as a beta in June. The realization that they were not prepared for Monterey’s launch is just proof that the Mac is a low priority for WD. Their response that I should reformat the drive as Ex-FAT sealed that fact for me. Ugh.
I was finally able to get my shuttle to mount to my M1 Max MacBook Pro 2021!!
Please follow the steps here. You have to install the Promise software and downgrade your boot kernel security settings.
My G-Speed Shuttle now works on my M1 MacBook Pro using the new Promise driver! Hooray!
Download from here -
PROMISE Technology - Storage Solutions for IT, Cloud, Surveillance, and Rich…
All the drivers are the same I think (R_MacDrv_V6_2_16).
Follow the instructions for installing - which includes lowering boot security to load non-Apple extension and it will work. My RAID now works as before. Thank you Promise Tech!
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Happy to hear that worked for you. I am very familiar with this process and have been through it many times. That is the exact process I used to get the drive to work with the M1 iMac and M1 MBP 13 when they came out but no luck for me with any of my M1 or M1 Max units under Monterey.
No luck with those instructions for me either.
Looks like it is time to check into returning this product while I still can. Very disappointed in Western Digital. As someone in charge of corporate purchasing it will be tough to trust Western Digital going forward.
Having to use the Promise build to make the drives work on the original M1 Macs was bad enough. I know the G-Tech folks are just bundling the Promise controllers, etc. but at least they could pretend to care about the Mac.
When I first contacted support they blamed Apple and said Apple was working on a fix.
I just left Apple after being an employee there for 26 years in PM, so I asked for Radar numbers. Who are you working with? What team? What’s the ETA?
That quickly dissolved into “we are working on it” and “real soon” and my favorite “Monterey was a surprise”.
This of course was topped only by “reformat it as Ex-Fat”.
I imagine this line of products have a small number of customers and of those a small percentage are macOS users, so building and maintaining macOS flavors of their drivers and utility software is not terribly cost effective. That’s fine. But if they don’t intend to provide decent, basic support for their hardware, they should not market it to macOS using customers.
It is terribly disappointing, especially considering how central the Mac was to the original G-Technology company.
