Disadvantages of a Referenced Library in Photos

by: léonie

Last modified: Apr 29, 2020 2:44 AM

18 21733 Last modified Apr 29, 2020 2:44 AM

This user tip has been moved to: Disadvantages of a Referenced Library in Photos - Updated for macOS 10.15 Catalina (April 29, 2020)

--------------- for macOS 10.14 Mojave and earlier

Photos for Mac has two modes of importing photos, managed (the default) and referenced. This is determined by the Photos > Preference > General > Importing. If you disable "Copy items into the Photos Library", Photos will not store copies in its library but reference the photos in their original location. That can help to save storage by keeping the original photos on an external drive. See this Help page: https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/pht12e7a8015

Aperture users migrating to Photos might be tempted to set up a referenced Library in Photos, since referenced libraries worked well in Aperture.

Unfortunately, the support for referenced photos is still poor in Photos. It is a little better than in iPhoto, but still cannot be recommended in Photos for several reasons:There is no tool to relocate the originals to a different drive, if you need to move them to a drive with more storage or you need to replace the drive, because it is failing.If you delete referenced photos from the library, you cannot delete the original as well automatically. It will be left behind and you have to track it down individually or have to consolidate the photos into the library before deleting them.Worst of all, there is no versatile tool to reconnect the referenced original files to the versions in the Photos Library, if Photos has lost the connection. Photos will just complain about a missing file and ask you to search for it, without any information about the missing file.And if you want to use iCloud Photo Library you cannot use referenced files, because they are not supported in iCloud Photo Library.

Therefore, risking a referenced library will mean a lot of work for reestablishing the connection between originals and the versions in the Photo Library, if you ever need to move the library, or need to replace the drive, or restore the library from a backup, and sooner ar later this will be necessary, since any drive will fail sooner or later.

And you have to manage the originals on your own. This should only be done by experienced users, not beginners just starting to use Photos. It is easy to make mistakes and accidentally delete the precious originals.