Could not transfer photos from Library to External Hard Drive

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Level 1

4 points

Could not transfer photos from Library to External Hard Drive

I could not transfer imported photos on photos app to the external hard drive (Seagate Fast SSD). I've never had such a problem before until yesterday. My software is up to date. Usually, the photos will be shown as pictures (see attached pls) but yesterday, the transferred photos were seen as file pic. So, I clicked on one of them and the message say, " The file "IMG_1450.jpeg" could not be opened because it is empty. The photos previously transferred before yesterday are still there though. So, I tried transferring some photos from photo library to the desktop. Photos showed as normal.

FYI, I am low-tech. I would appreciate any assistance to help me fix this problem.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.5

Posted on Jul 27, 2021 8:22 PM

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Answer 1

Emmi35 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 28, 2021 5:46 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Sorry for late reply due to time difference. It works now and I can export to the external hard drive. Thank you so much to both of you for taking your time to help me out. Really appreciate it.

Btw, yesterday when I tried to screen shot on my desktop to show you the message re. Export. It did not work. I repeatedly press ctrl + Command + 4 many times. Then my screen has big "arrow down" keys saying "yesterday" , "today" underneath the keys and all the folders and files created on each day were shown under them. I cannot delete those arrow keys and I could not move files to another position on the screen. All files are fixed to be under each day's arrow key. Even the external hard drive icon on the desktop screen cannot be moved to any part on the screen. It keeps going back to the same position.

Would you please help me this last one problem?

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Answer 2

Emmi35 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 28, 2021 12:59 AM in response to Jack-19

Thank you for your reply. I tried restart and it still did not work. The other photos previously transferred are still there. Only this lot that I could not successfully transfer them. The process has never been an issue until this time.

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Answer 3

Jul 28, 2021 1:08 AM in response to Emmi35

Hi

If I understand correctly, you cannot open the file from finder after it has been transferred from photos. Is that correct?

Are the images still available in photos?

How are you trying to export them? Drag/Drop, or file>export.

If you are using drag/drop, what happens if you try file>export instead?

Do you use iCloud photos? If so have you set “optimise photos library”

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Answer 4

Emmi35 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 28, 2021 1:55 AM in response to TonyCollinet

I scanned old photos of my children or sometimes just use phone camera to take photos. then I export the photos from my iphone onto photo app on my macbook air. Then I drag and drop the photos into each folder catagorized by year.

I do not use iCloud photos. I do not set up icloud for photos on my phone.

The images are still available in photos app's library but could not be seen after drag/drop onto the external hard drive.

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Answer 5

Emmi35 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 28, 2021 3:03 AM in response to TonyCollinet

I tried File/Export. Two choices came up: Export 1 photo and Export Unmodified Original for 1 Photo. I chose "Export 1 Photo". Then the screen came up as seen in the attached.

I did not know what to choose so I just click "Export". The image was exported to my desktop. I can see the photo there.

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Answer 6

Jul 28, 2021 4:55 AM in response to Emmi35

File export is much better than drag drop anyway. After the first time you click export you can choose a folder to put it in you could choose a folder on the external drive.

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