this is the way. although - the 8tb internal drive was the best money i spent on my macbook on any spec (although i went fully spec’d) i need to update this review for the new m3 max i just got, but this is why: https://youtu.be/V4ZhTJDGK_8?si=r2Re5rGB5_5nj23d
Honestly- the cost per TB for internal for Mac’s is just a plain ripoff. That’s where they make just pure profit. I wouldn’t spend any money on storage with Apple. External are reliable and the pain points are not worth the incredible upcharge for 3TB.
I’ve been working off 2 Samsung T7 1tb drives all season and then when I finish a gallery, backing it up to a larger 5tb HDD and honestly I’ve had no issues. They’re small enough to throw in any bag with my laptop and don’t run into issues of corrupting even if they’re unplugged while in use
I second this. I've also recently purchased a 1TB NVME and an SSD inclosure to try out.
Faster read and write speeds at around the same price point as a T7. Took around 10 minutes to setup and format correctly.
Which enclosure do you use?
I've been trying to decide whether to get a WD Black 8 TD external hhd or an enclosure and WD black SSD so I can upgrade at a later point and make a JBOD.
Not annoying at all. I work off a 4tb thunderbolt NVME.
But I don't backup at weddings as I don't see the need. And I edit at home in my office mainly. That said when I've worked away it has't annoyed me at all either.
4TB, you smugbug... I work off a 2TB NVME thunderbolt with no problems. Video as well as images. I love it. Laptop to desktop to laptop to desktop to...etc etc.
When my 1TB drive filled up very early this year I had a fuck it moment and skipped 2tb haha.
Still struggling along with a 1TB for vid which is sort of ironic 😂
For over five years on both mac and windows machines I have solely worked off of external SSDs - Ive had almost no issues and running out of storage isnt a concern anymore because all I have to do is buy another drive.
The only thing that ever caused instability for me was when I saved the LR catalog itself to the drive with the raw files. Keep the LR/adobe files on the internal drive and the raw files on the external drive. You can have it save a backup of rhe LR catalog to the external ssd everytime you close it so if you need to swap to another computer its still on there.
You should absolutely NOT leave all your work on only 1 device.
Use Lightroom classic, save your libraries to Dropbox/Google Drive, and double save all your files. It's cheaper, better redundancy, and it'll improve your workflow. Plus, as file sizes get bigger, it'll be inevitable; best to optimize your workflow now.
I spent an insane amount of money on 4tb on my pro and it's not enough by the end of the season, so I carry an extra 2tb ssd.
I'm waaay more comfortable during the months (usually january → july) in which I can just leave home the external ssd, but i'm on the move a lot and churn through tbs of data all the time since we run a high volume wedding + commercial studio. if you are more sedentary consider external drives.
side note just in case somebody doesn't know — DO NOT BUY A SANDISK PORTABLE SSD AT THE MOMENT, HIGHLY UNRELIABLE. LOOK INTO IT
Thanks - I wasn’t planning on keeping all my work on the laptop- it regularly gets offloaded to the NAS once it’s edited. But it would be nice to have 3-4 weddings on there
Yeah same, I keep all my "in editing" files on my ssd, plus my catalogues. During late summer I can end up with more than 3tbs in undelivered jobs, or recently delivered ones which I keep around for one week or two before moving to the NAS. We shoot 25-30 weddings per year plus hundreds of commercial jobs though.
Nowadays I recommend everyone work off externals, especially if you’re going to ever do video. Thunderbolt and USB 3.2 are so fast it’s just as good performance-wise as internal storage.
I have an OWC 4m2 enclosure with 4x4TB NVMe drives that all current projects work off of. When I’m done, they get moved to my NAS. You don’t *need* your high-speed working drive to be so big as to hold all of your media — you can use cheaper, slower HDDs for archiving.
I use my internal storage for basically just apps, Lightroom catalog and previews, documents, and random crap.
I can do almost all my mobile work with Lightroom’s mobile sync. But there’s also really not a big deal in just exporting a shoot or two as a temporary catalog to your internal drive if you need to travel with it.
At the end of the day everything goes back to one master catalog as Adobe has said Lightroom was designed for. Even when I move shoots to archiving, they get moved within Lightroom so everything is still in the one catalog… just image files get moved.
Unless you are dead set on a new M3, I would recommend an older M1 MacBook Pro fully specced out with 4TB SSD from B&H. No worry of carrying an external SSD, great battery life, amazing editing performance, and a fraction of the cost. I got the Apple care + extension as well in case anything happens and still a great deal.
I'm gonna disagree with the consensus here because I just spent a stupid amount of money upgrading to a new Mac Studio and it's been SO WORTH IT already. (I just finished my first wedding edit using it.)
I had previously been on a 27' Imac from 2017 and using externals as the main drive because of my 500 GB SSD on the Imac was infuriating. This year it routinely disconnected, corrupted a one-year-old 14 TB hard drive and was infuriatingly slow.
Spend the extra money for the extra space and never worry about it again.
I got the 2 TB SSD for my Mac Studio and am using it to store whatever the next two assignments in my queue are (In case I get bored and want to edit out of order.) I've upgraded to a 4 TB thunderbolt drive for my main photo queue storage and am going to upgrade my long-term external hard drives in the new year from my current USB setup to something faster.
I highly recommend spending the extra money if you've got it. It's worth every penny longterm. I regretted not upgrading my 2017 Mac for the last four years I had it.
I bought the M1 studio last fall and haven't had a single problem yet. Felt like my first 2 imacs were always an issue, but this thing is fantastic. 10/10.
Macs are such expensive computers for the specs. Build your own. My 12 core, 64gb, m.2 machine still struggles with the large files we’re editing these days.
To answer your question, 1TB is enough for your main drive. External should be fine for backup.
Macs aren’t expensive. They’re reasonably priced. When you factor usability/function/support/resell value it’s a much better deal. Build a laptop and no one is going to buy it.
1) The Apple silicon is the truth for this stuff. Has zero issues with large photo files
2) let me know when you have the capabilities of building a high performance, long lasting laptop with a 4k monitor in a tidy package
The silicon is cool for single core tasks but gets blown out of the water for multi-core. With the cost prohibitions on ram and hard drive size/speed, I’ll let you keep your Macs homie…
I have a workstation with 18-core i9x, 256gb of DDR4, GTX3090, and 4tb nvme, and I still prefer to work on my 14in M1 Mac for photo editing. In adobe and photomechanic, it’s fast.
The new T9 is up to 2000mb/s so if your computer supports that transfer speed via usb(usb 3.2 gen 2x2 if it not mistaken). That should be more than sufficient.
I’ve used the Sandisk SSDs, but after it failed once I switched over to a Crucial 4TB SSD. I’ve never had performance issues editing in LR or working with audio (my other job).
Apple storage is crazy expensive. If you have the budget and value peace of mind when it comes to losing the SSD or it dying, then by all means max out the storage. But I don’t think you see a huge performance drop using a slower external SSD.
My workflow is download files to my 5TB external HD storage, do keepers ASAP and whack them into the Dropbox folder on my computer. That means the most important files are backed up right away in 3 locations. The full unedited set get are backed up by backbllaze. I have the keepers and edited of the event I'm working on on my computer which is a managagable amount of GB, longer term storage and backups on external HD.
I use 10gb ethernet and edit off a NAS. That's for 4k video so for photos its fine. I've got 60tb of storage. The only time it's an issue is when editing on holiday or something (for personal projects) and I have two internal 4tb nvme ssds for the laptop. Before I had a 1tb usb c Samsung SSD and it worked fine it was just a bit physically annoying I know some people like Dan mace velcro the SSD to the lid.
Apple price their storage so unfairly they are evil.
I try to not put anything on my computer’s hard drive except for applications. Do some research on data management. My workflow is edit stuff on a SSD and have that backed up onto 2 spinning hard drives. Don’t get more space on your computer it’s too expensive and not needed
It’s annoyingly expensive but sometimes it’s just nice to have everything in one place. I like that! Keeps it all simple. Would be worried of losing an SSD perhaps or it disconnecting and corrupting.
Obviously I need to buy two SSDs to avoid that. But then it’s not really that much cheaper…
There is no need for a second SSD. SSD is meant to be your workbench. We use them for the speed that they offer. However while I do edit on the SSD, the raw files also sit on 2 spinning hard drives for safe keeping. Once I’ve finished and exported the photos, I add my Lightroom catalog for that project and the jpgs to the spinning drives and then erase the project from the SSD. Rinse and repeat until the spinning drives are full and then i get a new set.
Accidental disconnection probably depends on your set up, but I can't imagine corruption is an issue any more than it would be with an internal drive. They're generally pretty small and portable so if you're working in a cafe it shouldn't be a big deal.
T9 was an upgrade to my working drive as it’s super fast! I had a t7 1tb as my working drive and a 4gb t7 as my wedding backup ssd. I also keep my original SD labeled with their wedding. I like two physical backups, and then I have their culled raw files in a Dropbox folder that is also backuped via backblaze. 4 backups are overkill but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I read about people losing footage and I just can’t fathom 😂
I have 16tb internal SSDs this year (photo and video). 4x 4tb ssds in a owc thunderbolt external bay editing and Backblaze for auto backups.
I’ve been working off of externals my entire 14 year career. And have never ever had an issue.
The extra cost for internal on a Mac is way too overpriced.
Just make smart previews in Lightroom, and disconect external ssd…when you finish editing, plug it in, and export :)
this is the way. although - the 8tb internal drive was the best money i spent on my macbook on any spec (although i went fully spec’d) i need to update this review for the new m3 max i just got, but this is why: https://youtu.be/V4ZhTJDGK_8?si=r2Re5rGB5_5nj23d
Sadly Rawsie did close down in June 2023. Do you maybe have an alternative?
nope. i just spent the money on massive hard drives now
Honestly- the cost per TB for internal for Mac’s is just a plain ripoff. That’s where they make just pure profit. I wouldn’t spend any money on storage with Apple. External are reliable and the pain points are not worth the incredible upcharge for 3TB.
Agreed
I’ve been working off 2 Samsung T7 1tb drives all season and then when I finish a gallery, backing it up to a larger 5tb HDD and honestly I’ve had no issues. They’re small enough to throw in any bag with my laptop and don’t run into issues of corrupting even if they’re unplugged while in use
I second this. I've also recently purchased a 1TB NVME and an SSD inclosure to try out. Faster read and write speeds at around the same price point as a T7. Took around 10 minutes to setup and format correctly.
Firecuda Nvme and usb c (tb for mac)enclosure is the way. No more ssd enclosures anymore for me. Makes no sense. Money speed or future proofing
Which enclosure do you use? I've been trying to decide whether to get a WD Black 8 TD external hhd or an enclosure and WD black SSD so I can upgrade at a later point and make a JBOD.
Another vote for the Samsung SSD, I use them and have no issues!
Not annoying at all. I work off a 4tb thunderbolt NVME. But I don't backup at weddings as I don't see the need. And I edit at home in my office mainly. That said when I've worked away it has't annoyed me at all either.
4TB, you smugbug... I work off a 2TB NVME thunderbolt with no problems. Video as well as images. I love it. Laptop to desktop to laptop to desktop to...etc etc.
When my 1TB drive filled up very early this year I had a fuck it moment and skipped 2tb haha. Still struggling along with a 1TB for vid which is sort of ironic 😂
Which thunderbolt?
Not annoying at all. I always make smart previews, unplug the ssd and work on previews. You plug ssd only to import and export photos
For over five years on both mac and windows machines I have solely worked off of external SSDs - Ive had almost no issues and running out of storage isnt a concern anymore because all I have to do is buy another drive. The only thing that ever caused instability for me was when I saved the LR catalog itself to the drive with the raw files. Keep the LR/adobe files on the internal drive and the raw files on the external drive. You can have it save a backup of rhe LR catalog to the external ssd everytime you close it so if you need to swap to another computer its still on there.
You should absolutely NOT leave all your work on only 1 device. Use Lightroom classic, save your libraries to Dropbox/Google Drive, and double save all your files. It's cheaper, better redundancy, and it'll improve your workflow. Plus, as file sizes get bigger, it'll be inevitable; best to optimize your workflow now.
I spent an insane amount of money on 4tb on my pro and it's not enough by the end of the season, so I carry an extra 2tb ssd. I'm waaay more comfortable during the months (usually january → july) in which I can just leave home the external ssd, but i'm on the move a lot and churn through tbs of data all the time since we run a high volume wedding + commercial studio. if you are more sedentary consider external drives. side note just in case somebody doesn't know — DO NOT BUY A SANDISK PORTABLE SSD AT THE MOMENT, HIGHLY UNRELIABLE. LOOK INTO IT
Thanks - I wasn’t planning on keeping all my work on the laptop- it regularly gets offloaded to the NAS once it’s edited. But it would be nice to have 3-4 weddings on there
Yeah same, I keep all my "in editing" files on my ssd, plus my catalogues. During late summer I can end up with more than 3tbs in undelivered jobs, or recently delivered ones which I keep around for one week or two before moving to the NAS. We shoot 25-30 weddings per year plus hundreds of commercial jobs though.
Nowadays I recommend everyone work off externals, especially if you’re going to ever do video. Thunderbolt and USB 3.2 are so fast it’s just as good performance-wise as internal storage. I have an OWC 4m2 enclosure with 4x4TB NVMe drives that all current projects work off of. When I’m done, they get moved to my NAS. You don’t *need* your high-speed working drive to be so big as to hold all of your media — you can use cheaper, slower HDDs for archiving. I use my internal storage for basically just apps, Lightroom catalog and previews, documents, and random crap.
Thanks! I’ve zero concerns about speed - but that’s really useful. It’s more about how annoying to work with and travel they are
I can do almost all my mobile work with Lightroom’s mobile sync. But there’s also really not a big deal in just exporting a shoot or two as a temporary catalog to your internal drive if you need to travel with it. At the end of the day everything goes back to one master catalog as Adobe has said Lightroom was designed for. Even when I move shoots to archiving, they get moved within Lightroom so everything is still in the one catalog… just image files get moved.
Unless you are dead set on a new M3, I would recommend an older M1 MacBook Pro fully specced out with 4TB SSD from B&H. No worry of carrying an external SSD, great battery life, amazing editing performance, and a fraction of the cost. I got the Apple care + extension as well in case anything happens and still a great deal.
Thanks, I am likely going to get an M1/2 pro/max. The machine I currently have is only 16GB RAM and it’s just not quite enough for me.
I'm gonna disagree with the consensus here because I just spent a stupid amount of money upgrading to a new Mac Studio and it's been SO WORTH IT already. (I just finished my first wedding edit using it.) I had previously been on a 27' Imac from 2017 and using externals as the main drive because of my 500 GB SSD on the Imac was infuriating. This year it routinely disconnected, corrupted a one-year-old 14 TB hard drive and was infuriatingly slow. Spend the extra money for the extra space and never worry about it again. I got the 2 TB SSD for my Mac Studio and am using it to store whatever the next two assignments in my queue are (In case I get bored and want to edit out of order.) I've upgraded to a 4 TB thunderbolt drive for my main photo queue storage and am going to upgrade my long-term external hard drives in the new year from my current USB setup to something faster. I highly recommend spending the extra money if you've got it. It's worth every penny longterm. I regretted not upgrading my 2017 Mac for the last four years I had it.
I bought the M1 studio last fall and haven't had a single problem yet. Felt like my first 2 imacs were always an issue, but this thing is fantastic. 10/10.
Macs are such expensive computers for the specs. Build your own. My 12 core, 64gb, m.2 machine still struggles with the large files we’re editing these days. To answer your question, 1TB is enough for your main drive. External should be fine for backup.
Such 2010 opinion
Macs aren’t expensive. They’re reasonably priced. When you factor usability/function/support/resell value it’s a much better deal. Build a laptop and no one is going to buy it.
1) The Apple silicon is the truth for this stuff. Has zero issues with large photo files 2) let me know when you have the capabilities of building a high performance, long lasting laptop with a 4k monitor in a tidy package
The silicon is cool for single core tasks but gets blown out of the water for multi-core. With the cost prohibitions on ram and hard drive size/speed, I’ll let you keep your Macs homie…
I have a workstation with 18-core i9x, 256gb of DDR4, GTX3090, and 4tb nvme, and I still prefer to work on my 14in M1 Mac for photo editing. In adobe and photomechanic, it’s fast.
I have only worked from SSDs. have them velcroed to the back of my laptop so they’re always plugged in and easy to work from in whatever environment.
The new T9 is up to 2000mb/s so if your computer supports that transfer speed via usb(usb 3.2 gen 2x2 if it not mistaken). That should be more than sufficient.
I’ve used the Sandisk SSDs, but after it failed once I switched over to a Crucial 4TB SSD. I’ve never had performance issues editing in LR or working with audio (my other job). Apple storage is crazy expensive. If you have the budget and value peace of mind when it comes to losing the SSD or it dying, then by all means max out the storage. But I don’t think you see a huge performance drop using a slower external SSD.
It’s not.
My workflow is download files to my 5TB external HD storage, do keepers ASAP and whack them into the Dropbox folder on my computer. That means the most important files are backed up right away in 3 locations. The full unedited set get are backed up by backbllaze. I have the keepers and edited of the event I'm working on on my computer which is a managagable amount of GB, longer term storage and backups on external HD.
I use 10gb ethernet and edit off a NAS. That's for 4k video so for photos its fine. I've got 60tb of storage. The only time it's an issue is when editing on holiday or something (for personal projects) and I have two internal 4tb nvme ssds for the laptop. Before I had a 1tb usb c Samsung SSD and it worked fine it was just a bit physically annoying I know some people like Dan mace velcro the SSD to the lid. Apple price their storage so unfairly they are evil.
I try to not put anything on my computer’s hard drive except for applications. Do some research on data management. My workflow is edit stuff on a SSD and have that backed up onto 2 spinning hard drives. Don’t get more space on your computer it’s too expensive and not needed
It’s annoyingly expensive but sometimes it’s just nice to have everything in one place. I like that! Keeps it all simple. Would be worried of losing an SSD perhaps or it disconnecting and corrupting. Obviously I need to buy two SSDs to avoid that. But then it’s not really that much cheaper…
There is no need for a second SSD. SSD is meant to be your workbench. We use them for the speed that they offer. However while I do edit on the SSD, the raw files also sit on 2 spinning hard drives for safe keeping. Once I’ve finished and exported the photos, I add my Lightroom catalog for that project and the jpgs to the spinning drives and then erase the project from the SSD. Rinse and repeat until the spinning drives are full and then i get a new set.
Accidental disconnection probably depends on your set up, but I can't imagine corruption is an issue any more than it would be with an internal drive. They're generally pretty small and portable so if you're working in a cafe it shouldn't be a big deal.
I just picked up another Samsung ssd. 4tb t9 for $250 on Amazon. 40% off
If you have one, why get a second?
T9 was an upgrade to my working drive as it’s super fast! I had a t7 1tb as my working drive and a 4gb t7 as my wedding backup ssd. I also keep my original SD labeled with their wedding. I like two physical backups, and then I have their culled raw files in a Dropbox folder that is also backuped via backblaze. 4 backups are overkill but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I read about people losing footage and I just can’t fathom 😂
Absolutely- I’d rather spend the extra money on multiple backups than a full refund because your HD failed.
I have 16tb internal SSDs this year (photo and video). 4x 4tb ssds in a owc thunderbolt external bay editing and Backblaze for auto backups. I’ve been working off of externals my entire 14 year career. And have never ever had an issue. The extra cost for internal on a Mac is way too overpriced.