We have a firmware update for OWC Thunderbolt 3 enclosures, specifically the 4-bay and 6-bay Thunderbays.
Some users experience a problem where 1 or 2 disks suddenly eject from the Thunderbay. They do not re-appear until a power cycle on the enclosure.
We determined that this was triggered by an OS X sleep mechanism, and unchecking "Put drives to sleep" in Energy Settings would prevent this.
However, we now have a permanent fix for this, which involves a firmware update for your enclosure.
The instructions are included in the DMG file linked below. We have been testing this with users and have seen no aide effects and this does seem to completely eliminate the problem. This means you can leave the Energy Setting for sleep enabled.
Download the updater from the page below. The updater is for Thunder
ThunderBay 4 (TB3 version) and the ThunderBay 6.
Post your feedback here.
https://www.owcdigital.com/support/software-drivers
https://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=/manuals/item/thunderbay4tb3.html
Important notes:
1) Follow the steps carefully in the instructions.
2) While we do not believe there is any risk of data loss, we do recommend you make sure your backup is current before applying the firmware update.
3) If you have multiple Thunderbays, you must update one at a time.
4) There is no change in performance or other behavior from your enclosure.
5. We do not have an updater for Akitio enclosures at this time.
Does the similar update released few days ago for Akitio Thunder3 Quad Mini address the problem in the same way? Will it be now ok to leave the “Put disk to sleep” option enable as well?
Researching. Will update when I have information.
I *think* I followed the directions and successfully updated the firmware correctly. Is V34.1 now the latest firmware for a ThunderBay 6 enclosure? I should have checked the firmware version *before* I did the update. :(
We have a firmware update for OWC Thunderbolt 3 enclosures, specifically the 4-bay and 6-bay Thunderbays...
...Snipped for brevity
The firmware version is not easily obtained, so I can't answer. It would not be a number like 2050, not V34, though.
I followed these steps on an M1 mac mini with a thunder bay 6 and the rom installer "unexpectedly quit" at step 13.
My guess is this does not work on an M1, the updater was created by the chipset manufacturer, we do not have the source code to update it. DO you have an intel machine you can try this on?
The instructions way to go into Network settings and disable all network connections. For ethernet the only way I can see of doing this would be to click the minus button (and then need to set up again afterwards). Is there another way (other than just unplugging the ethernet cable and turning off wifi?).
This needs to be tested, but I predict it won't work, for several reasons. I don't think a root level intel binary would be allowed to launch on M1. I need to test this.
What improvements are implemented with the firmware upgrade?
mike
There were two changes if I remember. One prevented the enclosure from "hanging" on one drive when a specific I/O pattern occurred. There was another change to better support large drives. (14TB+). There may have been another change.
This firmware update is quite old. If you have purchased one of these products at all recently, it probably has the updated firmware. I would suggest that you contact OWC support. Their engineers can tell you if you have the updated firmware based on when the device was purchased.