Drobo has been working around the clock to fix a Thunderbolt connection problem that occurred with the release version of macOS 11 Big Sur. What does this mean?
What did Apple do?
Drobo had finished updating connectivity with its Beyond RAID Thunderbolt 5 and 8-bay desktop connected devices using the Big Sur primary release candidate. Two days before the release of the final or gold master version of Big Sur, Apple pushed out release candidate 2, which broke Thunderbolt connectivity even though the connected Drobos show up in Drobo Dashboard. The Thunderbolt connected Drobos will not mount on the desktop.
Drobo Thunderbolt users: Don’t upgrade to macOS 11 Big Sur!
While this is clearly an Apple caused issue, my sources at Drobo tell me they are working on a fix. Until a fix is finished and tested and released by Drobo, do not upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur.
Affected Drobos
All Thunderbolt Drobos — 5D, 5D3 and 8D will not connect to Macs running macOS 11 Big Sur. The 5D and 5D3, however, will work using their USB connectors. The 8D will not work as it is Thunderbolt only.
Photofocus will keep you up-to-date on the progress of getting this issue fixed.
For more information on photography software compatibility with macOS 11 Big Sur, click here.
Update: Drobo has released a fix
Drobo has fixed the mounting problem with desktop attached storage (DAS) Drobos using Thunderbolt 3 connections. Launch Drobo Dashboard and update it to 3.5.2. This update restores Thunderbolt 3 Drobos’ ability to mount on macOS Big Sur.
M1 Apple silicon computers and Drobos
Brand new Drobos will not work on M1 Apple silicon Macs at this time. Existing Drobos that appear on the desktop of Intel processor Macs will work on M1 Macs. Drobo Dashboard will not run on M1s. This means that the warnings of drive failure that Drobo Dashboard provides won’t be on M1 Macs. Drobo recommends using a network connection from an Intel Mac to the new M1s until an M1 only version of Drobo Dashboard is available.
I’m not sure I believe or trust your sources at Drobo that say that this is clearly an Apple issue. It feels to me like Drobo was caught flat footed. What’s worse is that Drobo is doing a terrible job at communicating progress on this issue nor did they adequately warn their users. Drobo should have an ETA on when this problem will be fixed — even if broadly in terms of hours, days, weeks, months, years etc. and they should be communicating daily regarding status. Keeping your users in the dark creates ill will and erodes trust in the… Read more »
I can tell you that I talked with multiple people (who don’t work at Drobo) that said their Thunderbolt devices were working on Big Sur up until the release.
We’ve reached out to Drobo; they have a team working with Apple on this 24/7. Hopefully will be fixed soon.
If their engineers don’t know at this point if this is an hours, days, weeks, months, years problem then Drobo has bigger problems than this. Drobo should be communicating with their users and providing even the broadest of time frames even with a caveat that it’s a wild guess at best. The fact that their FAQ on the issue hasn’t been updated since *8 days ago* is very poor customer service. They should be providing updates daily if not a few times a day. Drobo can and should do better. Their reputation should matter more than this.
I wish I had read this prior to upgrading to Big Sur, I’m in a world of hurt right now… Had to revert to my 13″ MacBook Pro in the interim – not good!
Maybe instead of “Drobo users beware of macOS 11 Big Sur” as the headline — a better one would just be “Beware of Drobo”
Hi Thomas, As far as your not trusting my sources at Drobo goes you are welcome to your opinion. When I was speaking to Drobo yesterday, they told me that the announcements about Big Sur were on the support website (support.drobo.com.) I said in that conversation that most people don’t go to the support site and that announcements are better found on their home page. I believe, going forward, that this will be the case. During the run up to Apple’s release of the gold master (final version) Drobo had certified Apple’s macOS 11 RC1 (Release Candidate 1) worked with… Read more »
Yeah, I’m probably mostly disappointed in the way that they have handled communication around this debacle. If you go to their official support page on the problem, the last entry is dated from November 9th, *8 days ago*. No update since then. I have a hard time believing that after 8 days they don’t know if this is an hours, days, weeks, months, years sort of problem. Leaving your customers without any meaningful updates for 8 days is really bad customer service. They should be providing daily updates at a minimum on the progress being made. Maybe I shouldn’t have,… Read more »
Hi Thomas,
I know that Drobo has people working on this here in the States and in Europe as well. I will reach out to them soon and see what progress is being made. I do know this really caught them off guard with only 2 days between macOS 11 RC2 and the public version. Up until that time, Drobo was certain that everything was working and announced it on their Twitter feed. I would suggest that after Drobo releases its fix for Thunderbolt that everyone backup the working version of macOS 11 before updating it with a dot release.
Why wouldn’t Drobo report on what progress is being made to their users? Why wouldn’t they give a broad timeline for when we might expect this to be fixed? It only takes a few minutes to post something to twitter or to update the status page on this problem which has not been updated for *9 Days* now. Something like, “Hey all, we are working on this problem, based on the best we can tell it is probably going to be 16-20 months before we expect to have a patch out” would be better than nothing at all.
Thomas – They released an update on the status earlier today:
This is good, just about 10 days too late. They should have been communicating with their customers as to the status of the issue and potential timing much earlier than this and daily, it take 2 minutes to tweet out something. This is reassuring because now we know that a possible fix will be coming before year 2025 and our photos will not be locked up for years. We could have been provided better reassurance for the past 10 days. I doubt I ever buy another Drobo product again. It’s important for a company like Drobo to maintain trust with… Read more »
Thomas,
Everything you have written has been seen by Drobo. Your points have been made. I have personally shared your concerns with the Drobo leadership.
The connection situation is resolved and I am certain that the people at Drobo will use this experience to better communicate with their customers.
You continue to, how do I politely say this… complain about what is now well in the past. Going over this, again and again, is not productive.
I want to add that the situation resolution is that Apple has released an update to its public beta that fixes the Thunderbolt connectivity issues. Most likely, the next update to Big Sur will resolve it.
Not to beat a dead horse here, but even the current solution is an example of bad communication by Drobo. On their official status page right now they say: “We have identified the root cause of the Big Sur Thunderbolt incompatibility issue and plan to be able to release a patch for download next week after the completion of QA testing.” They mention nothing about needing the public beta that you mention in your comment Kevin. I just downloaded the public beta from Apple, installed it, and everything is working correctly now. But I only knew to do that from… Read more »
Yup. That horse is definitely dead. I am really happy that you are back up and running.
I don’t think you’ll ever see any company — Drobo or otherwise — tell customers to upgrade to a public beta to fix an issue. That’s not a solution as a public beta may bring different issues into place.
That said, I’m glad that fixes it. The fact that Drobo is planning to release something next week tells me that either 11.1 is coming next week, or that they found out what the problem was and can fix that internally while waiting for the public update of the OS.
This is now fixed, CORRECT???
Fix in 3.5.2 (November 2020) • Fix for issue with volume not mounting over Thunderbolt in macOS Big Sur
Correct. Update Drobo Dashboard to 3.5.2 to fix the mounting problem with desktop attached storage Thunderbolt 3 Drobos. The 8D is the only DAS Drobo that is Thunderbolt only. The 5D3 has USB 3.0 connectivity so it had a workaround. Please note that M1 Apple silicon computers cannot run Drobo Dashboard. It is being updated. If an existing Drobo that is working on macOS versions before Big Sur is plugged into an M1 Mac, it will mount. Without Drobo Dashboard there is no warning about the health of the drives in the Drobo. Bottom line, wait to buy an M1… Read more »
Excellent advice. Working through an upgrade plan for the Mac Mini (Intel) and a 8D and was thinking of the new Mac Mini, but, another reason to wait.
Now that storage is working, just need to check on eGPU and a few other items.
Appreciate the clarity.
Photofocus is always glad to help.
Even using drobo’s latest 3.5.2 update which Drobo claims fixes the issue(s), my drobo 5d constantly ejects itself on Big Sur after approx 30 mins from boot (even if machine is completely idle). On another note, Big Sur itself is horribly slow, almost unusable, and fan on machine (iMac) runs at full blast non-stop (even when idle). Wish I didn’t succumb to their (apple) INCESSANT NAGGING to update…
R J, I’d reach out to support. In rare cases I’ve heard that the firmware has to be manually installed to get things working again, which is a different process.
Hi R.J. You might want to try switching to the USB connection on the Drobo 5D and see what happens.
I bought a m1 MacBook Pro and dashboard loads and runs fine, but cannot find my 5d3 either on thunderbolt or USB C.
Drobo is currently not compatible with M1 processors; they are still doing testing. https://myproducts.drobo.com/retrieve/s3/knowledge/AA/New%20Mac%20M1.html
I just got the M1 MacBook Air. I upgraded to Big Sur 11.1 from Catalina (I waited until the x.1 release) on my 2015 MacBook Pro before the migration. I had some issues with the Drobo 5D over Thunderbolt. that may have been related to a troublesome HD in the array. That bay said “Warning” on the Drobo Dashboard. Once I removed it and all the yellow/green flashing stopped, I was up and running again. After moving everything over to the MacBook Air, the Drobo 5D won’t show up on Drobo Dashboard. Sometimes, I can get it to mount via… Read more »
using dashboard 3.5.2 now can mount but very slow speed