I want to back up my photo library from my iMac to an external drive. It is large about 200GB but there is sufficient space on the external drive. It started copying for about an hour, then I got a message that it cannot continue because there is a duplicate in the file (this is photolibrary.library ), then it quit. Why didn't it ask if I want to ignore or replace the duplicate?
How do I get by this problem?
iMac Pro
Hi
Is the external drive correctly set up for using with a photos library?
It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled), and not be (or have been) used for time machine. It must have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked. It should not be on a memory stick, SD or similar. It stands to reason that if you want any sort of reasonable performance it should be a fast drive with a fast connection.
See
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517
Hi
Is the external drive correctly set up for using with a photos library?
It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled), and not be (or have been) used for time machine. It must have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked. It should not be on a memory stick, SD or similar. It stands to reason that if you want any sort of reasonable performance it should be a fast drive with a fast connection.
See
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517
Not sure my last reply was posted. First of all thanks. I checked the things you mentioned. In finder it says for hours that it is preparing to copy. My photos are 205g and I have 268g space available. The message preparing to copy is on my iMac screen for many hours.
my iMac after the last Apple updates slowed to a crawl so I think I need to clear it off and rebuild everything. I’m very nervous about doing this as I don’t want to lose anything.
thanks again. Fingers crossed i will be OK.
Yes, it is.it finally started copying and after 3 hours had copied 37gb (of 230gb). Then it stopped with the message that said” The operation cannot be completed because an item with the name photos library.photo library already exists.”
about a year ago I did use this drive for time machine. There isn't a folder by that name on this drive now. Now I use it to archive important files. Is there anyway around this ?
thanks once again for trying to help me. Joan
My iMac drive is APFS my external,drive is Mac OS extended journaled and case sensitive. The ignore ownership box is checked. It has taken many hours with the message preparing to copy.
I assume the external drive is directly connected? USB or thunderbolt?
And is USB connected. Not thunderbolt
problem copying photolibrary to external driveSays it can't continue
