Need Help...
Mac Studio M2 Ultra, 64gb Ram running Tahoe 26.1.1
I have been copying files from camera cards to some external drives and the files either disappear or show zero bytes even though they average at 2gb. Checked hidden, nothing, Checked iCloud on and off and the same. Verified each drive and repaired disk permissions. restarted.. and still the same?
Can apple fix this please or can someone tell me how to sort it. thanks all.
The safest approach is to stop copying important footage until you can establish where the problem occurs.
Copy one large file from the camera card to the Mac’s internal SSD, then check its size and confirm that it opens correctly.
If that works, copy the same file from the SSD to the external drive and check it again.
Also check the external drive with Disk Utility >> View >> Show All Devices, then run First Aid on the volume, container and physical drive.
Apple recommends this sequence. How to repair a Mac storage device with Disk Utility
Check the external drive’s format with Finder >> Command-I. Apple documents APFS, Mac OS Extended, ExFAT and FAT formats, with NTFS having limitations for writing from macOS.
If your Mac can't save files to an external drive
For testing, connect the camera-card reader and external drive directly to the Mac Studio rather than through a hub or dock, and try another cable or port if available. This is simply to eliminate connection variables during the test.
I would not erase or reformat the drives while investigating, particularly if they contain files you need.
Apple's current Disk Utility guide is specifically for macOS Tahoe:
Apple — Disk Utility User Guide for macOS Tahoe
Apple's instructions for repairing a storage device:
Apple — How to repair a Mac storage device with Disk Utility
Apple's guidance for problems saving to an external drive:
Apple — If your Mac can't save files to an external drive
The key diagnostic question is: does the 2 GB file remain intact when copied from the camera card to the Mac's internal SSD?
That result will determine what should be investigated next.
The safest approach is to stop copying important footage until you can establish where the problem occurs.
Copy one large file from the camera card to the Mac’s internal SSD, then check its size and confirm that it opens correctly.
If that works, copy the same file from the SSD to the external drive and check it again.
Also check the external drive with Disk Utility >> View >> Show All Devices, then run First Aid on the volume, container and physical drive.
Apple recommends this sequence. How to repair a Mac storage device with Disk Utility
Check the external drive’s format with Finder >> Command-I. Apple documents APFS, Mac OS Extended, ExFAT and FAT formats, with NTFS having limitations for writing from macOS.
If your Mac can't save files to an external drive
For testing, connect the camera-card reader and external drive directly to the Mac Studio rather than through a hub or dock, and try another cable or port if available. This is simply to eliminate connection variables during the test.
I would not erase or reformat the drives while investigating, particularly if they contain files you need.
Apple's current Disk Utility guide is specifically for macOS Tahoe:
Apple — Disk Utility User Guide for macOS Tahoe
Apple's instructions for repairing a storage device:
Apple — How to repair a Mac storage device with Disk Utility
Apple's guidance for problems saving to an external drive:
Apple — If your Mac can't save files to an external drive
The key diagnostic question is: does the 2 GB file remain intact when copied from the camera card to the Mac's internal SSD?
That result will determine what should be investigated next.
So you have Tahoe 26.6.1, mount a DCIM camera card to the Desktop (via built-in SDXC card slot or what?), and the card displays zero byte files there, right? Checked hidden with Shift-Command-. right? And in Terminal with 'ls -al', right?
I have a few times seen external MacOS Extended HDDs initially display zero content in Finder but a reboot has always fixed that.
Does it work if you access the DCIM camera card with /Applications/Image Capture.app (but do beware that some vendors like DJI have sometimes used nonstandard DCIM structure in their devices so they fail to display content)?
Remove all 3rd party virus apps (Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, Intego, MacAfee, Norton, Sophos, Kaspersky, ESET NOD32, Trusteer, PC Matic etc) and 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" apps (CleanMyMac, Cleaner One, MacKeeper etc). They produce obscure errors like this and are not needed.
An EtreCheck report would eliminate much guesswork, so paste the complete report here using "Additional text" option, so we can examine it for possible clues:
Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community
copying files and they disappear
