External USB 3.0 hard drive constantly turns ON, then OFF when in Instant ON mode

ShrewdVulcan · May 11, 2015

I have an external USB 3.0 hard drive. Seagate model STDT4000100 4TB, which uses external power.

When I configure my Xbox One (via Settings -> Power & Startup) as follows:

Checked - Wake Up Xbox by Saying "Xbox On".

Checked - Automatically Download updates and purchases.

Checked - When Xbox is off, turn off storage.

then Turn Xbox Off, it shuts down and goes into suspend/sleep mode (whatever) no problem. The Chrome Xbox logo is dark on the Xbox console, the power supply light stays white (not Amber), and the external hard drive activity light goes off.

And so it stays, as you would expect, for about 2 minutes or so.

Then the external hard drive begins powering ON, then powering OFF. The cycle repeats endlessly .....

4 seconds OFF, 8 seconds ON.

So I tried various iterations of those above settings to find which one seems to affect it.

If I UNCHECK the "Automatically Download updates and purchases", and Turn OFF the Xbox, the Power Supply light stays white and now the external hard drive stays off.

Regardless of whether the "When Xbox is off, turn off storage" box is checked or not. I tried it both ways, same result.

I also happen to have another USB 3.0 external hard drive to test with. This one is different in many ways:

different size: 2 TB

different manufacturer: Western Digital

different power source: USB powered (not external power source like the Seagate)

So I moved a few games over to this WD hard drive, powered OFF completely (not Instant-ON, but Energy Saver, of course), then disconnected the Seagate. Powered back ON, played one game from this WD hard drive, which worked fine. Then restored the settings
back to Instant-On, with all three boxes checked as they were originally.

Guess what? The WD hard drive had the exact same problem!

So that rules out the hard drive firmware bugs, model incompatibility (as if), bus v external power, etc.

And this did not just start recently, I was in the Preview Program for a while earlier this year, but opted out. But this has been going on for months, sadly, I didn't notice it was the Xbox One, since I thought it was the noisy DVR, which turned out to
be innocent here.

I just applied the May update this evening and was hoping that fixed the issue. Sadly, it did not.

This leaves me with an Xbox that has not been able to pull down updates at all when I am at work, and am forced to do them when I get home and want to play games or enjoy media. I have posted in the forums before, and some ambassadors were going to take
up my case and get back to me.

yeah, that NEVER happened.

My PS4 pulls down game updates (and recently even system updates) when in Rest Mode with no issues, and even shows me which ones in the Notification area. How clever, right?

Can one of you fine Xbox Forum Ambassadors please look into this and get back to me? And I am not the only one having this issue:

External Hard Drive on/off all night long!! : xboxone

I have a Day One Xbox One console and the amount of major bugs and missing features from last generation, 18 months into the lifecycle of the Xbox One is simply shocking.

:)

Patriot Unknown · May 11, 2015

External Hard drive recommendations that turns off completely while in instant on

Hi,

I am looking for an external hard drive that will turn off and support the instant on without periodically turning on and off when the xbox is powered off in instant on mode.

I purchased a western digital WDBFJK0040HBK-NESN 4tb my book 3.0 usb with 7200rpm hd. only problem is that unless the xbox is in power saver mode the drive continues to spin.

any help is greatly appreciated!

Obsessive Power · May 11, 2015

Resuming Games from External HD

I had my external hard drive arrive yesterday, it's a Toshiba HDTB110EK3BA 1TB Stor.E Basics USB 3.0. I ordered from Amazon UK for £45. Only played one game on it so far which was Forza Horizon 2. Seems to run fine though so far. No problems resuming
games from it using Instant On mode.

I've had to make sure that the device doesn't completely power off though when on Instant On, otherwise it won't download game updates.

Misses Quinzel · May 12, 2015

Hey there, ShrewdVulcan! Thanks so much for the post! The situation you are describing is how the system should work, and is not a bug.

To be able to automatically download updates to your external hard drive while the console is in
Instant On mode, the hard drive is going to need to do repeated checks to make sure there isn't anything it needs to download. The reason why the option for When Xbox is off,
turn off storage doesn't seem to affect it is because technically when your console is on Instant On mode, it's never really turned off. It's in a suspended state, awaiting your instruction; that could be for it to turn on with Xbox, On
or it could be a purchase that you make that would like it to be down.

If you would like your external hard drive to not do these constant checks, you will need to make sure the Automatically download updates and purchases option is not checked. You could also ensure that room is made on your internal
hard drive so that when you set up to automatically download, you can choose for it to use your internal hard drive instead.

To give us suggestions on how to improve the system, I suggest checking out our
Feedback site. Give the site a look over and see if you can find a suggestion similar to yours. If not, definitely post it up and gather the votes. This site is the best way to get your voice heard.

Because this is not a support issue, if you need assistance with any other issue, please post up a new thread detailing what you're running into and troubleshooting you've completed. This way our community can get you the individual support that works best
on the forums.

Misses Quinzel

Hey there, ShrewdVulcan! Thanks so much for the post! The situation you are describing is how the system should work, and is not a bug.

To be able to automatically download updates to your external hard drive while the console is in
Instant On mode, the hard drive is going to need to do repeated checks to make sure there isn't anything it needs to download. The reason why the option for When Xbox is off,
turn off storage doesn't seem to affect it is because technically when your console is on Instant On mode, it's never really turned off. It's in a suspended state, awaiting your instruction; that could be for it to turn on with Xbox, On
or it could be a purchase that you make that would like it to be down.

If you would like your external hard drive to not do these constant checks, you will need to make sure the Automatically download updates and purchases option is not checked. You could also ensure that room is made on your internal
hard drive so that when you set up to automatically download, you can choose for it to use your internal hard drive instead.

To give us suggestions on how to improve the system, I suggest checking out our
Feedback site. Give the site a look over and see if you can find a suggestion similar to yours. If not, definitely post it up and gather the votes. This site is the best way to get your voice heard.

Because this is not a support issue, if you need assistance with any other issue, please post up a new thread detailing what you're running into and troubleshooting you've completed. This way our community can get you the individual support that works best
on the forums.

Wishcatcher

Hi,

Try this, on the console when you are on the main menu, press and HOLD 10 sec the powerbutton of the console, wait 30 sec, UNPLUG the external hard drive, restart the console. Finally, turn off the console and replug the external hard drive, turn on console,
does it work ?

If not, its due to the usb 3.0 cable in many cases… I had that issue in the past with a Toshiba 2TB, i changed the usb 3.0 cable with a new one and all was perfect after

Hope it help,

SigmaTheDJ

I am also having this issue, but with a Seagate Backup Plus Hub 8TB.

If I use instant on mode, when the console is off the hard drive turns on, spins up, turns off, spins down and this cycle repeats every 30 seconds or so endlessly. None of the settings related to external hard drives, such as the option to turn off external
storage when the console is turned off, make any difference.

If I use energy saving mode, when the console is turned off the light on my external goes off, but the drive doesn't actually spin down. It continues to spin indefinitely until I pull the USB cable out of the console, then it will spin down.

Before the latest update, if I used instant on mode the hard drive would only spin up periodically when the console was checking for updates, or if it was downloading something. At all other times it would be off and spun down. If I used energy saving mode,
when I turned the console off, the hard drive would fully turn off and spin down and stay that way until the next time I turned the console on. I believe that these are the expected behaviours.

I have tried factory resets, using a different USB port on the console, using a different USB cable, and fully formatting the external and starting over. Nothing works.

The external works fine when connected to my PC. Also, I downloaded Seagate's SeaTools application and ran the tests that it offers on my external and it passed them all, so it appears to be in good shape. Given that I only started having issues after the
dashboard update and that it works fine on my Windows 10 PC, it makes me believe that something related to the update has triggered this issue.

DogRox1

okay instant on mode is already off because that's your way to get it to work with external hard drive it's an energy mode right now. And I have to keep the x box on in order for it to download to that hard drive. So you're saying leave the instant on mode
off and keep it on energy mode, and try to download to the internal hard drive? if it works with the external hard drive then it should work with the internal hard drive doing it that way shouldn't it? Because it does work with the external hard drive with
it on energy mode

XBF Diego M

Hi Painerman,

Thank you for coming to the forums. This is normal for the Xbox to do overnight in Instant-On mode. The Xbox when turned off still draws power to connect to your Network and check for updates on games and apps and even system updates. The only thing that
should be audible is the operating system turning on the hard drive on to check for updates but the disc drive should not be spinning any disc inside when the Xbox if off. External hard drives will also stay powered in Instant-On mode to also check for updates.
You can select a setting to turn off storage when your Xbox turns off found under Power & startup settings.

Do you have your console set to Instant-On mode?

External USB 3.0 hard drive constantly turns ON, then OFF when in Instant ON mode