Not enough memory on Mac

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Not enough memory on Mac

This is a repost.

I moved my Photos library to a brand new external HD, *separate* from the one I use for time machine. It transferred successfully and I can see the photos library on the external HD... and can no longer open photos library on the Mac unless the external HD is connected.

This should have freed up 149GB of space, but my Mac is still running slow. I checked out "about this mac" >> "storage" and found I still have 149GB taken up by photos.

What do I do?

I ran Etrecheck and here are the results:

Etrecheck report

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Mar 14, 2023 9:03 AM

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Answer 1

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Old Toad

Level 10

216,394 points

Mar 14, 2023 9:57 AM in response to lynhbadabin

1 - did you install any of the software that came with the LaCie drive? If you did it's totally unnecessary and can interfere with the performance of the drive. Uninstall it according to the developer's instructions.

2 - with the external drive connected to your MBP launch Photos with the Option key held down and see if there is more than one library listed. Pick the library on the external HD if there is more than one.

NOTE: the LaCie must be formatted OS Extended (journaled) or APFS for the library to operate correctly. Any other forms is a recipe for disaster.

You might try the following and then check the amount of free space on the boot drive via the drive's Info pane: How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

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