Multiple USB devices with M1 mini 2020--best practices

Disabling Sleep is not a workaround - it is proper operation and set as previously posted.

Additionally, Screens can be set to shut on timer (highly recommended):

Off-on-timer does not get in the way of locking screen on demand - use Control-Command-Q

fzman wrote:

More specifically I have a Sabrent 4-bay HDD enclosure, a 7-port USB 3.1 hub, and a Quiizlab UH25 Pro hub, which has an m2 sata, an nvme, and 4 USB 3.0/1 ports.

The UH25 plugs into a Thunderbolt port, and i have the Sabrent drive bay connected to the 10Gbps port on the UH25. Other stuff (Blu-ray drive, webcam, scanner, logi BT mouse adapter, and keyboard are connected to the generic 34.1 Hub

Not everything runs all the time , but i have been having issues where all of my external drives throw an 'unexpected eject' message mid-way through copying large mkv files from drive in bay 4 to drive in bay 2, e.g., in the new Sabrent drive bay. I am too new at macs to determine whether i have too much on my USB buss, or if it is more device specific.

The Sabrent 4-bay HDD enclosure does not require a fast connection.

I would plug it directly into one the Mac mini's USB-A port.

Is that 7-port USB 3.1 hub bus powered or self-powered...?

If it is bus powered (meaning that it only get power from the Mac mini) then you need to be replace it with a self-powered hub (meaning one that has it's own external power source).

The Quizlab hub w/SSD, should only be used for low power USB devices.

Test after moving the 4-bay Sabrent from it to the Mac mini. Then if it is not providing enough power, I would move either the Blu-ray drive or the Scanner from it to the Mac mini or to the self-powered hub.

fzman wrote:

The generic hub has a 36W external power supply- the quiizlab has a separate usb port for 5V in, and it is connected to the generic hub's charging-only port (maybe it needs more power>???)

The Sabrent Hub has a large external power supply as well.

Sounds like power is not an issue.

I am not sure whether the drive to drive transfer from bay to bay in the Sabrent stays completely internal to the dock or routes back thru the mac or the quiizlab....

How are the drives in the Sabrent formatted...?

Moving, copying and transferring files will be done by the Mac Mini.

If the 4-Bay offers RAID, then one drive could mirror copy to another with out going thru the Mac mini.

My M1 is an *Gb ram, 512Gb ssd model- not sure if more ram would help here... (aka upgrade to a 16G or 24G M4 Mini

8GB of RAM should not affect copying from one drive to another.

You can not upgrade the RAM in any of the Silicon Mac's after purchase.

If those drives in the Sabrent are for Mac use only, then the Mac OS Extended or APFS would be a more friendly format than exFat.

If those drives are being used cross platform (Mac and PC) then exFat is the better option.

Either way, if you are doing a large copy job from one drive to another, you should refrain from doing other tasks until that job has completed.

Quiizlab – UH25 Pro (Gray)

The manufacturer describes this as a USB-C hub with internal bays for a 2.5" SATA notebook drive, and a M.2 SATA or PCIE NVMe SSD. There's no evidence that it understands Thunderbolt.

Given that, I would think that you would get the best speed by connecting it to one of the two USB-C (Thunderbolt) ports on the M1 Mac mini – which would presumably get you a USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection. In a pinch, I am guessing that you could connect it to one of your USB-A ports with an adapter, but they only run at USB 3.0 speed - and that could crimp the performance you could get from any M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.

As far as avoiding unexpected ejects, I would recommend NOT letting your Mac go to Sleep. Unfortunately, there seems to be a bit of a history with USB drives experiencing unplanned ejects as a result of Sleep. I'm not sure whether the fault lies with Macs or with certain drive enclosures, but I've seen mention of avoiding Sleep being a workaround for this problem.

On my current Mac, I often use "Lock Screen" while turning the (separate) display off; then later turn the display on and press a Shift key to get the Mac's attention again. I believe that avoids the "Sleep" states that are potentially a problem with some USB drives.

Try the settings below exactly as shown (reboot after changing), might fix.

Also, for long absences, do not manual Sleep, shut.

Great, thanks for updating.

You're welcome.

Good work! Thanks for coming back and reporting what solved your original problem.