montymouse2

Q: Moving photos to external hard drive following migration from iPhoto to Photos

I've got a huge number of photos and have run out of space on my MacBook.  After doing a bit of reading I have worked out that I should be bale to move my photo library to an external hard drive and then point Photos to run from the external hard drive.

 

I have very recently upgraded to El Capitan and as part of that upgrade my photos were migrated from iPhoto to Photos.  I have just checked the current location of my Photo library and I found two.  One is named Photos Library and that looks like the one Photos is using which makes sense.  However, I also have a file called iPhoto Library and it is listed as a migrated library under file type. 

 

My question is, when I copy my photos to the external hard drive do I also need to copy the migrated iPhoto library file as well?

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Dec 1, 2015 2:48 AM

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Q: Moving photos to external hard drive following migration from iPhoto to Photos

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Dec 1, 2015 4:56 AM in response to montymouse2
    Level 10 (108,510 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 1, 2015 4:56 AM in response to montymouse2
    My question is, when I copy my photos to the external hard drive do I also need to copy the migrated iPhoto library file as well?

    Yes, if you want to free storage on your internal drive move both libraries to your external drive, the new Photos Library, and the iPhoto Library you migrated.

    Both libraries are sharing the storage for the original image files and the previews.  As long as one of the libraries is still on the internal drive and using the storage, the storage will not be freed:  See:  Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

     

    Drag both the libraries to your external drive, then double click the Photos library to open it in in Photos and test it. Once you are satisfied that the copied library is working well, you can delete the original from the internal drive.  Do the same for the copied iPhoto Library, if you still have iPhoto installed.

  • by montymouse2,Helpful

    montymouse2 montymouse2 Dec 1, 2015 4:56 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 1, 2015 4:56 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks for the reply and the useful link.

     

    The link you refered to mentioned, "when you migrate a photo Iibrary from iPhoto, the Photos app creates a new library structure but doesn't duplicate your images.  Instead, Photos saves disk space by creating links to the original and preview versions of your images".  Is there a danger that I will break those links by moving both libraries to a new location, i.e an external hard drive.

     

    For back up purposes, I intend to back up manually to a second external hard drive, do I also need to be copying both libraries?  Although it still looks like I have  iPhoto on my Mac, I don't intend to use it and will be using only Photos going forward.

  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie Dec 1, 2015 4:52 AM in response to montymouse2
    Level 10 (108,510 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 1, 2015 4:52 AM in response to montymouse2
    Is there a danger that I will break those links by moving both libraries to a new location, i.e an external hard drive.

    Hard links do not work across different disks. When you move the iPhoto Library and the Photos library to a different drive, the linked files will be copied as independent  files. The copied libraries will need more storage on the external drive, because they will no longer be hard linked.

    For back up purposes, I intend to back up manually to a second external hard drive, do I also need to be copying both libraries?  Although it still looks like I have  iPhoto on my Mac, I don't intend to use it and will be using only Photos going forward.

    I would keep a backup of the original iPhoto library, until you are sure, that all photos migrated correctly. Even if the thumbnails appear to be correct the original image files may be corrupted or missing.