jennacloud

Q: How do I move my photos library to an external drive?

What are the step by step instructions for moving the new Photos Library to an external hard drive in able to free up space on my MacBook's drive?

 

I searched the forums and did not find anything related to moving the new photos library, not the old iPhoto library.  A concern I have after reading through older threads is if videos will transfer over properly.  I read that videos will turn into stills.  I don't want to lose my videos.  I plan on making a back up of my entire MacBook via Time Machine to a separate external hard drive before I even start this process at all but I want to make sure I do all of this correctly.

 

I have a MacBook Pro running OS X Yosemite version 10.10.3.

I will have 2 separate external hard drives.  One for the MacBook back up and one for the photos library to be stored on.

 

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 6, 2015 11:41 PM

Close

Q: How do I move my photos library to an external drive?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 4 of 4
  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Apr 4, 2016 2:00 PM in response to PaulDi
    Level 10 (85,205 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 4, 2016 2:00 PM in response to PaulDi

    If you are 110% sure you will not want or need iPhoto again then you can archive the iPhoto library and trash it and move only the Photos library - If you have space on your EHD I suggest moving both just in case you want or need the iPhoto library - but moving the the EHD does break the hard links so each will take up the full space reported

     

    LN

  • by dawnmre73,

    dawnmre73 dawnmre73 Apr 7, 2016 6:13 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 7, 2016 6:13 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Terence,

     

    I tried this by following your instructions, and now I can't open my photos from my computer or my external drive.  What did I do wrong, and can I fix it?

     

    library.jpg

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Apr 7, 2016 9:31 PM in response to micah212
    Level 10 (85,205 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 7, 2016 9:31 PM in response to micah212

    micah212 wrote:

     

    Why does my drive have to be in Mac OS X Journaled? Can I use ExFAT?

    Because no other format will work including ExFAT

     

    LN

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Apr 7, 2016 9:33 PM in response to dawnmre73
    Level 10 (85,205 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 7, 2016 9:33 PM in response to dawnmre73

    What format is the drive (select the drive in the finder and get  info to see the format) and how is it connected?

     

    LN

  • by garryfromsouthampton,

    garryfromsouthampton garryfromsouthampton Apr 20, 2016 3:46 PM in response to dawnmre73
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iPad
    Apr 20, 2016 3:46 PM in response to dawnmre73

    HI dawnmre73,

     

    I had the same issue (albeit with a correctly formatted external HD that expired). Have you tried right clicking on the library in Finder and then Show Contents?

     

    Although I didn't recover my library, I was able to find all of the original files and add them to a new library. Not ideal but better than losing the lot.

  • by Kiwi_Big_bear,

    Kiwi_Big_bear Kiwi_Big_bear May 19, 2016 7:52 PM in response to jennacloud
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 19, 2016 7:52 PM in response to jennacloud

    I have a Mac Book Pro and am a complete novice when it comes to Apple, last used an Apple 2e back in high school.  (yes I know, that make me old)

     

    I have a huge pile of Photos on my hard drive I would like to:

     

    A) move to an external drive to free up working space.

    B) be able to access them  (the photos) from Photoshots elements. 

     

    It seems my laptop is by default saving everything to my Photos, things on the tool bar at the bottom of my screen.  and when I try to import the photos to PS its greyed out.  Help Please oh great minds.  Thanks in advance.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin May 19, 2016 11:04 PM in response to Kiwi_Big_bear
    Level 10 (139,582 points)
    iLife
    May 19, 2016 11:04 PM in response to Kiwi_Big_bear

    1. Make a decision: Do you want to use Photos at all? If yes, there is one way forward, if no, then a different one.

     

    2. You can't "import photographs" to PS. It's not a place, it's a tool. You may want to open and edit them with PS - his can be done no matter which option you choose.

  • by natasjabm,

    natasjabm natasjabm Jun 1, 2016 8:46 AM in response to Kiwi_Big_bear
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 1, 2016 8:46 AM in response to Kiwi_Big_bear

    Just struggled getting this done. No expert but this worked for me.

     

    From your Mac open Users/'Your Macbook name'/Pictures, drag 'Photos Library.photoslibrary' to your HD.

    Once copied, right click on it.

    Click on: ‘Show Package Contents’

    Inside you will find a folder called ‘Masters’

    Move this to your HD (open new HD window and drag).

    This folder has all your photos!

     

    Hope this helps

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jun 1, 2016 10:17 AM in response to natasjabm
    Level 10 (85,205 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 1, 2016 10:17 AM in response to natasjabm

    natasjabm wrote:

     

    Just struggled getting this done. No expert but this worked for me.

     

    From your Mac open Users/'Your Macbook name'/Pictures, drag 'Photos Library.photoslibrary' to your HD.

    Once copied, right click on it.

    Click on: ‘Show Package Contents’

    Inside you will find a folder called ‘Masters’

    Move this to your HD (open new HD window and drag).

    This folder has all your photos!

     

    Hope this helps

    Unfortunately this is really bad advice and will destroy your  Photos library rendering it unusable and cause you to lose all editing and other work you have done in Photos and possibly cause you to lose all of your high quality photos

     

    Once the poster makes a decision how they want to work and tells us we can explain how to do it without destroying everything which your suggestion does - and depending on user settings may or may not even give one any usable photos

     

    LN

  • by CTSeaDragon,

    CTSeaDragon CTSeaDragon Jul 21, 2016 6:34 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 21, 2016 6:34 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Thanks, TD!  I had the same question since my internal drive is filling up, and for the time being at least, I can't justify the expense of a new iMac with a larger internal drive just for storage space.  Fortunately, I have a spare external HDD that is sitting around unused.

  • by Giorgiev,

    Giorgiev Giorgiev Sep 24, 2016 7:43 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 24, 2016 7:43 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    It worked fine for me, thanks dude!

first Previous Page 4 of 4