Photos app on mac with external hard drive

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Level 1

8 points

Photos app on mac with external hard drive

I have imported my whole photo and video library onto an external hard drive. So the photo library lives on the external drive. Videos and photos were working fine but now all of a sudden when I click on a video it shows only a still image. And there is no option to play the video. It cannot be a compatibility issue as all the videos can be played with any other app and majority were taken with iPhone and are in standard formats. Does anyone have any suggestions to fix this problem ?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Dec 6, 2021 2:54 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 6, 2021 3:08 PM in response to F1mikez

Hi

Regarding the external drive - is it correctly formatted for a photos library?

It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled) (preferred for spinning drives). If you have not formatted it after purchase it will most likely be ExFat - which is not compatible.
It Must not be (or have been) used for time machine. (A time machine drive can be used if re-formatted)
It must have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked.
It must be directly connected (No ethernet or wifi)

See

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

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Answer 2

Dec 7, 2021 11:56 AM in response to F1mikez

If you look at the info for your non-playing videos, what does it say? Can you show a screenshot?

Create a new library:

https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/create-additional-libraries-pht6d60b524/mac

copy some images and videos there, do they play?

When you say "imported" did you drag your current library to the external? If you used the file->export and ->import facility, how did you do that?

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Answer 3

F1mikez Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 7, 2021 9:40 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Hi, all of these are satisfied. To clarify, the photos library was working fine and videos were playing up until a week ago then it stopped for no reason. photos show but videos do not bring up the option to play them.

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Photos app on mac with external hard drive

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