2023 Apple Mac Pro Experiences SATA Drive Issue After Launch; Fix Is Coming Soon

In case you missed it, Apple Mac Pro with M2 Ultra launched at the WWDC event that took place just a couple of days ago. M2 Ultra is the highest-end Apple silicon that you can get. Additionally, it is one of the fastest chipsets available for a current-gen workstation. This applies to both the computational and graphical performance.

For a chipset that’s so great, you would expect the new Apple Mac Pro to be highly stable, right? Well, right after the launch, the system is showing SATA drive issues. To be specific, the SATA drives disconnect when the system wakes up from sleep. But the good news is that Apple has highlighted the problem in the support document.

What the Issue Actually Is

If you are unfamiliar with the SATA issue of Apple Mac Pro, it basically revolves around the ports available for connecting internal hard drives. The bug is related to the software, which disconnects the hard drives when the device wakes up from sleep.

This bug can disrupt the workflow of new Mac Pro users. And considering the fact that the starting price of the system is $7,000, things are not looking good for Apple. Moreover, you would not expect a device with such high-end specs to showcase such an issue right after launch.

There’s a Temporary Workaround for the 2023 Apple Mac Pro Issue

As mentioned earlier, Apple has acknowledged the issue of the 2023 Apple Mac Pro. And along with highlighting it in the official support document, Apple said that it is working on a fix. It will release a macOS update in the coming weeks that will fix the issue and make the SATA drives work smoothly.

But before Apple releases an update to fix the bug, you can follow these steps for a temporary fix –

1. Got to Settings on your 2023 Apple Mac Pro
2. Navigate to Displays and then to Advanced
3. Find “Prevent automotive sleeping when the display is off.”
4. Toggle that option off

By turning off the auto sleeping setting on the Display section, you can prevent the system from getting into sleep mode. That will eventually keep the SATA drives on all the time.