Many posts from unhappy Apple customers show that this problem is not caused by the file system type! It has something to do with the “permissions” for USB devices. This is a very serious issue for ALL Apple customers planning to upgrade to the Sonoma release of OSX! My best possible advice is DO NOT upgrade!
What if you have already upgraded and have lost access to all USB devices? Then I would recommend trying to save all of your existing files to a DropBox account. That way you can access them after purchasing a new Windows laptop!
But immediately after purchasing a Windows laptop, I would also recommend erasing Windows and installing Linux Mint Cinnamon instead! Then go to your DropBox account and download your files to the Linux Mint Cinnamon laptop!
A new release, LTS (Long Term Stable) version 21.3 of LMC (Linux Mint Cinnamon) is coming out any day now! It promises to be a very good release!
If you need a bit of “hand holding”, just give me a call!
Mobile PC Clinic
(909) 367 – 8003
Update on January 5, 2024!
After dealing with a client who did upgrade to the Sonoma version of OSX, I’ve discovered that this is probably a problem which Apple intentionally created by adding some sort of “flag” or “marker” when writing to any external drive that uses the ExFAT file system type! And the next time you plug in the drive to your Mac, it looks like the drive is empty, when in fact it is NOT empty! You can verify this by looking at the contents of the drive on any Windows or Linux machine! This is clearly Apple’s attempt to “ween” its customers away from using the ExFAT file system type and toward using the native Apple OSX file system type! In other words, they are trying to get more market share from Microsoft by intentionally putting up a barrier to compatibility! This is very foolish, in my opinion, for Apple to do, but quite effective! This is just another reason to use Linux on a “Windows compatible machine” rather than suffering with the many disadvantages of using OSX!
As a computer consultant, I’m gradually discovering these “disadvantages” on my own. I’m not going to argue with a die hard Apple fan about this, but I KNOW how many advantages Linux holds for everyone, including Apple fans! It’s time to “stop suffering” with paying “top dollar” for a name that has lost its meaning…and doesn’t really hold the value it is advertised to hold!