Apple Photos import: Insufficient Disk Space

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Level 1

19 points

Apple Photos import: Insufficient Disk Space

I'm using an old version of Lightroom (version 5), I'm considering moving to Apple Photos (Mojave 10.14.5) because all I need are basic features. I have about 58,000 photos/videos (~1TB) catalog in Lightroom 5. These photos/videos are stored on an external USB drive.

I've moved the Photos Library to a folder on the external drive, which has about 530GB of free space.

When I tried to import, Photos complains "Insufficient Disk Space. Additional 760.47 GB of free space is needed to continue." In Photos, I've unchecked "Copy items to the Photos Library". Why does Photos

need this much space? I'm not trying to move photos. My photos are on the external drive. The "Photos Library.photoslibrary" file is also on the external drive. In Photos, I've unchecked "Copy items to the Photos Library" so I'm hoping that means that Photos won't make a copy of the existing photos. If that's true, then why does it need 760GB of space? Is Photos trying to make another copy of my entire1GB collection?

MacBook

Posted on May 29, 2019 12:51 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

210,615 points

May 29, 2019 2:02 PM in response to sajeeeee

How is the external HD formatted and connected to your MacBook? It should be formatted as shown in this screenshot:

Also, do not run the Photos library as a "referenced" library, i.e. "Copy items to the Photos Library" unchecked, as that's a disaster waiting to happen. Photos does not handle referenced libraries well at all. Read this user tip: Disadvantages of a Referenced Library in Photos for Mac.

Import groups/folders of photos into the new Photos library and then when you've confirmed that they are safely in the library you can delete the folders or source files.

If, in the import process, you select "Keep folder organization"

each folder of image files will be placed in an album with the same name as the folder. This will help keep your current folder organization intact.

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Answer 2

sajeeeee Author

Level 1

19 points

May 31, 2019 7:26 AM in response to Old Toad

Old Toad: Thank you for your response. The external USB3 drive is formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and "Ignore ownership..." is checked. Based on your response, I have to re-think my approach to using Apple Photos.

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