Hi, I have a 1tb system library that I’d like to move to a different drive. When I move it will iCloud have to re-check the entire library against the iCloud library and will it have to spend weeks re-running photoanalysisd, mediaanalysisd, etc?
Or maybe (hopefully!) I can just move it, point the Mac to the new location and just be done?
Thanks!
Photos will treat the moved library like a new library. When you move the library, you will have to enable iCloud Photos again for the moved library and that will require a completely new upload and syncing with iCloud. It may not even be possible, if you do not have an additional 1TB free iCloud storage, sufficient to upload the complete library in addition to the photos already in iCloud. Photos will avoid duplicates when uploading again, but it will estimate the required additional storage based on the worst case assumption, that all photos in the library are new and need uploading.
It would be quicker and saver to create a new, empty Photos Library on your externla volume (prepared as described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support) and then to make this new, empty library your System Photos Library and your iCloud Photos Library.
The advantage would be that you will avoid the new lengthy upload of the complete library into iCloud and the merging into the existing library. You will just need the download to the empty library.
The drawback would be that all projects will be missing and perhaps some manually added named faces.
some
Photos will treat the moved library like a new library. When you move the library, you will have to enable iCloud Photos again for the moved library and that will require a completely new upload and syncing with iCloud. It may not even be possible, if you do not have an additional 1TB free iCloud storage, sufficient to upload the complete library in addition to the photos already in iCloud. Photos will avoid duplicates when uploading again, but it will estimate the required additional storage based on the worst case assumption, that all photos in the library are new and need uploading.
It would be quicker and saver to create a new, empty Photos Library on your externla volume (prepared as described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support) and then to make this new, empty library your System Photos Library and your iCloud Photos Library.
The advantage would be that you will avoid the new lengthy upload of the complete library into iCloud and the merging into the existing library. You will just need the download to the empty library.
The drawback would be that all projects will be missing and perhaps some manually added named faces.
some
Yes, the backgound processes (object and face recognition, curation of the layout) will have to run again.
Photos is not yet up to handle so large libraries, even on a very fast hardware, at least not, if we are not patient and not willing to wait a month or so for the background scanning processes to get the work done. The artificial intelligence used in Photos is very powerful, but needs a lot of processing power. It is great for libraries with just a few thousand pictures, but for very large libraries we have to be very, very patient.
My solution is to keep my iCloud Photos Library small and my archive of all photos on external volumes, not in icloud.
Only my Favorites ind the photos I am currently working on are in iCloud Photos and appearing on all devices. This is reducing the amount of background processing, when I need to repair or move the iCloud Photos Library, and I can still access all important photos on all devices, and they are easier to find on my iPhone in a small library .
Instead of archiving all photos as a gigantic iCloud Photos Library in iCloud, I am saving all original images files on iCloud Drive by exporting them to folders named like the Moments for easy access. This way I am having an off-site backup in iCloud of the originals as well.
Richard.Taylor wrote:
... Really, there's no reason to make all my pictures available to all my devices-- mostly just the "favorites" and the new ones. ...
exactly. And, it is even easier to have just the important photos on the small mobile devices with a small display and a limited graphical user interface.
I am also in the process of creating additional smaller yearly libraries from my huge archive library. This way I can copy a part of the archive to the internal drive when I need it. And can import from the archive to my iCloud Photos Library. All with the help of PowerPhotos.
For me, the compbination of Photos for Mac, Luminar Neo, Power Photos, and HoudahGeo is nearly sufficient as a replacement for Aperture. Occasionally I am needing to supplement Luminar Neo with Graphic Converter; and for my videos I am needing HandBrake a lot.
Leonie, thanks for such a fast reply! So every time we outgrow a drive or replace an aging drive we must go through this process of starting over with an empty library and downloading from iCloud? Will photoanalysisd, etc run for weeks after as well?
Thanks again
Leonie, as always thanks for your help. It seems Photos just isn’t made for my kind of library and I’ve made a mistake migrating my Aperture library to Photos. I only upgraded my system to Big Sur after the migration and kept the Aperture library, so perhaps I should start again and migrate to Lightroom? Seems like that would have been a better choice for a library of this size. Do you have any experience with Avalanche?
thanks again
Another option is to have multiple Libraries. I have a separate Library devoted to the year we moved to London, for instance, and only a subset of those pictures, as léonie suggests, is in the the iCloud library, with subsets of other Libraries there, as well. Really, there's no reason to make all my pictures available to all my devices-- mostly just the "favorites" and the new ones.
Moving system library
