Moving the Photos library to en external disk formatted ExFAT

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Moving the Photos library to en external disk formatted ExFAT

Hi everyone,

I read the support page "move your Photos library to save space on your Mac" and it is everything clear enough. Only it says that the external disk should be formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Now I have at hand a 3TB external disk that is formatted ExFAT for reasons of PC compatibility.

I copied the my photo library there, make double click on it and .... it seems to work perfectly. Or at least I have browsed a little and even made changes, and everything seems ok.

So now my question is:

is the requirement of APFS or Mac OS Extended formatting a must, or is it just better for performance reasons? Can i use without worries my external ExFAT disk? Someone has experiences about this?

I'd be grateful for any hint.

Thanks in advance and best regards

Claudio

Posted on Feb 14, 2021 8:24 AM

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Answer 1

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Old Toad

Level 10

215,316 points

Feb 14, 2021 10:12 AM in response to Claudio P.

Claudio P. wrote:

is the requirement of APFS or Mac OS Extended formatting a must, or is it just better for performance reasons? Can i use without worries my external ExFAT disk? Someone has experiences about this?

I'd be grateful for any hint.

Thanks in advance and best regards

Claudio

Yes, it is a MUST! The format of the FAT and exFAT drives do not support the complex ecosystem of permissions and links that make up a Photos library. It won't run on an exFAT drive and will damage the library.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,525 points

Feb 14, 2021 10:18 AM in response to Claudio P.

Get yourself an external drive with the correct formatting or create a separate partition on your ExFAT disk, where you can store the Photos Library safely.

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Answer 3

Feb 14, 2021 10:32 AM in response to Claudio P.

> ExFAT for reasons of PC compatibility

Photos library is not compatible with Windows so that does not apply.

So use Mac OS Extended (faster for HDD) or APFS (SSD) format for Photos library.

I haven't tested whether it is possible to have those volumes with a Windows exFAT volume on the same disk.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

215,316 points

Feb 14, 2021 11:48 AM in response to Claudio P.

Yes, many have reported being able to run a library for a while on a FAT or exFAT drive and then it all goes south.

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Answer 5

Claudio P. Author

Level 1

27 points

Feb 14, 2021 10:47 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks a lot, OldToad,

Ok, that's the reason I asked. I did a copy of the library of course, I did not delete the original one.

Though, surprisingly enough, it works! But probably it is now working, and later on it would begin to create problems or even stop definitively to work and, as you say, it would damage the library.

Best regards and thanks everybody

Claudio

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Moving the Photos library to en external disk formatted ExFAT

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