On hubs, external drives, and Lr backup - need help!

Discussions
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I’m hoping to get some technical help and advice in several related areas. Please understand that I’m not a “techy” by any stretch so, even the way I’m defining the problem may be a reflection of not understanding how the technology actually works.

My computer is a Macbook Pro M3 with 18GB of memory. My working monitor that mirrors my Mac is a BenQ SW272U. All my photographs are downloaded from my camera to a 4TB Thunderbolt 3 external drive. In addition, I have my phone, my time machine external backup, and a Huion Inspiroy Dial 2 tablet all plugged into my Mac.

My photography workflow is basically sending my RAW images from Lightroom over to Photoshop as smart objects so that I can have the intuitive aspects of Lr combined with the layer and masking sophistication of Ps.

So, here’s my problem. When I start working on a photograph in Ps everything becomes agonizingly slow. What I’m thinking of as a solution is based mostly on what I imagine and what I’ve read but with very little technical knowledge. The first thing I think I need to do is get a hub. I’m looking at two in particular but leaning towards the Caldigit Ts 5, which has something like 20 ports including three Thunderbolt 5s. My understanding is that aside from cleaning up my desktop of all the cables, it will also provide much greater bandwidth so that all the stuff I plug into my Mac will be able to run at maximum efficiency along with my Mac. My first question is, “does this make sense”? I don’t mind spending the money if it will make a difference.

The second thing I want to do, and this is another reason why the hub could make a difference, is to add at least one more external drive to open up more space on my Mac and give it some more breathing room. I have a Crucial SSD 2TB external drive that would be perfect for this purpose. But it might also be beneficial to purchase an 8TB SSD external drive since my 4TB external drive which houses my photographs is just about full. Crucial and Scandisk make less expensive versions of 8TB SSD drives, but my reading puts the Oyen Digital U34 at the top of its class though obviously more expensive.

Would purchasing a hub and external drives address my needs in terms of increased speed and response in my workflow?

Now here’s another related issue that I completely don’t understand. Right now, I download my photographs, as I said, to an external drive. But when I backup Lr I also send those backups to the same drive. So, let’s say my external drive fills up and I need to plug in a new one to replace it or, if I have the hub, another one to run side by side with it. How do I deal with the Lr backups, which gives Lr access to my photographs stored on the external drive? Will the most recent back up cover everything or only what is on a particular external drive?

I’m sorry for the length of this query but I have come to understand that the less I know about something the more words I use to describe it :winking_face_with_tongue: .

Any and all feedback on this would be most appreciated.

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Hey Kerry - sorry to hear you’re having issues. If I can remember about networks for long enough ( I worked for IT solution providers for 20 years), I don’t believe that a hub is going to increase any speed. It will probably do the opposite since it’s one more connection for the 1s and 0s to travel through. And hubs are “dumb” for the most part, meaning they just provide physical connections without any direction other than simple drive mapping. So…here’s my set up and my thoughts about it as it may just work for you.

I have an Macbook Pro M2 Max w/1tb storage on board. That’s where I import from the camera memory card. Because it’s the internal drive, it’s fast and I don’t have to go outside the motherboard for anything. I have a master folder called LR Import and then designate a sub folder for each batch of new photos. When I’m done with them, I move them to my external 8TB drive for long term storage. I do this in Lightroom by opening the drive folder list on the left and dragging and dropping into the external drive folder structure. Lightroom will then reassign the catalog to look for those photos in the new location. It is much simpler than it appears. You still have a single catalog, but with multiple drive locations mapped inside it. When I back up the catalog, I do it to the 8TB drive. Does that make sense?

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Thanks for this, very helpful. I wonder though, how much difference it make if I used ethernet cable instead of Bluetooth in terms of speed.

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Kristen, why do you think things slow down so much when I’m working in Ps? What would you recommend for increased speed?

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Also, which brand of external 8tb drive do you use? I assume it is an SSD.

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Let’s back up for a minute and address the slowness when using PS.

  • Clean up your primary internal drive so that it has space for new RAW files.

  • Uninstall any apps you do not use.

  • Delete or move unused images, text documents, pdf’s, etc..

  • Limit the number of apps running at the same time as Photo Shop that are not needed for post processing.

  • Photo Shop will allow you allocate more system RAM for its use. (Preferences>Performance). Stay within the “Ideal Range” to prevent crashes.

  • Some of the apps that run at system start-up can be disabled and opened manually. Do Not disable anti-virus/anti-malware apps! This saves RAM for PS.

Kristen’s suggestion to import your images to your primary internal drive is absolutely the best was to go. As she says, once you are finished with them, move them to an external drive.

As far as I understand it, ethernet cable, (cat6e) will be faster than wireless.

A hub may help with cable clutter, but, as Kristen says, they are dumb, and won’t buy you any speed increase.

For external storage drives, you really do not need SSD’s. Save your money and get regular platter drives.

I hope all of this helps,
-P

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Thanks Preston. Let me think on this because I’m not entirely sure how to do what you’re suggesting. Also, when I said I’d thought about adding a hub (which draws power from the Mac) I really meant a docking station which provides it.

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I use a Windows PC, so I cannot help with such things as start-up apps, uninstalling apps on MacOS. Perhaps one of the Mac gurus here can point you in the right direction.

I hope yu can get things sorted out!
-P

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I have heard of, but haven’t used Clean my Mac, but it’s probably the most popular to defrag and get rid of unused or redundant things.

Casting my mind back to building my current laptop, I remember PS being a memory hog, so I have 32GB which is enough and nothing bogs. I also used a big, fat video editing software without issue, too. If you can’t upgrade to more, you can at least shut down other stuff while you use Ps to keep the most memory allocation it can grab. Just switching to using the internal drive should help since it’s a much shorter trip so to speak, especially if your files are large, which they basically all are these days.

My back up drive is a regular old spinning drive - a Seagate I believe. The internal drive on the laptop is SSD. I also have a combination SSD and SATA drive enclosure that I use for video since SSD is much faster for that editing, and it’s a Thunderbolt connection at the fastest it will go. But you don’t have to go to SSD if you’re not using it as a working drive, using the internal drive will be the best first alternative.

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My PC also has 32 GB of RAM, and my primary drive is an SSD. It’s plenty fast for anything I do in PS. Some of my ‘PSD and PSB master files’ are over 2 GB in size, so having a ‘punchy’ machine across the board is required these days.

Just a reminder for those using SSD’s: They don’t like being more than about 75% full. They need free space for optimization. If the drive is nearly full, its performance will degrade somewhat. Regular platter drives are less prone to this problem, but you still need free space when you defrag the drives.

Aren’t computers just a barrel of laughs! :grinning_face:
-P

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[quote=“Preston Birdwell, post:10, topic:49195, username:Preston_Birdwell”]

Regular platter drives are less prone to this problem, but you still need free space when you defrag the drives.

Platter drives require about 20 to 30 percent of the drive to be empty to NOT slow down. and will choke up as they fill beyond that. I have gone to all ssd drives as of 2020, the difference in r/w speed alone makes it worthwhile.

Hubs haven’t been used since 2005/2007 or so. Ethernet is faster than wifi, both cat5 and cat6. Wifi is more convenient. If you don’t need all the extra ports on the hub get a GB speed switch to plug the cat# cables in.

I use a 4gb and a 2tb for data and b/u they are portable drives and only plugged in when using PL/LR or backup programs. My Machine runs on an internal 2tb for all else.

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I wasn’t aware they needed that much free space. Interesting.
-P

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Thanks to you all for your input. I got the immediate problem dealt with by contacting Apple support and having them walk my through cleaning up my MacBook. Everything is back to workable speeds as a result. But I’m still intent on getting a proper docking station (I think the iVanky FusionDock Max 1 will best suit my needs) – I’m just sick of all the cords and cables running around my desk and having to disconnect everything every time I want to take my MacBook out for a walk😁.

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I just caught up here. I have a docking station and love the cable neatness and extra ports. Now so easy to unplug two connections (Time Machine and the hub) to take the MacBook out for some fresh air. I don’t think the hub is the cause of any issues. And I keep the LR catalog on the internal SSD, because it feels like it is sluggish – but maybe because I have a lot of stuff in the catalog. (The astro stuff is dealt with elsewhere, except for the final files.)

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Yeah, Diane, I went out and got a really good Ivanky dock and I’m loving it for the same reasons as you.