Recovering photos from unrecognized external SSD on iMac

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Level 1

4 points

Recovering photos from unrecognized external SSD on iMac

Hello. This is my first time to ask a question via the Apple Community. My desktop computer is a 2024 iMac and the OS is Sequoia 15.7.9. One of my hobbies is photography. I have been using Adobe Lightroom for several years and save all my digital photos onto a Seagate 2T SSD external drive. Recently, I noticed the external drive was not being recognized by the computer. I ran a repair diagnostic, but it was still not mounting or recognized. I've since purchased a new dock and a new external drive.

Does anyone have a recommended process for accessing the photo data on the old drive and transferring it to a new SSD drive. This drive has thousands of photos.

I know I need a backup system as well.

Thank you.

iMac 24″, macOS 15.7

Posted on Aug 19, 2026 2:59 PM

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Answer 1

brbo

Level 8

42,495 points

Aug 19, 2026 11:04 PM in response to Jassgirl1

Hi @Jassgirl1,

welcome to this Apple (user-to-user) Community!

Re: "Recovering photos from unrecognized external SSD on iMac"

How is the SSD formatted ?

See: File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Is the cable the original one purchased with the SSD ... ie : some cables do both charging and data, while some cables may not work for data.

Were you connecting the SSD directly to the Mac, or using an adapter, or a hub, before obtaining the new dock ...

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Re: "I noticed the external drive was not being recognized by the computer."

See which settings you have chosen on your Mac in Finder > Settings > Sidebar

to ensure "External disks" is ticked so you can also check for the disk in the sidebar as well as on the desktop.

Else: Disconnecting everything and Resetting the SMC may be a good step to try:

See how to: Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

160,898 points

Aug 20, 2026 9:16 PM in response to Jassgirl1

Have you simply tried accessing this drive with another computer? This would narrow down what to troubleshoot. What we are trying to help you with is whether the issue is with the drive or your computer.

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