Importing photos from iphone 12 to an external HD ( format Exfat)

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Importing photos from iphone 12 to an external HD ( format Exfat)

Hi all, just bought an 8 TB external hard drive in order to put all my photos/video in my all my devices in it.

The format of this external HD is Exfat.

I started by exporting all my photos in my imac ( OS ventura 13.1) to a new photo library located in the external HD. This in order to free up space in my imac and delete the photo library that was saved in imac.

Now when it comes to import my iphone photos, I connect my iphone 12 pro max to the imac and then try import all my new photos to the photo library in the external HD, but it doesnt work!!

PS. I dont have icloud+, i only have the 5G° one ( and have about 2 G° photos in it )

Could you help please?! Thanks in advance

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.1

Posted on Jan 18, 2023 8:47 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,224 points

Jan 18, 2023 10:29 AM in response to danielijah

As Richard says, the drive is an inappropriate format for the use described/ However all is not lost. You can simply back up the data on the drive and then reformat it with Disk Utility, in your Applications/Utilities folder. As reformatting erases the disk the backing up stage is vital.

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Answer 2

Jan 18, 2023 10:02 AM in response to danielijah

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but to get full functionality (and to avoid damaging the Photos Library) an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted.

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

You can use an ExFat drive for transferring simple files, especially if going between Mac and Windows, but a Photos Library will get screwed up.

Sorry...

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Answer 3

Jan 18, 2023 12:36 PM in response to danielijah

It's not at all unusual that you didn't think about formatting a new drive.

You may be able to partition the external hard drive into two volumes, one of which is APFS. You use the app Disk Utility in your Applications folder. (I don't think that I have done this with ExFat as one partition; Disk Utility will tell if if it can't do it.) You can partition it 50/50, or set it so 500 GB is ExFat, or whatever. In Finder it will look like you have two hard drives. Then you can copy your files from the ExFat Volume to the APFS volume.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

217,024 points

Jan 18, 2023 10:57 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Richard.Taylor wrote:

an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

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Answer 5

danielijah Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2023 12:11 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you Richard & Yer_Man!

Actually I didnt pay attention on apple website about the format. As I bought the HD in this format, so I didnt change it !!!

In the meantime, I have imported the photo library into my mac. The thing is there are few photos missing ( 10 files of 8 GB all together) and I have no more memories so now I'm afraid to format directly the ext HD. So is it better as Yer_Man suggested to backup the ext HD then format it ?! If yes what is the best way to back up an ext HD?

The other question, how to get the photos that they are in my icloud ( about 3 GB) or they should be already in my photolibrary ? ( sorry but I've never dealed with OS before!!)

The idea as mentioned before, is to bring all my photos ( mac, all my USB, old mac , i cloud ,..) into one photolibrary located in the 8 TB external HD. And then clean them up in it to reduce the size to ~ 1 TB and then to have the icloud+ !!

PS. All I have as data on the external HD is only the photolibrary ( about 500 GB)

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Answer 6

danielijah Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2023 12:17 PM in response to Yer_Man

Thank you Richard & Yer_Man!

Actually I didnt pay attention on apple website about the format. As I bought the HD in this format, so I didnt change it !!!

In the meantime, I have imported the photo library into my mac. The thing is there are few photos missing ( 10 files of 8 GB all together) and I have no more memories so now I'm afraid to format directly the ext HD. So is it better as Yer_Man suggested to backup the ext HD then format it ?! If yes what is the best way to back up an ext HD?

The other question, how to get the photos that they are in my icloud ( about 3 GB) or they should be already in my photolibrary ? ( sorry but I've never dealed with OS before!!)

The idea as mentioned before, is to bring all my photos ( mac, all my USB, old mac , i cloud ,..) into one photolibrary located in the 8 TB external HD. And then clean them up in it to reduce the size to ~ 1 TB and then to have the icloud+ !!

PS. All I have as data on the external HD is only the photolibrary ( about 500 GB)

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Answer 7

Jan 18, 2023 1:17 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Drat-- it looks like you can't partition an ExFat drive.

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Importing photos from iphone 12 to an external HD ( format Exfat)

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