If you use a Pioneer external USB drive to read and write CD, DVD, and Blu-ray discs on your Mac, you should delay updating to macOS Ventura 13.2.
- What’s happening? The macOS Ventura update appears to have certain compatibility issues preventing it from working with Pioneer optical drives.
- Why care? People who rely on Pioneer USB drives to read and write CDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray discs on their Macs will be inconvenienced until a fix arrives.
- What to do? Do not update to macOS Ventura 13.2 if you are using a Pioneer drive.
Pioneer optical drives not working in macOS Ventura 13.2
According to posts on Reddit, Apple Support Communities, and other forums, macOS Ventura 13.2 breaks compatibility with Pioneer’s line of USB flash drives. Apple’s own SuperDrives and non-Apple optical disc drives are not affected. macOS Ventura 13.2 was released on January 24, 2023.
Pioneer has confirmed that some customers are experiencing problems with Pioneer USB flash drives. “We have confirmed that our optical drives are not recognized by macOS Ventura 13.2,”says the Pioneer website.
“We are currently investigating this symptom,” Pioneer notes.
Are there any temporary fixes?
Do not download the update unless you have upgraded to macOS Ventura 13.2, but use a Pioneer USB stick. “We would like to ask our customers who use our optical drives to refrain from upgrading to macOS Ventura 13.2,”advises Pioneer.
However, macOS can download and install pending macOS updates in the background, so some people may not even realize that their computer is already up to date. Luckily, automatic updates can be easily stopped by turning off “Install macOS Updates”in System Preferences → General → Software Update.
If you’re already running macOS 13.2, your only option is to revert to macOS Ventura 13.1, which doesn’t have problems with Pioneer drives. Other than not updating and downgrading, there are no other workarounds for this issue. Read: How to automatically install macOS updates overnight
When can Apple release a fix?
Apparently there is a bug in macOS Ventura 13.2 that breaks compatibility with Pioneer external drives. Apple should be able to fully address this issue in software through a future macOS update. The fix may arrive in macOS Ventura 13.2.1 or as part of the macOS Ventura 13.3 update due this spring. Keep an eye on this space as we will be sure to update you on the situation as new information becomes available.