New Mac Studio Very Slow To Access External Drives

Question

New Mac Studio Very Slow To Access External Drives

Hey smart people,

New Mac Studio owner here (finally upgraded my 13 year old iMac).

Plugged my external hard drive that serves as my photo library storage and the new computer is INSANELY slow to access the drive. Takes 15-30 seconds to open a folder, scrolling within folders is slow, and previewing a pic is slow.

Any ideas what could be causing this? I've got 2+ TB of photos in storage that I don't need to access daily, but I do reference or pull for decks and there's gotta be a reason.

Have seen other threads on the matter, is not a NAS. Just USB connected into an elegato hub because the new studio has USB-C ports. Same exact setup as with my old iMac (just a newer hub)

Thanks!

Posted on Feb 1, 2023 09:09 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 1, 2023 09:22 AM in response to Seanmacdonald

A new computer spends all afternoon the first day computing the Spotlight Index: an index of every word in every document including analysis of your photo library. This is what makes spotlight searches possible.

Unless/until this is completed, everything will be slow.

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Answer 2

Feb 1, 2023 11:29 AM in response to Seanmacdonald

Readers can't see your computer. We depend on your words, and have nothing more to go on. Your description sounds like you just powered it up.

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If you have installed software that wastes computer resources on a regular basis, such as third-party Virus Scanners, speeder-uppers, Cleaner-uppers/Removers, Optimizers, third-party file Sync-ers such as DropBox, BackBlaze, OneDrive, or GoogleDrive, or a VPN that you installed yourself, it will do busywork at previously-impossible speeds.

Even If you are syncing many megabytes of photos to your iCloud account, everything can get impossibly slow. Those services are great for sharing a few photos of your cat, not for a professional Library.

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Answer 3

Feb 1, 2023 09:53 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Sorry, it’s new as in 2 months old - not as in brand new (it just feels news compared to the 13 year old iMac).

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New Mac Studio Very Slow To Access External Drives

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