I'm sure this has been asked before. On my macbook pro: computer used to remember the "favorites" added from external hard drive. Not anymore. Have to add my favorites to the sidebar every morning now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi rudolph210,
Thanks for posting your question. I understand you might be having an issue with Finder sidebar preferences.
To double-check, are you saying that you need to re-check the "External disks" box under Finder > Preferences > Sidebar each morning? Or are you referring to specific folders that you're adding to the Favorites column in Finder?
Are you powering your Mac off at night, or is it in Sleep?
Is your external hard drive connected to the computer overnight? It could be helpful to uncheck "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" under System Preferences > Energy Saver, and then keep an eye on it to see if that makes a difference: Use the Energy Saver settings on your Mac
As another test, if you add a folder from your internal hard drive to the Favorites column, is that one retained?
Which macOS version are you using under Apple menu () > About This Mac?
I hope this helps get you started.
Take care.
Thanks for getting back to me!
I was referring to specific folders from my external drive that I'm adding to the Favorites column in Finder. I'm not powering my comp down at night. Just sleep mode. I unplug my drive at the end of my work day every day. I tried your Energy Saver suggestion, sadly that didn't work.
If I add a folder from my internal hard drive to the favorites column, yes, it is retained.
I'm using Catalina 10.15.3
Not sure if there's any other possible fixes, but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Hello rudolph210,
Thanks for replying with that update.
You mentioned you're disconnecting the drive. Try testing it out leaving the drive connected to see how that works.
If that doesn't make a change, I recommend creating a temporary administrator account on your Mac and testing it there. This would help in narrowing things down to determine if the issue is system-wide or user account-specific: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac
Feel free to reply back with the results!
Best wishes.
External hard drive favorites lost
