Please explain how you tell the Photos Library on your computer that you’ve moved your thousands of referenced images from one external hard drive to another external hard drive. My Library can’t find them. I only can access the library thumbnails. Thanks!
MacBook Pro Retina
No. If you do that you'll still need to reconnect each image one by none...
First restore things to the way they were beforehand. Then consolidate the library - i.e. move the files into the library package. You can do this with the File -> Consolidate command. Then you can simply move the library package to any drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or apfs that's not a network share.
Or use a third-party app.
This is why experienced users strongly urge you to not use the referenced mode in Photos. It simply has no tools to solve this issue gracefully. None whatever. So, when the app asks you to find the original, that's it. That's how you reattach every single image.
If you want to run a referenced library, especially where the masters are on a different volume, you need to use an app that's designed for that. Photos isn't that app.
Hello Schankenhoser,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!
We understand from your post that you have moved your photos from one external hard drive to another external hard drive and the Photos library on your Mac cannot find the new location. This article has steps which may help:
Change where your files are stored in Photos on Mac - Apple Support
Best Regards.
Thanks for the reply but it doesn’t answer my question. I have thousands of referenced photos that have been moved from one external hard drive to a different one. (Actually they were backed up to it and my original drive went TU.) I don’t wish to consolidate them into my library that is on my computer’s hard drive (not enough room!) I only wish for that library on my computer to now be able to access those referenced files in their new location on the different hard drive.
Thank you Terence! I was afraid of that... Here I thought I was being dutifully responsible backing up my files while leaving the computer’s hard drive free from the massive load of images. I suppose I may be able to copy the library onto the backup HD that has the images, then consolidate the images into the library and then leave the library there on that external HD with the images. (?)
Moving referenced files
