Am I able to have multiple Photos app on the same EHD? Im trying to have separate apps for each year bc the app that holds them all is SUPER slow. Is there another way around this? I have multiple Photos apps with different names but it seems ALL of them on the EHD are being uploaded to if I import new pics.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.5
No, one copy of photos.app in the system drive applications folder. Should already be there, looking like this:
And yes, you can use the option key start to create new libraries. The resulting pane looks like this (create new button for a new library):
Oh, and you can also open a particular library by double clicking the library file while photos is closed.
No, one copy of photos.app in the system drive applications folder. Should already be there, looking like this:
And yes, you can use the option key start to create new libraries. The resulting pane looks like this (create new button for a new library):
Oh, and you can also open a particular library by double clicking the library file while photos is closed.
If you mean multiple libraries, rather than multiple apps (I'm assuming you do) then the answer is yes. Photos will import into the library you currently have open, or into the system library if you use iCloud.
Question is, why is your main library slow? What is the format of the external drive? For compatibility with photos, 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
GLHDDS wrote:
... I have multiple Photos apps with different names but it seems ALL of them on the EHD are being uploaded to if I import new pics.
How are you working with Photos? It seems you are always importing to the same Photos Library, even if you are trying to open different ones.
The Photos.app is not containing your photos. Photos is storing the photos in Photos Libraries, as Tony described. If you are having several Photos Libraries, but all imported photos are always shown in the same library, Photos may not be able to access the other libraries, for example, if the are on a network share and not on a locally mounted volume, or on a volume used by Time Machine.
The size of the library should only matter and make Photos slow, if the hardware of your Mac is not powerful enough for large libraries, for example, if you are low on storage on your system volume, or the Mac does not have much memory.
The old (really old Porsche) and new HDs are formatted correctly. Everyone has told me that the old drive is either corrupt or I have too many photos/videos (350k+) and that’s why it’s slow. There is an error in the library somewhere and am unable to just copy it to the new drive. I even tried moving the individual folders but it always crashed. My latest solution was to export all pics/videos out of the Photos and then create new Photos libraries on the new HD based on year. I called it an app bc it says .app after the name. I created 3 new libraries -all empty - and gave them each a different name (2004.photoslibrary.app) based on the year. However, when I import the pics/videos from 2004 into that library it also goes into the 2 other libraries I have - and these are all located on the same properly formatted EHD.
Why are you storing multiple copies of the app on the external hard drive? This is a recipe for confusion, and may just not work at all.
You only need one copy of the app, and that should be the one in the apps folder on your system drive. When you start that app and hold down the option key at the same time you can select which library you want to open. Libraries, not apps, hold your photographs.
Think of the app as being like the pages app, and libraries being like pages documents.
Okay so 1 copy of .app on the EHD, but when I go to access my pics, hold down option to choose an appropriately named library. And is this where I would also create newly named libraries based on year (or however I decide)?
Libraries should not have .app at the end of the filename.
A library should be names "something.photoslibrary"
eg 2022.photoslibrary
no .app
.app is reserved for applications, not for documents/libraries.
In your screenshot the ones that don't have .app look like a stack of files (ie they are a library). The one with .app is square and one layer. I can't see how the folder is named.
GLHDDS wrote:
The EHD is a 10 TB LaCie drive and not being used for Time Machine. The libraries I have are renamed by the year ( ie - 2004 followed by .photoslibrary.app).
The filename extension of a Photo Library should be .photoslibrary, not .photoslibrary.app
If the filename is ending with .app, the system will treat it as an application and not as Photos Library and Photos cannot open it. Remove the .app from the name of the Photos Library .
But what's the difference for these icons - some look like the app and some look like folders? And how is the best way to name individual libraries based on year?
The EHD is a 10 TB LaCie drive and not being used for Time Machine. The libraries I have are renamed by the year ( ie - 2004 followed by .photoslibrary.app).
multiple Photos apps on the same EHD?
