Accessing External drives on Bridge 11.0.1

This is not found in Bridge's preferences because it has nothing to do with Bridge. Rather, this is with the Mac OS and Apple's approach to protecting the user from malicious software.

Here's how to do it before Ventura. The instructions for Ventura follow (big change for Ventura).

Can’t access my hard drive, Desktop, etc.

This is not the fault of Adobe or anyone; this is Apple making sure that applications that have not been given permission to access areas of your computer cannot access those areas of your computer.

Go to your System Preferences and select Security and Privacy (found in the top section). Now click on the Privacy setting (last tab). Now click on the lock on the bottom left and provide your Administrator code. Now select the Full Disk Access option and click on the "+" symbol. This will bring up the standard Mac Open window and let you add any application you want or need to have full access. Look for Bridge, and select it; it will now appear in that window, and make sure it's checked. Next, go to the Files and Folders option and do the same thing as above (although there's nothing to check, just add. Close everything down and see if that makes it all work.

Please let me know

[Note: these images are from an older OS, the process is the same.]

Close everything up, and you should be good to go.

The Ventura Way

This sounds like you've not given Acrobat permission for Apple's protection. Simply, this is an Apple protection issue, not Adobe's issue.

Go into the System Preferences and select the select the Privacy & Security tab on the left, then select the Accessibility tab top.

Now, click on the "+" button on the very bottom which will open a Finder's window into the Applications folder. Select Acrobat Pro. Be sure to slide the On/Off button to On (to the right). You may need to enter your administrator's password at some point. You also may need to quit Acrobat and reopen.

Please let us know if that works or not.