Photo Library
How do you transfer most but not all of the photo library from Mac to external hard drive?
iMac 21.5" 4K, macOS 10.14
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I would duplicate your Photos Library on your external drive. Just drag the library over to the other drive using the Finder. But not all external drives are suitable to be used with Photos. Check your drive for compatibility as described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
Once you moved your library to the external drive, double click it to open it in Photos. Work with it a bit to check, if it is working correctly.
Then switch back to your main library and delete all of the photos you do not need on your system drive from the local library. For example, if you just want to keep your favorites on the local drive and all photos from this year, you could find the photos to delete using a smart album with the two rules:
File > New Smart album.
- Match all
- Photo is not Favorite
- Date captured is before 1.1.2019
If you want to remove the keepers from the larger library on the external drive, create a similar album to find the keepers and remove them there. But I would not bother; it is much more convenient to have a full archive of all photos on your external drive. And this way you will have an additional backup of your keepers.