Samsung SSD T7 and MacBook Air m2

I just got a new M2 MacBook Air and had the same problem with a brand new Samsung T7. Went to Systemsettings -> Privacy and security -> Allow connection with accessories -> set to Always. This solved it for me (have not tried changing it back to Always ask).

Have formatted the T7 as APFS encrypted with Apple Disk Utility and made a backup copy using Carbon Copy Cloner. It now mounts without issue and can acces the content after putting in the password.

Hope this helps.

FYI the point of owning the T7 is it has built-in hardware encryption via password so should just use APFS. If you use APFS Encrypted (software encryption) your transfer speeds could be half of what you paid for.

e.g. with my external (not T7) I get 655MB/s write with APFS vs 284MB/s APFS Encrypted = 43% of the speed possible.

Hello!

Sorry to hear you're having issues using your Samsung T7 SSD with your MacBook Air (M2, 2022).

As a test, go to Disk Utility in macOS Recovery mode, Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support, and see if the external SSD is detected there.

Additionally, test in Safe Mode, How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support, and in a new, test user account: Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support.

Jack

I think if I had a Samsung product and Samsung told me the product was "dead" I would tend to believe them.

FWIW, I have several Samsung SSDs and have never experienced any issues with them.

Are you formatting the SSD at the top level to ensure any included apps are removed?

I was having the same exact issue. New MacBook Air M2, Samsung T7 (formatted FAT 32) drive not mounting. I previously was using the drive on a Windows PC connected via the usb cable provided by Samsung A to C. I was using several different cables to no avail. I then realized the Samsung drive provided a second cable ( C to C). Connected the drive to the MacBook with that cable and it immediately worked. Try the cable!

@Esgo's method also worked for me. I also have a Macbook Air M2 - bought a brand new Samsung T7 Shield 2TB and it would not mount. I could see an alert popup but it was so quick I couldn't read it. After setting the Allow connection with accessories to the "Automatically When Unlocked" setting - it immediately mounted.

A couple years back I bought a T5 series but it didn't work with Macs with Intel processors so I returned it and bought a SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD. It has worked fine on both my Intel macs and I now use it with it my M2 Air without issue. Your call what to do with it.

Maybe not the same, but could be: Macbook Air M2, Sandisk extreme 4TB ssd and replacement WD my passport 4TB ssd. The M2 causes the ssd to forget its formatting after some period of time. This has happened repeatedly -- the last N times in hopes of prying loose some information that will help apple support figure out what's wrong. I have ruled out a lot of things: It is not the ssd, not the cable, not the port, not using encryption, not disconnecting the drive (though, I suspect the errors are masked by disk cache so it can appear after reconnecting). Some post somewhere suggested there was an old problem when an ssd was more than half full. I have not ruled that out yet. In any case, for me, the process seems to involve some slow degradation. For example, after a day or two, time machine stops and complains a file could not be backed-up. Things continue in that vein, but eventually, the ssd forgets its partitioning and all data is lost. (Fortunately, I adopted a three level backup approach years ago, so no bytes were harmed in this -- just a lot of wasted time doing full backups from the old slow disks I was hoping to replace.) I have been formatting as APFS. On occasion, the ssd was not recognized until I formatted on a different machine.