Any solution that does not require confidence working with strange commands.
I'm OK with working MAC but not sick software
Are you using any third party software from the drive manufacturer to manage the external drives? If so, make sure that software is up to date. If that does not work, then you may need to uninstall the drive manufacturer's software to see if the external drive can be seen (will need to reboot, plus you won't be able to write to the drive afterwards).
You can try booting into Safe Mode to see if the external drives can be seen. This will only work if some other third party software is at fault such as an anti-virus app, cleaning/optimizer app, or third party security software. If you are using the drive manufacturer's proprietary software, then it is doubtful Safe Mode will help.
I can think of multiple possibilities, but without being able to see everything first hand makes it difficult to say.
For example, you say you have another Seagate drive which is working fine on this Mac. However, I don't know whether one drive may be managed by the Seagate software while the other is not. Also, you may have a coincidental hardware failure of some sort (either the Seagate drive, cable, or computer), or possibly another connected device is causing a problem.
The easiest thing to try is to disconnect all external devices from the computer. Connect the Seagate drive directly to your computer to see if it still has the problem. If laptop only has USB-C ports, then rotate the USB-C connector on the drive cable 180 degrees upside down to see if that connection makes any difference. If you need to use an adapter to connect the drive, then try another connector. Also try another USB cable. Try connecting the drive to another USB port on the computer...if a laptop, then a port on the other side is best, but it never hurts to try each USB port.
Make sure to reboot your computer. Sometimes a computer just needs restarted because the computer & OS can get into a weird state.
As you can see I'm only touching the surface on possibilities here. Sometimes it is just easier to diagnose a system when someone can actually see, hear, and touch everything since sometimes it is noticing something seemingly insignificant that can provide the necessary clue to solve a puzzle.
Thanks for replying>
All has been well for the couple of years I've had the Mac, with the Hard Drives always on USB connection, so I fear a Ventura/Adobe clash of personalities that will take some clever fixing!
Thanks for replying>
I do have Seagate software but its up to date, and has been running without problems. Indeed one Seagate HD is still working, just not my main one though it does work with my old MacBook that can't update any longer!
The sudden demise came after latest Mac Ventura update, but close to latest PS&LR update and I wish I recall which I loaded first (Duh!). It began with a fail in photo file transfer from card via Finder to new folder on HD, something that has never been a problem before (I've had Macs since 2016!). Built-in card reader still works, just not all USBs so suspect its OS.
Trying forums before I have to find a local firm to fix.....£££
Thanks for getting back to me again: you've pretty well confirmed that this problem needs hands-on treatment by someone who understands Mac software. The worst case scenario may be a clean instal (sobs).
After much rebooting of the iMac, with and without the HDs, I've tested the drives on my MacBook where they work fine.
MacBook is ancient so cannot have Ventana loaded and I've held off updating Adobe on it too. Suspicious, yes!
I'm just grateful that my stalwart MacBook, can access my multiple HDs and photos.
Annie
Triskele9 wrote:
I'm just grateful that my stalwart MacBook, can access my multiple HDs and photos.
You need to make sure to have good backups of your external drives as well as your computers. Sooner or later those external drives will wear out or fail. Or something could happen to the file system on the drives or data can be accidentally damaged or deleted. You also want to make sure to have a backup of any important & unique data stored in the cloud as well.
Thanks for reminding me I need to sort out Cloud documents.
I have a relatively small internal HD (deliberate choice) because I don't want to store on it, but maximise it for processing a most of what I do is photography.
Everything is supposed to be on external HDs, with back-up HDs, so the challenge is storage/ copying/ determining lifespans for HDs and organising new back-ups....hence my horror at losing control of those USB ports
If this is happening only with Adobe, I'd suspect some sort of incompatibility in Adobe. Of course the OS update process could have been flawed too.
usb ports stopped working after software update to Mac OS and Adobe PS/LR. Remount Hard drives in USB ports unresponsive also Repair finds no problem, despite removing Adobe updates.How to reactivate USB ports & HDs
