Mac mini M4 not showing specific folders on La Cie 2Big Dock v2

IreneBreda wrote:

Hi everyone.

I have encountered a very weird problem and I'm not sure if it is due to my new Mac Mini M4 or to the La Cie 2big dock station we are using.

System infos

Mac Mini M4 running Sequoia 15.3.1 (24D70)

You are also a bit behind on macOS update patches.

can not see some specifics folders on this HD, the HD is healthy and when I plug it into a Mac Studio M1 all the folders are there, but when plugging it into the M4 some specific folders just disappear.

Is there anything different or special about those folders?

I created 500 GB worth of video proxies on the LaCie from some raw footage already stored in the same HD. The transcode went very fast and this makes me think that maybe the files where created on RAID 1 and not on RAID 0 as it should be.

FYI, RAID 0 is the striping which gives more performance, RAID 1 is the mirror which provides two copies of the data. From the Lacie user guide, it appears a RAID 0 stripe with exFAT file system is the factory default setup.

I do hope you have a backup of any important files stored on the Lacie external drive because RAID 1, 5, 6 is not a backup....it is just a way of trying to keep the data online if one of the drives fails so you have a chance to rebuild the RAID array before another drive fails. A RAID 0 stripe will lose all data if any drive fails.

As said, when I plug the HD on another Mac M1 or M2 all the folders are there.

Am I missing something here? Is there anyone who had similar problems and came to a conclusion?

I have seen people report issues usually with a Mac Studio. In some cases the cables are the problem. Try using another Thunderbolt 3 cable from a respected vendor to see if that makes any difference. And make sure to try each of the other Thunderbolt ports on the M4 to see if that makes any difference. Manufacturers don't always provide the best cables.

I do recall a few years ago a few people report an issue where some folders on their external drives were not available. Unfortunately I don't recall what specifically caused the problem. I believe it was some other connected device that caused the problem, or some third party app (I'm thinking it was a Wacom tablet). Try disconnecting all other devices from the M4. If that does not work, then boot into Safe Mode to see if that makes a difference.

Are you using the Thunderbolt port nearest the Lacie's power button to connect the drive to your Mac? The Lacie documentation specifically mentions that specific USB-C Thunderbolt port is for connecting to the host Mac. And Lacie has a huge warning banner for the following:

https://www.seagate.com/manuals/lacie/2big-dock/system-overview/

Important info regarding the ports—The LaCie 2big Dock can be connected to one computer using the host Thunderbolt 3 port. Do not do any of the following:

* Connect both Thunderbolt 3 ports to a single computer.

* Connect a Thunderbolt 3 port to one computer and the other Thunderbolt 3 port to another computer.

IreneBreda wrote:

Thank you HWTech

for the clarification on the RAIDs, We do have a copy of the RAW footage on another HD, but since it's more than 20TB worth of fils we would like to keep it on the current HD and keep another as backup.

It is definitely not easy dealing with such large amounts of data. I'm glad to hear you have the same data stored on two different physical drives.

Is there anything different or special about those folders?

They are just the latest folders added to the HD. I tried Making a new folder with the same name and moving the subfolders in it and now I can see the folder but not the subfolders and on the M4 it still states that the folder has 0 bites.

I'm really confused since the HD works perfectly on the two other Macs.

Try checking "Ignore Ownership" when you "Get Info" on the drive. If you are adding files to this drive with other Macs, then the UserID associated with those user accounts may not match the UserID for the macOS user account on the M4. macOS file permissions are based on UserIDs not the user name. See the following Apple article to configure the external drive to "Ignore Ownership":

If you don’t have permission to use files on a Mac disk - Apple Support

Have you tried disconnecting all other devices from the M4?

Or tried to access the drive while booted into Safe Mode?

And is the Thunderbolt cable connected to the correct port on the Lacie drive....the one nearest the power button?

If none of the previous suggestions work:

Lets get a look at the permissions for the folder which disappears. You will need to do this on one of the other Macs where you can see the folder. You will need to use the command line so have the Terminal app open as well as a Finder window. Begin by typing the following command into the open Terminal window making sure to leave at least one space after the "@" character:

ls  -hled@ 

Now go to the Finder so you can drag & drop the folder that is not seen on the M4 onto the open Terminal window so the correct path to the folder is autofilled (very important if the path contains spaces). With the Terminal window in focus, press the "Return" key to execute the command. For example if the folder which does not appear on the M4 is called "Disappears" on an external drive volume called "ExternalDrive", then the full command would look like:

ls  -hled@  /Volumes/ExternalDrive/Disappears

This command will show the permissions associated with the disappearing folder including extended attributes & ACLs. Post the output here so we can examine it for possible clues.

This may be due to the formatting scheme (ExFat) that you are using. It appears that you may be sharing the drive with a Windows box and formatted ExFat so you could share files. Try moving some of the folders and files directly to the MM and see if they are recognized on the MM.