James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

Q: Put part of Photos library onto external HDD

Howdy

 

I have about 200gb of pictures, which means my HDD is almost out of room.  These pictures are in the Photos program.

 

Is there anyway I can get part of this library onto an external HDD?

 

Ideally, the most recent photos would be on my computer and all the older ones would be on the external HDD.  I  know it's possible to move the older files permanently to a HDD (copy/paste), but I want to to see ALL the pics within the Photos program, but have them stored in different locations.

 

In iTunes, the underlying mp3 file can be located anywhere (internal, external, network, etc), so long as the mac can 'reach' the file, it'll show up in iTunes - I'm hoping I can do something like this with the Photos program.

 

Cheers

Posted on Aug 30, 2016 5:10 AM

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Q: Put part of Photos library onto external HDD

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  • by James, The 3rd Earl of Coast,

    James, The 3rd Earl of Coast James, The 3rd Earl of Coast Aug 30, 2016 5:14 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2016 5:14 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

    OP here - I should add, I'm open to cloud solutions also.

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 30, 2016 5:26 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast
    Level 10 (103,346 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 30, 2016 5:26 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

    You can do that with referenced photos, however referenced photos won't be included in your iCloud photo library (if you use it), is that something that would be acceptable.

  • by RIFerrarr,

    RIFerrarr RIFerrarr Aug 30, 2016 5:29 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast
    Level 3 (709 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 30, 2016 5:29 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

    It depends on how you have Photos set up in Preferences. If you have set up Photos to "Copy items to the Photos library", then the Photos library file in your Pictures folder contains a copy of all the images all over your computer. You can move all those images to gain space on your internal hard drive.

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 30, 2016 5:35 AM in response to RIFerrarr
    Level 10 (103,346 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 30, 2016 5:35 AM in response to RIFerrarr

    RIFerrarr wrote:

     

    It depends on how you have Photos set up in Preferences. If you have set up Photos to "Copy items to the Photos library", then the Photos library file in your Pictures folder contains a copy of all the images all over your computer. You can move all those images to gain space on your internal hard drive.

    For the avoidance of doubt these are called referenced photos (much better description than I provided though)

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 30, 2016 6:51 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 10 (84,105 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2016 6:51 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    Winston Churchill wrote:

     

    You can do that with referenced photos, however referenced photos won't be included in your iCloud photo library (if you use it), is that something that would be acceptable.

    Not at All

     

    1 - you can not convert an existing managed library into a referenced library

     

    2 - Photos does not have the necessary tools to manage a referenced library and therefore use of a referenced library is strongly not recommended - it is a tie bomb just waiting to blow up in your face as it makes upgrading or repairing defective hardware extremely difficult to impossible - no knowledgeable user would ever recommend a referenced library with iPhoto or Photos either - this article discussed the issues for iPhoto  - iPhoto and File Management  - and they are pretty much the same for Photos

     

     

     

    and of course there is no possible way at all to move part of a library - you could have multiple libraries - one on the internal drive and one on the external drive or you can run your library on an external drive - Note that the Photos library must only be on a drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) that is not used as a TimeMachine backup voume and that is connected using a fast wired connection

     

    LN

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 30, 2016 6:57 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 10 (103,346 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 30, 2016 6:57 AM in response to LarryHN

    Then we disagree again, nowt unusual is it.

  • by James, The 3rd Earl of Coast,

    James, The 3rd Earl of Coast James, The 3rd Earl of Coast Aug 30, 2016 7:14 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2016 7:14 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

    Thanks for the quick reply guys.

    1. I have 'copy items to the Photos library' selected.  I read the Terence Devlin guide on Managed/Reference.  I run a reference library for my iTunes (because the underlying files are in a few places) and yep, it's a pain.  I could see that working here but I think I'd need to set up the library from scratch again, so no thanks.

     

    2. The guide says:

     

    I have too many photos to fit on my disk.

    You can run a Managed Library from any locally connected USB/Firewire/Thunderbolt disk (note: not a NAS) that is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a wired connection.

    So how would I do this?  I have no shortage of external HDDs, formatted in Journaled OS and not time machine backup.  LarryHN I believe this is what you're speaking of when you say I could have multiple libraries?  How would that work (and what exactly is a library)?

     

    3. But isn't iCloud Photo Library the easy solution here?  200gb of storage costs very little per month, and I have a fast FTTP connection.  So as I understand it, I simply enable that (and click the space saving button).  Because I'm a little squeamish about having my pics only in the cloud, surely I'd just save a copy of the whole library to an external as a backup?

     

    Cheers and thanks guys.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 30, 2016 7:16 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 10 (84,105 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2016 7:16 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    Ok - Since you disagree explain exactly how you convert an existing managed library to a referenced library and exactly how you replace a dead EHD with a new one and restore the path to the referenced photos- the two statements you disagree with

     

    Bottom line is referenced libraries are not well supported and are not recommended and it is a major disservice to inexperienced users to suggest that they use one - they will be very sorry

     

    LN

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 30, 2016 7:23 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast
    Level 10 (103,346 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 30, 2016 7:23 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

    You can move your library in it's entirety to an external drive by simply copying it, so long as the drive is Mac OS extended format. Providing you have the drive connected most if not all the time this would be my preferred option too, Personally i wouldn't be keen on the optimised option unless I had a full resolution version somewhere else that I could use to back up from.

  • by James, The 3rd Earl of Coast,

    James, The 3rd Earl of Coast James, The 3rd Earl of Coast Aug 30, 2016 7:26 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2016 7:26 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    Thanks WC.  I keep my music on an external HDD, and would be OK to put all my pics on the same HDD - that HDD is backed up to another via Time Machine.

     

    So how would I go about doing this (while preserving all my edits and folders in Photos)?

  • by James, The 3rd Earl of Coast,

    James, The 3rd Earl of Coast James, The 3rd Earl of Coast Aug 30, 2016 7:29 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2016 7:29 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

    I guess what I'm asking is if I move the 'library file' which is the 120gb file in User Name > Pictures > Photos Library to another location, will Photos know where to look for that file?

     

    How about when I import new photos - will these go to the new location (the external HDD)?  What if I don't have the external HDD attached - where would the import go?

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 30, 2016 7:36 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast
    Level 10 (103,346 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 30, 2016 7:36 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

    I guess what I'm asking is if I move the 'library file' which is the 120gb file in User Name > Pictures > Photos Library to another location, will Photos know where to look for that file?

    Not at first no, you'd need to tell it for the first time, by holding down ⌥ while launching the app.

    How about when I import new photos

    How do you import your photos now

     

     

    edit... second and subsequent quotes seem to be misbehaving so I've done them in blue

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 30, 2016 8:03 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast
    Level 10 (84,105 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2016 8:03 AM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

    Simple - quit Photos and drag the Photos library to an external drive that is  formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) that is not used as a TimeMachine backup volume, that is always available prior to launching Photos  and that is connected using a fast wired connection like FireWire, ThunderBolt or USB. - then double click on the library in the new location to open it and set it as the default - fully test it and once you are positive that it is perfect then you can delete the one on the internal drive - be sure that you EHD is being backed up (by default TM does not backup EHDs)

     

    If you do launch Photos with the drive not available then Photos will create a new empty library on the internal drive and until you specifically switch back everything you do will be with the new library - there is no way to merge libraries so this should be avoided (you can merge one version of the photos using PowerPhotos)

     

    LN

  • by James, The 3rd Earl of Coast,

    James, The 3rd Earl of Coast James, The 3rd Earl of Coast Aug 30, 2016 5:09 PM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2016 5:09 PM in response to James, The 3rd Earl of Coast

    Thanks again guys, very helpful.  Not sure all of your answer came thru WC - I import as per default settings, copying into the library.

     

    I guess there's a big risk in moving the library - if I'm ever away from the external HDD and want to import photos, then it'll create a new library which I can't (easily or fully) merge.  How would this interact with iCloud Photo Library?  No way to merge the libraries like that?

     

    I'm thinking the best way to manage my space issue would be to upload all to iCloud Photo Library, then take an offline copy of the whole library, and then use the space manage option.

     

    Question, though, when I import a photo with the space manage option switched on, does this mean that immediately the full res photo imported onto the HDD would be replaced by a low res photo?

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