Samsung T7 Mac Setup (How To Checklist Inside)

Bought yourself a new Samsung T7 for your M1 Mac. MacBook Pro or MacBook Air?

Or planning to buy one. And you need to know the key steps to setup your Samsung T7 solid state drive on Mac.

Ready to find out?

Let’s start.

Samsung T7 Mac Setup Overview

1. Connect Your T7 Samsung SSD.

2. Click Your T7 Samsung SSD’s Drive Icon On Your Desktop.

3. Start Disk Utility.

4. Pick Your Samsung T7.

5. Name Your Drive, Pick The Format And Scheme.

6. Click Erase.

How To Setup Samsung T7 SSD On Mac

Your Samsung T7, Samsung T7 Touch or Samsung T7 Shield. As shipped by Samsung comes ExFAT formatted.

What does that mean?

ExFAT is a file system your Mac can copy your files to. And your Mac can understand any files stored on there. ExFAT is also a file system a Windows PC can understand and do the same.

But some users have found. And I found this too with my Samsung T7.

That yes, the drive came ExFAT formatted. But the Scheme was set to Master Boot Record.

And that means odd issues that come up with the drive working with your Mac over time. As it’s not the right scheme for Mac. A Mac uses the GUID Partition Map for scheme. Just like a modern Windows PC.

And that meant I needed to format my T7 Samsung SSD for my Mac.

Plus, ExFAT is fine when you want to share your drive between a Mac and a PC.

But if you want to use your Samsung T7 for a high speed Time Machine backup of your Mac then ExFAT is no good. You’ll need the APFS file system or Mac OS Extended.

Or if you’re running Mac OS Ventura, Monterey or Big Sur and you only use your T7 Samsung portable SSD on your Mac.

You’ll likely want to use APFS (Apple File System) format. As it’s designed by Apple especially for the high transfer speeds of a SSD (solid state drive).

So, then you’ll need to know how to setup Samsung portable SSD T7 on Mac.

Read on to find out.

1. Connect Your T7 Samsung SSD To Your Mac.

The T7 storage ships with two USB cables. One cable is a USB C to USB C cable. The other is a USB C to USB type A cable.

What does that mean for a Mac owner?

If your Mac is a MacBook Pro made earlier than 2016. Or an iMac made before 2016.

Or you’ve a MacBook Air made before 2018 they won’t have USB C ports on them.

And you’ll need to use the USB C to USB A cable. Or a cable adaptor for your Mac. The drive is backwards compatible. But you won’t see the high file transfer speeds the Samsung T7 portable SSD can do.

2. Look For Your T7 Samsung SSD’s Drive Icon On Your Desktop.

When you plug your SSD drive in you’ll see a blinking blue LED on your external drive.

And in a few moments you should see your T7’s drive icon on your Mac’s desktop.

Check your Finder Settings (Mac OS Ventura). In earlier Mac OS releases it’s called Finder Preferences.

Open a new Finder window.

Go to the top of your desktop then choose Finder then Settings or Preferences.

Select the General tab.

Be sure the ‘External Disks’ box has a check in it.

And your T7 SSD storage should appear on your Mac’s desktop.

If you’re still having issues check out this article on the site. Samsung T7 Not Working On Mac Or Not Recognized.

To work through the fixes.

3. Start Disk Utility.

Disk Utility is the disk management software that’s part of your Mac’s OS. It allows you to change the file system format of your Samsung T7.

You’ll find the software in the Applications folder where you’ll find the Utilities folder. It’s inside there.

But before you go ahead. Check there are no files on the SSD external storage you want.

Samsung ships their Samsung Portable SSD software on the drive. If you plan to use the software. Stop and copy it off onto your Mac first.

Or you can download the copy for Mac from the Samsung website.

4. Pick Your Samsung T7.

Look to the left of the window. And you’ll find your Samsung SSD under the External heading. Be sure you can see 2 levels on your drive.

Then pick your Samsung portable SSD at the 1st level. This is important. To properly set your T7 SSD up on your Mac you must click on it at the 1st level.

If you can’t see all your drive’s levels then look at the top of your desktop.

Click on the Disk Utility View option. And from the dropdown menu pick ‘Show All Devices’.

And open up the levels by clicking on the small arrow to the left of your Samsung external storage.

Click on your external SSD to highlight it. Then click Erase.

5. Name Your Drive, Pick The Format And Scheme.

Type in what you want to call your T7, T7 Touch or T7 Shield into the form where it says Name.

Next put in what format you want for your Samsung T7 setup on Mac.

Pick Mac OS Extended (Journaled) the first time you format. Even if you really want your Samsung in another format like APFS.

Click on the little up/down arrows at the end of the format field. And a window will pop-up. The second arrow in the picture above shows you where.

The next field in this form is Scheme.

Choose GUID Partition Map from the options.

6. Click Erase.

Just before clicking.

Be sure you’ve nothing on your Samsung you want. If you do. Press cancel and copy those files off first.

Click the Erase button to setup your Samsung T7 for Mac.

When your Mac OS extended format is complete. You can run through the steps again and change the file system format to APFS. It’s only the second time through you’ll see that option come up on the list of format options.

Samsung T7 Setup Mac: Samsung Software

Your Samsung T7 comes with Samsung supplied software.  The Samsung Portable SSD app.

You would use this software to setup Samsung’s encryption and password protection. On the Samsung T7 Touch you can set up your drive to unlock with a finger touch or password.

But the vast majority of issues Mac users experience with the T7 SSD on Mac, is caused by this software.

Why?

Say you upgrade your Mac’s operating system.

But forgot to check that the version of Samsung’s software you have for your drive works with your Mac’s OS.

Suddenly you find you can’t get to the data on your external drive.

A big issue.

Or you upgraded and bought yourself a brand new M1 or the latest M2 Mac. But the software doesn’t run on that Mac yet. As some users found when they upgraded to their M1 Mac.

Or there are bugs with the software on your new Mac’s OS. Or your Samsung T7 portable SSD software conflicts with software you’re already running.

Then, what about the data on your drive? You’re now stuck waiting for a fix or solution from Samsung or from Apple.

If you want password protection and encryption for your data. It’s best to use the tools available as a standard part of your Mac’s operating system.

They are secure and work on a Mac. And will work if you upgrade your OS or Mac.

You don’t need the software from Samsung to setup or run your T7 on your Mac.

One exception to this is if you need to upgrade the firmware on your T7.

Then certainly download the software. Install your firmware update and you’re done.

Samsung T7 Setup But Transfer Of Files Slower Than Expected On Mac

Your standard T7, T7 Touch and T7 Shield need compatible cables. Otherwise you won’t get fast speeds transferring files to and from the drive.

Using a USB 3.1 Gen 2 cable on a USB 3.2 Gen 2 drive will result in lower speeds.

You’re looking at a topline of 5Gbps versus 10Gbps.

Even so there are read write overheads that mean you’ll see lower speeds than these headline figures.

But to get the most out of your drive use the right USB type C cables.

In Closing Samsung T7 SSD Setup Mac

And now you know how to Setup your Samsung T7 for your Mac. The key things to know. And what to what to watch out for.

P.S. There are some other closely related articles on the site. Why not check them out?

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