Level 1

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Moving Photos to External Hard Drive with exFat

I purchased a 2T WD Passport EHD to move photos to free up space on my White MacBook2009 (yes, still going strong!). I wanted to be able to have the option to transfer from the EHD to a PC or new Mac (as I'm not sure which laptop I will purchase). Store's customer rep formatted the EHD to ExFat (I believe from an Apple computer in the store). When I dragged my Photo Library to the EHD only about 1/10 of the photos copied over. Some photos are in the iCloud; is that the issue? I have searched the community forums but am unable to find the answer. According to Apple (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517), I cannot use exFAT for photo library but some community forum replies state otherwise. I definately want to have the option of transferring from EHC to a PC. Why did only part of my photo library transfer and will I have the option to transfer from the EXHD to a PC with exFAT? Thanks!

MacBook, macOS 10.13

Posted on Feb 22, 2020 6:46 PM

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Rysz

Level 8

44,541 points

Posted on Feb 22, 2020 7:27 PM

Apple is correct. For Photos to work reliably, the external drive must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

To ensure your local copy of Photos contains all images at full resolution, Photos > Preferences > iCloud must be set to Download Originals to This Mac.

If your setting is to Optimize Mac Storage, your local copy contains mostly only small thumbnail previews of your images. If you don’t have the storage space on your MacBook, you can change this setting after moving the library file to the external drive. Be forewarned that if your iCloud Photo Library is sizable, it will take a very long time to download all full-sized images from iCloud.

If and when you need to migrate your photos to a PC there are multiple ways of doing it, but none will retain all the metadata stored in Photos. In any case, you can always re-download your images to your new PC directly from iCloud. They are accessible via any web browser at iCloud.com.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517

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Shepherdess Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 29, 2020 1:26 PM in response to Rysz

Hi Rysz, So it took almost two days for everything to download but the # of photos and videos on Photos on the EHD and in iCloud match. Yay! I had missed that you directed me to close Photos during the download but seems everything worked out OK. A few questions for clarification:

You stated earlier that "Optimization kicks in only when your internal drive starts to run out of storage space". So if I moved the Photos to an EHD with 4T of space does that mean that all photos downloaded at full resolution, that is, same as if I had selected "Download Originals to this Mac"? Or do I still need to do this extra step? And if originals are downloaded are photos at full resolution still also in the iCloud?
"If the external drive with your Library is not connected when Photos is launched, it will create a new library on the MacBook". Even if I have deleted the library that was on MacBook's Internal HD? If so, I assume just launching Photos w/o the EHD connected makes Mac want to create a new library?

Thanks! I am learning alot about iCloud and Photos through this process and with your help!

Shepherdess Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 23, 2020 4:58 PM in response to Rysz

Thank you! I had my Macbook upgraded to increase internal hard drive disk space and RAM. I'll follow your recommendations and let you know the outcome...

Shepherdess Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 23, 2020 7:48 PM in response to Rysz

Thank you so much! I also found this step by step process that basically is what you advise...https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/move-photos-hard-drive-3681943/

Rysz

Level 8

44,541 points

Feb 23, 2020 7:51 PM in response to Shepherdess

Good luck!

Shepherdess Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 25, 2020 1:59 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks OT! Yes I reformatted it to the correct format a few days ago. Still have above issue (last question), but it looks like iCloud is downloading more pics...waiting...

Old Toad

Level 10

217,716 points

Feb 25, 2020 2:26 PM in response to Rysz

Should have been addressed to the OP.

Shepherdess Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 22, 2020 7:49 PM in response to Rysz

"If you don’t have the storage space on your MacBook, you can change this

setting after moving the library file to the external drive." If I don't have the space on my Macbook to download all photos from iCloud, then how am I to move all photos to EHD from my MacBook? I don't believe I can move directly from iCloud to EHD? My setting is for Optimizing MacStorage but Finder shows that photos in my MacBook are 16GB so that must be more than thumbnail previews? Also it seems that using my photos on a PC would not be optimal and threfore limits me to staying with MacBook.

Rysz

Level 8

44,541 points

Feb 23, 2020 6:52 PM in response to Shepherdess

Shepherdess wrote:

How do I then move the original photos from iCloud directly to EHD if original photos are not downloaded to my Mac due to space limitations?

This will happen on its own once you change the preference to Copy Originals to This Mac. Normally most recently added and most recently edited images get downloaded first. Clicking to open full-screen an image (for example to edit it) will download that photo immediately.

Old Toad

Level 10

217,716 points

Feb 25, 2020 2:20 PM in response to Shepherdess

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Moving Photos to External Hard Drive with exFat