I’ increasingly becoming convinced there is ab issue flashing to ssd using etcher I’m on my second ssd now and using the standard flash procedure I get errors ranging from “waiting for cli” or "waiting for also noted this load of dependency failures.
and now what look like read errors which I assumed was a dodgy ssd so bought a new one same problem still"
Try flashing from a Windows PC.
ok I’m on a Mac but have a windows VM I’ll give it a go
If that fails you might try deleting all partitions from the SSD then make a single FAT32 partition. What kind of SSD is this? (M.2, SATA, micro?)
sata now trying ti image the ssd from the pi imager on the pi itself
trying from my windows VM made no difference the pi imager seems to be taking a suspiciously long time
Try it on a Windows PC. Not a fake PC running virtual on the same hardware that is giving you problems now. Look at all you have tried- is there anything in common with all of them?
You also didn’t say what kind of SSD you are trying to flash.
I had no problems flashing a SSD from a Mac, using Etcher so it’s probably not that.
Two suggestions:
yes I’m using a pi4 bought as a complete unit inc case.
How many partitions are on your SSD after flashing? I vaguely remember a topic in the forums that was about multiple partitions being present after flashing but I can’t find it or the solution. I think you should only have 2 partitions after flashing, and the weird solution was to format the SSD with NTFS before flashing, but I can’t see how that makes any difference. And I may be mis-remembering 
I can’t tell because my macdoesn’t even recognise it as a valid volume
Aside from USB SSD enclusures not always being compatible with a Pi 4, also note that an usb-C powered Pi cannot provide enough power for most SSDs. So also try to place an externally powered usb hub inbetween - that may provide a solution for both possible causes.
