I've been having this problem for a while on my Mac. If I shut down Lightroom Classic, the next time I start it Lightroom says it can't find the catalog. If I go to finder on my Mac I can see the drive but it looks like there aren't any folders or files on it. If I try to eject the drive I get a message saying it can't be ejected because a program is using it. To use Lightroom Classic again I have to shut down my computer, remove the hard drive, plug it in again, then restart. All of the files on the hard drive then show up and I can proceed fine until I shut down LR and then try to use it again. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Any idea what might be going on?
It is more than likely OS X is turning the external drive off, putting it to sleep, and it takes a short period of time once some program want to access files from it for it to wake up and come up to speed.
There should be a setting in the OS X preferences to stop this. something to do with either shutting USB port down or putting drives to sleep.
A Google search for those topics should turn up what to do to stop it.
I don't think so. I found the setting under Energy Saver; "put hard disks to sleep when possible" - but it isn't checked. And I've been using my computer since I posted this question - and the hard drive still shows up but no files or folders. Is there a way I can see what program theoretically has hold of the drive that's not letting me eject? I'm using High Sierra as my OS if that makes a difference.
Thanks Jim. I wish I could give it a try but that's a symptom of the issue - I can see the external drive, but Finder doesn't show any files or folders on it, it looks completely blank. But it still says some program is using it when I try to eject. I have to force eject, then unplug and plug in the drive again. I don't like to do that repeatedly but that's where I am right now.
When you said Restart in your first post did you mean the restart of LR or the restart of your computer?
If restart of your computer and then you immediately open LR this is normal for OS X. It takes some time for OS X to mount all external drives.
Also when you first started using this external drive did you install any software from the manufacturer? If you did then there might be something in that software that could be shutting the drive down.
Just Shoot Me - I meant when I restart LR. If I restart my computer LR finds the drive and all its files again. It also finds them if I force eject the drive, unplug it and plug it in again. Thanks for your help with this.
Right - I agree something is putting it to sleep. But since this only happens when I use Lightroom - there are other files on the Hard Drive I use with other software - doesn't that mean Lightroom is somehow involved?
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