Can you use a network drive (in my case a time capsule) as a system photo library for the photos app?

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Level 1

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Can you use a network drive (in my case a time capsule) as a system photo library for the photos app?

instead of using Max>Pictures>Photos Library.photoslibrary (this is a local file) am I able to designate my network drive as my photos library? The reason I ask this is because I only have 250gigs on my computer and 2T on my time capsule. I love the features and organization of the photos app so I would love to continue using it but instead of having it show files local on my computer, instead show files (pictures and vides enclosed in the photos library) on my network drive.

Also if I add pictures via import, would they upload to the photos library on the network drive if my library location is set to the network drive location?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 19, 2020 11:05 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,513 points

Sep 19, 2020 11:54 PM in response to m.sandler15

No, the Photos Library needs to be on a locally mounted volume. If you access the Photos Library over the network, you are risking data loss. And the library must not on a volume used for Time Machine backups. It cannot be in a synced folder (Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive) either.

Use an external drive, that you plug into the USB port.See Apple's recommendation how move the library to an external volume: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Or, if you do not like a wired connection on a portable Mac, sign up for more iCloud storage and use iCloud Photos with "Optimise Mac Storage". Use iCloud Photos to store photos in iCloud - Apple Support

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Can you use a network drive (in my case a time capsule) as a system photo library for the photos app?

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