I have a Mac M1 and have reorganised my Raw images on portable drives (both ssd and spinning disc) for use with LR. The external drives connect via a short lead to the sockets on the back of the Mac.
This may be a stupid question but is there any harm in leaving the lead connected and then just connecting a drive to the end of the lead when I want it, rather than removing all from the Mac socket?
Before anyone asks, yes I do have my images duplicated on different drives.
Best wishes,
Jonathan