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What is the best way to copy the entire Photos library onto an external hard drive

What is the best way to copy the entire Photos library onto an external hard drive? And, also, the best way to copy it onto CD's?

Thanks!

iMac 21.5″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Mar 29, 2021 5:22 AM

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

198,007 points

Posted on Mar 29, 2021 5:58 AM

See this document on how to move the Photos Library to an external volume:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

You cannot keep the Photos Library on CDs or any volume, that is read-only - Photos need write access, even for just reading the library.

You could export the photos from your Photos Library to back them up on CDs; Select the photos and use "File > Export > Export unmodified originals" and use the sub folder preset "Moment Name". Then you will get the photos from each day collected in subfolders named by the place and the date, so you can easily find them.

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What is the best way to copy the entire Photos library onto an external hard drive

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