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Deleted Photo Library Taking Drive Space - Big Sur

I moved my Photo Library to an external drive but my system drive is showing 240 GB of photos. How can I recapture the space? I tried reindexing the drive by deleted spotlight, bu tit still showing the space being used.

Mac Pro, macOS 11.6

Posted on Aug 11, 2022 6:09 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 12, 2022 12:25 AM

When you drag an item to an external drive, it doesn't move or delete the original. Instead, it copies the files to the drive (in this case, the photo library).


After copying the library, just delete the original on your computer. Drag it to the Trash and empty it. It's important to make sure and plug in the external drive before opening Photos!


Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

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3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 12, 2022 12:25 AM in response to apple_fanboy2

When you drag an item to an external drive, it doesn't move or delete the original. Instead, it copies the files to the drive (in this case, the photo library).


After copying the library, just delete the original on your computer. Drag it to the Trash and empty it. It's important to make sure and plug in the external drive before opening Photos!


Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Deleted Photo Library Taking Drive Space - Big Sur

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