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Photos Library size is different when on MacBook and then backed up to external drive

Due to size of Photos Library for years can get big quick. I decided to libraries by year and copy it to external drive. The copy for 3-4 years is about 335GB on MacBook and I did make sure using terminal command du -sh. When I copy it to external drive, it becomes approximately 560+GB. The difference between sub folders on MacBook vs external drive is mostly because of "Originals" folder.


Any reason? how to solve this issue?


MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jul 14, 2021 10:23 AM

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Posted on Jul 14, 2021 2:07 PM

What format is your external drive? It needs to be APFS, or MacOS extended (Journaled), and needs to be directly connected (Not wifi or ethernet)


Most new drives come formatted EXFat - which is a windows format, and not suitable for a photos library.

See

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517



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5 replies

Jul 19, 2021 3:18 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Hi Tony,


I have the same issue - copied the Photos Library from iMac drive (1TB) to external drive and the Library has gone from approx 800GB to 1671GB. The external drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - do I need to reformat this as APFS, or is something else going on? If I copy this back to the internal HDD will it fit??


Thanks,


Matt


Jul 19, 2021 3:34 PM in response to LeftSideWorks

Hi


No, you don't need to re-format, MacOS extended is fine.


Do you sync the library with iCloud? If so it is possible the library move has caused a complete resync of the library with iCloud. This can result in iCloud photos being downloaded to compare with the local library. If this is the case, then when the sync is complete, it should return to it's correct size. However, if that is what is going on, then for such a large library you can expect it to take a long time - weeks possibly.


What does the sync status say at the bottom of your all photos view? Here is mine (updated just now)


Photos Library size is different when on MacBook and then backed up to external drive

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