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User profile for user: Bill Little
Bill Little Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Exporting a Photo Library from hard drive to iCloud.

I have a MBP late 2013 running Big Sur. I am trying to import a large Photos Library (124GB) from an external HD to iCloud.

When the external HD is connected to the MBP, this library appears in Photos as an option along with the systems library and I can open it in Photos. So, I know I can access the file from the HD.

I have plenty of space in my iCloud account, and Photos on my MBP appear there. However, when I attempt to import the library from the HD the file is greyed out and I am unable to choose that library.


Any suggestions on how to move my library to iCloud.


Thanks


iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Mar 24, 2023 4:10 AM

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User profile for user: Richard.Taylor
Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 6
10,848 points

Posted on Mar 24, 2023 8:41 AM

As soon as we see "external drive" we all yell, "How is it formatted?" 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 volume can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted.

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


Also, make sure the "Ignore Ownership" box is checked in the drive's Info Window. Being on an ill-formatted drive may work for awhile, and then it won't.


iCloud.com only talks to the System Library. So, if you want all those pictures in iCloud, you have to get all those pictures in a single library, label that Library as the System Library, and connect it to iCloud. You can import the non-system library into the current system library. Photos will start transferring only the new pictures to iCloud. Then be prepared to wait a week or two for them to work themselves out. Wait longer for face IDs and duplicate IDs to settle down.


You could also make a new library and import the two into it. This will take much longer.


I would certainly backup the libraries before doing any of this. You'll need at least a few hundred gigabytes free on you hard drive.

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User profile for user: Richard.Taylor
Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 6
10,848 points

Mar 24, 2023 8:41 AM in response to Bill Little

As soon as we see "external drive" we all yell, "How is it formatted?" 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 volume can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted.

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


Also, make sure the "Ignore Ownership" box is checked in the drive's Info Window. Being on an ill-formatted drive may work for awhile, and then it won't.


iCloud.com only talks to the System Library. So, if you want all those pictures in iCloud, you have to get all those pictures in a single library, label that Library as the System Library, and connect it to iCloud. You can import the non-system library into the current system library. Photos will start transferring only the new pictures to iCloud. Then be prepared to wait a week or two for them to work themselves out. Wait longer for face IDs and duplicate IDs to settle down.


You could also make a new library and import the two into it. This will take much longer.


I would certainly backup the libraries before doing any of this. You'll need at least a few hundred gigabytes free on you hard drive.

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User profile for user: Yer_Man
Yer_Man
User level: Level 10
164,010 points

Mar 24, 2023 12:01 PM in response to Bill Little

Couple of thoughts:


  1. Only the System Photo Library can sync with the iCloud Photo Library.
  2. You can't import one library to another. On older versions of the OS (pre Ventura) you can migrate an older library to the current version on the machine simply by opening it. You can then use a utility like Power Photos to merge the older library into the system library. (https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/).
  3. With Photos v8 that comes with Ventura you can import from one library to another.
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User profile for user: Bill Little
Bill Little Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Mar 24, 2023 5:32 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Richard, Thanks for your reply. I did try importing the non-system library into the system library and I couldn't because I didn't have the capacity on my MBP hard drive. I was hoping a work around might be to import directly to iCloud drive.


My external hard drive has 2 TB. Can I make the library on the HD the system library and import old system library to the other and then upload to iCloud?





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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,613 points

Mar 25, 2023 1:08 AM in response to Yer_Man

just an an additional detail - Photos can import Photos Libraries since Monterey, but the importing with Power Photos is much more useful, as Photos is only importing the Photos and some metadata, even the keywords are missing, the structure is missing. No albums or folders are imported. PowerPhotos is merging the structure of the libraries.

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Exporting a Photo Library from hard drive to iCloud.

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