why does it take hours for a drive to mount in NTFS for mac?

Hello,

I have an external drive that I use for backups with MacOS (High Sierra 10.13.6). I attach the drive and power it on with the computer off. Then I start the computer, open NTFS_for_mac, select the drive, and click "Mount". I get a spinning wheel indicating that the application is doing something but it can literally be hours before the mount is finished. I can mount the drive using the Mac Disk Utility and it takes no time at all to mount, but of course it read only.

I have run many scans on the drive and the file system and there is nothing wrong. Once the drive mounts, it seems to operate properly and I can read and write with no problems.

It seems to work better if I mount the drive with Mac Disk Utility, then unmount it in NTFS for mac, and then mount it again in NTFS for mac. This is all rather silly. This application should work much better than that as it is performaing a very simple task.

Can someone tell me what the issue is here?

LMHmedchem