Hi guys, I just suffered a major catalog corruption and I would not have been able to fix it (I'm well on my way to do so) without the patient, step-by-step support from ChatGPT - not to take anything away from all the great and dedicated support I received from you guys in this forum over many years. In fact, it is in the spirit of giving something back that I asked ChatGPT to share the following with everyone in this community. :electric_plug: Preventing External Drive Disconnections & Lightroom Catalog Corruption on Macs (2025) By someone who’s lived through it — and fixed it. 🧠 The Problem (That Nobody Warns You About) On modern Macs (M1, M2, M3), the two USB-C ports on each side share a single internal Thunderbolt/USB bus. If you connect two fast external SSDs to the same side, especially: Samsung T7s or similar portable SSDs While running heavy tasks (Lightroom, SuperDuper, Time Machine, etc.) 💥You risk: Drives randomly unmounting (“Disk Not Ejected Properly”) File system corruption Lightroom catalog damage Time Machine volume conflicts or ghost volumes Backup failures without warning Apple does not warn you about this. :white_heavy_check_mark: The Fix: How to Use External Drives Safely with Lightroom :small_blue_diamond: 1. Never plug two drives into the same side of your Mac Use one port on the left and one on the right If one fails to show up, switch sides — it often works immediately :small_blue_diamond: 2. Avoid unpowered USB hubs for catalog and backup drives They can’t handle high sustained I/O loads from Lightroom and SuperDuper. :small_blue_diamond: 3. Label your drives and use dedicated ports Example: Left port: “LR” drive (Lightroom catalog + images) Right port: “BKUP” drive (SuperDuper backup) :small_blue_diamond: 4. Don’t let Time Machine claim one of your working drives If you see a hidden or ghost Time_Machine volume: Eject it from Disk Utility If persistent, remove it with Terminal (with care) :small_blue_diamond: 5. Back up only after Lightroom is closed Catalogs update live, and backing up while Lightroom is open can clone incomplete or locked files. :shield: ️ Real-World Best Practice "I use SuperDuper to back up my LR drive every time I close Lightroom. I label both drives clearly, plug them on opposite sides of the Mac, and avoid letting Time Machine interfere. Since doing this, zero corruption, zero improper ejections, zero stress." 🧭 Want to check your own setup? Run this in Terminal:   bash CopyEdit diskutil list   Look for ghost Time_Machine volumes or duplicate Samsung drives. Also: Check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Files and Folders Make sure Terminal or disk tools aren't restricted when managing drives. :megaphone: Spread the word This issue has wasted hours (even weeks) for many creatives. Apple doesn’t warn you. Lightroom doesn’t warn you. But you can warn others. ... View more

Hi guys, 1. My Adobe Lightroom just updated to 14.3. But 2 unexpected things happened - not sure why or at what point: when I open my Library in the usual way from the dock a) I find that the last image available to me is from 3.26.25 instead of from less than a few days ago and, b) a large number of thumbnails are greyed out and hard to re-link. 2. But If I click on my LR external drive in Finder then on Lightroom Cat & Image Files, I find folders listed vertically that mirror those in my Library. 3. And if I click on any of these folders and drill down to where I can click on an image file, I find that every last one of my latest images is included and that it is fully clickable. 4. That tells me that all my images are safe, complete with adjustments. 5. So how do I get it all to work as intended when I click open Lightroom from the dock? Thanks a lot. ... View more

Hi guys, Adobe Creative is updating. I have and use Lightroom Classic for still photography only.. I noticed in my Applications folder the following folders: Adobe, Adobe Bridge 2022 thru 2025, Adobe Connect, Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe InDesign 2022 thru 2025, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom CC, Adobe Lightroom Classic, Adobe Photoshop (Beta), Adobe Photoshop 2025, Adobe Premiere Rush 2.0, Adobe Reader 9. (When I write 2022 thru 2025 I mean separate folders for each year, that's 4 folders per.) Which to keep - or not? And how to best remove outdated folders? Thanks a lot ... View more

Hi guys, Ejecting drives is a problem because there's almost always a notification that they weren't properly ejected - although they were, even when I pull the cable out after I shut down my Macbook computer.   Any ideas? Thanks a lot. ... View more