External Hard Drive Issue

This is a non-/e/ related topic.
Any mata users have any issues with external hard drives?

My mata has pretty much run /e/OS exclusively. Nougat to Pie to Q. Each time reluctant to move up. S is available but there’s no way I’m gonna mess up my existing setup. I need GravityBox, f.i., which is not available on S.

Still curious to see what Android 12 is all about I acquired another mata. Halo Gray in original box with all accessories. All black accessories which is cool (including headphone adapter). Only $200 from Amazon.
Plan was to try /e/OS S but I came across a cool looking unofficial LOS build on XDA that ticked certain boxes that appealed to me.

Plan was to transfer archived APKs and Neo Backup directory to external drive from mata1 and then copy contents to mata2.
Crucial 500GB SSD (two partitions) in a UGREEN powered enclosure. Used without issue with other phones and PCs.

When hooked to mata1 the phone would repeatedly soft or hard reboot. Changed the USB settings to PTP or File Transfer (MTP?) but still, constant reboots.
Since my phones are similarly configured I decided to hook up the OnePlus 8T to the drive and copy files onto the drive.

Then hooked up mata2 running unofficial LOS 19 to the drive and it also went into reboots. Just wouldn’t work.
I wound up doing phone to phone transfer instead. That worked fine but just much slower. Plus one phone is also being charged from the other so I was hoping the slave wouldn’t drain before transfers finished.

So just wondering if any mata users have had troubles with external hard drives.

Oh, I didn’t have any flash drives on hand with enough available space. Otherwise I would’ve used that.

Might get in trouble for this but the ROM I decided to try first before /e/OS S is this one…

[ROM][S][mata] Unofficial, optimized LineageOS 19.1 - January 6th | XDA Forums

There’s definitively something wrong with USB on your matas.
Also, direct USB phone-to-phone is normally quite fast.

I’ve read in XDA that for some phones USB support in AOSP is not complete, or come with bugs…
I’m wondering: did you try with stock ROM & latest firmware?

No, I didn’t try with stock as I had no reason to on mata2. It came with Nougat. OTA updated firmware to Pie, then Q, then flashed custom A12 ROM.
I was sure that all devices have been hooked up to the external drive at least once. Guess I didn’t with the mata.

Just checked something. I am able to navigate the drive in /e/ recovery. Leaving it attached I boot into the OS. It was stuck at “Reviewing content” before causing a restart.
Let it do its thing. Finishes startup with both partitions ready for use according to notifications.
Hmm, now it is good on mata1. Accessing and navigating around.

Okay, let me try again on new mata2. Composing on it now so I better post now.

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Well, mata2 did not fare so well. Had fingers crossed as time passed watching drive activity light flash away. sigh Rebooted anyway. A few times.

Will test more once it recharges.

Maybe a logcat would reveal some errors…