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I want to use my M1 MacBook Air for photo editing connected to a Apple Studio Display.
I currently use an older iMac and I have two external SSD drives connected.
As the MacBook Air has only two connection ports and one is need to connect the display, can I connect one, or both SSD drives to the USB C ports on the Studio Display?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.2
Not as much, good idea.
Not as much, good idea.
Yes, but be aware that performance will likely be compromised. What I’d do is pull the working files to the MacBook’s internal storage when working on them and transfer them out when done i.e. over the local network or cloud.
You can try. If the bus gets over loaded you will get a message that more power is required. I have one SSD connected to my Studio display and other (not SSD's) hardware connected to the other two ports and all work fine.
Not really, any processing is done on the MacBook.
The SSD is where the RAW files are stored, then brought into the MacBook for adjusting in Adobe Camera RAW.
If no more processing is required, then jpeg files are saved to a "processed" folder on the MacBook.
The ACR data would be updated on the original RAW file, as a "sidecar file" on the SSD.
Thanks for the reply.
If I connected the SSD drives to the spare port on the MacBook AIR, via a hub, should that compromise the performance?
I move a lot of photos and files to/from and no issues. But I'm sure it depends on the drive you are using.
Thanks for the advice, it sounds like the setup you have is pretty much what I intend to do.
Sure, but do you use the SSD for regular photo-intensive work?
Moving back and forth is ok, actually good practice. Editing direct can wear the drive out, especially if the edit program auto-saves large files frequently.
Great, nevertheless I’d still use the hub and leave the TB bandwidth dedicated for Studio Display functions.
Connecting External SSD drives to a Apple Studio Display
