Prevent External Drives from Sleeping
Continuing the same thread;
I have had this problem on laptops, iMac, Studio, with OCW, cheapo chinese, and QNAP. Formatting HFS to APFS didn't solve it. Amphetamine tries to solve it but isn't a great solution in the long run. Right now the Qmap raid spools up and then after a minute it spools down. Most annoying.
I have tried the terminal commands in the past but I'm still having a problem so that obviously wasn't a permanent fix if at all. I don't remember. And yes, the energy saver HD sleep setting is off.
The last update may have borked things up. It's disappointing to fight stupid stuff like this. I'm old and expect better from Apple.