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User profile for user: DebCG
DebCG Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Photos Library transfer back to Mac from External Hard Drive

Years ago I transferred my Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external hard drive to save space on my iMac. I now have a new iMac running Big Sur. I'm having a lot of problems running the Photos program from the EHD and would now like to move it back to my computer in the hopes that it will run more smoothly. I tried to copy/move it to the Mac "Pictures" folder, then later when that didn't work I tried to copy/paste it, but neither way worked. The 30 minute copy job would appear to be working, then with about 3 minutes left to go, it would stop and say it couldn't finish because there was already a file called Photos Library.photoslibrary. There is no file in Pictures on my computer called that. The only place that file exists is on my EHD. Does anyone know how I can get this move/copy/transfer accomplished?

iMac 27″, macOS 11.5

Posted on Sep 12, 2021 8:36 PM

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User profile for user: Old Toad
Old Toad
User level: Level 10
210,437 points

Sep 13, 2021 9:30 AM in response to DebCG

Try copying it to your Desktop first and from the move it to the Pictures folder.


Second option: put the library in a folder on the EHD, create a folder in your Pictures folder with the same name and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the folder on the EHD to the folder in your Pictures folder.


Third option: create a new, empty library in your Pictures folder and use the paid version of PowerPhotos to merge the EHD library into the new library in the Pictures folder.


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User profile for user: DebCG
DebCG Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Sep 13, 2021 6:45 PM in response to Old Toad

Thank you for your suggestions. I noticed your reply too late tonight to try them out but I certainly will tomorrow. Can Carbon Copy Cloner be used on a Mac? For some reason I thought it was just for PCs. I do have Synkron but I seem to recall it not being able to copy the photo library years ago when I tried a previous move. However, back then I didn't try putting it in a folder first, then try to copy the folder. I'm sure one of your suggestions is going to work!

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Photos Library transfer back to Mac from External Hard Drive

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