Can I move an entire users folder to an external device?

I have a Mac Mini 2018 (i7) running Catalina (10.15.7), with 36 GB RAM and 2TB of SSD. It's having problems and I might need to replace it soon. I'm thinking of getting an external USB 3.2 SSD storage device with 4TB of storage and 1050 MBps xfer rate. I have one main users folder, say 'user1'. The total storage used on the entire SSD is currently 1.7 TB. The 'user1' folder takes up 1.6 TB. My question is this: how complicated is it to move the entire 'user1' folder to the external drive? That would make it possible to get a replacement Mac MIni that only has 256 GB of SSD on it with only about half of it used. Is it as simple as moving the 'user1' folder then changing an entry in some login table that says where it's at? Will the system let me do that for a removable device? The vast majority of these files are used very rarely, but I'm sure there are some the system uses regularly. (I'm somewhat familiar with Unix internals, but don't have a clear understanding of how the user storage is managed vs. security and related stuff.)

Mac Mini 20

Posted on Jul 27, 2023 3:03 AM

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Posted on Jul 27, 2023 11:27 AM

Technically it may be possible, however, from reading these forums it is not advisable to do this anymore. Beginning with one of the macOS 12.x point release updates, Apple broke this configuration. While it was possible to "fix" things again, another later macOS update or possibly upgrade once broke it. This indicates to me that Apple doesn't care or test this configuration, so only use it if you are willing and able to fix things when it breaks. The fix at the time was not easy to figure out since macOS had renamed the mount points involved and duplicated them. Are you willing & able to deal with possible down time while you try to resolve the issue?


Another possible issue is that Time Machine does not seem to like restoring from a backup with this configuration. I have numerous posts in the past few months where people who had this configuration could not restore their systems from a Time Machine backup using the traditional methods. Are you willing to deal with figuring out how to restore your data if it is ever necessary to perform a clean install of macOS?


From my own personal experiencing supporting thousands of our organization's Macs, I have discovered that macOS does not like deviating too far from standard defaults or surprises in general. I have seen even simpler customizations (ones in the basic macOS System Settings interface...not even considered "Advanced") cause unexpected issues with macOS.


You definitely want to keep at least one admin user account on the internal boot drive so if the configuration does break, you actually have an admin user you can access to attempt to fix things. Keep in mind if the external drive does not go ready quickly enough, it may break the configuration or require you to first log into another user account.


I have seen respected forum contributors suggest just moving your Photos Library (maybe even iTunes library) to the external drive...Apple even provides an official method to do so:

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


If your large amounts of data is other types of content, then just store the data on standard external media (either USB3 drive or a network share). You should be able to create a link to the external drive to make it appear seemless.


If you are willing to accept these risks (possibly others), then try it. I highly recommend you look at other options such as a larger internal SSD, or other methods of storing large amounts of data on external media (USB3 or Thunderbolt drives, or network share with a NAS).


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Jul 27, 2023 11:27 AM in response to thetoolwiz2

Technically it may be possible, however, from reading these forums it is not advisable to do this anymore. Beginning with one of the macOS 12.x point release updates, Apple broke this configuration. While it was possible to "fix" things again, another later macOS update or possibly upgrade once broke it. This indicates to me that Apple doesn't care or test this configuration, so only use it if you are willing and able to fix things when it breaks. The fix at the time was not easy to figure out since macOS had renamed the mount points involved and duplicated them. Are you willing & able to deal with possible down time while you try to resolve the issue?


Another possible issue is that Time Machine does not seem to like restoring from a backup with this configuration. I have numerous posts in the past few months where people who had this configuration could not restore their systems from a Time Machine backup using the traditional methods. Are you willing to deal with figuring out how to restore your data if it is ever necessary to perform a clean install of macOS?


From my own personal experiencing supporting thousands of our organization's Macs, I have discovered that macOS does not like deviating too far from standard defaults or surprises in general. I have seen even simpler customizations (ones in the basic macOS System Settings interface...not even considered "Advanced") cause unexpected issues with macOS.


You definitely want to keep at least one admin user account on the internal boot drive so if the configuration does break, you actually have an admin user you can access to attempt to fix things. Keep in mind if the external drive does not go ready quickly enough, it may break the configuration or require you to first log into another user account.


I have seen respected forum contributors suggest just moving your Photos Library (maybe even iTunes library) to the external drive...Apple even provides an official method to do so:

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


If your large amounts of data is other types of content, then just store the data on standard external media (either USB3 drive or a network share). You should be able to create a link to the external drive to make it appear seemless.


If you are willing to accept these risks (possibly others), then try it. I highly recommend you look at other options such as a larger internal SSD, or other methods of storing large amounts of data on external media (USB3 or Thunderbolt drives, or network share with a NAS).


Jul 27, 2023 5:36 PM in response to thetoolwiz2

If you are not upgrading past macOS 10.15.x, then how Time Machine handles the restoration process would be the worst fear followed by whether the external SSD goes ready quick enough to allow logging into the user account on the external.


If you have two spare external drives you could test how TM handles the restore process when you configure a home user folder onto another drive (or partition). Partition the first external boot drive with two partitions (will end up being Containers). Install macOS to one, then move the one home user folder to the other partition/Container. Remove the home folder from the boot partition after testing & make sure you can still boot with no remnants of the home partition on the boot drive (first external). Make sure the system boots to the custom external drive. Make sure to customize a few things and have various types of data stored on this test drive. Use TM to back it up to the second external drive which is not your regular TM backup drive since you don't want to accidentally damage your regular backups (may be able to just have a third partition on the first external drive if it is an SSD...after all this is just for testing purposes). Now erase the first external drive so you can perform a clean install to it. Then while booting or booted to the first external drive, try to restore from the TM backup which will have the home user folder in its default location. Of course you will need to relocate the home user folder again after the restore is complete. At least this way you can see if the TM restore will work without touching the internal boot drive, although there is some risk if you make a mistake during this process.


Since macOS 10.15 no longer receives updates, there should be no fear of it breaking due to macOS changes. Same can apply to later versions of macOS once they no longer receive update patches. While macOS is still receiving updates, placing a home folder on another drive is risky.

Jul 27, 2023 2:14 PM in response to HWTech

@HWTech: Yeah, that's some of the stuff I was concerned about. The first reply above is interesting but it's from 15 years ago. Stuff changes. I can move most of the stuff out and it won't hurt anything, but there are about a half-dozen folders that would be involved. And for things like iTunes, Movies and Documents that the OS knows about, how might they be impacted. I can move them and then use a symlink to make them appear to be in the same place. But if Time Machine has problems, it's good to know, but maybe not an issue since the files are already on a separate drive.


I'd happily upgrade the SSD on the computer, but that's no longer possible on devices since the 2014 models, and since 2020 you can't even upgrade the RAM. (I'm looking at getting a 2018 Mac Mini in this case, the same as what I've got now.)

Jul 27, 2023 2:15 PM in response to BDAqua

@BDAqua: That link to the article for OWComputing is rather old info, but probably still useful for my needs. It's not going to matter with the hardware, but the OS, and they keep doing weird stuff with the OS that breaks older software, so that's my concern. (I'm not upgrading past Catalina on the 2018 machine because it'll kill too many apps that I use and will cost a bundle to replace them. It's bad enough they treat that with such a cavalier attitude, but then keep pestering you to upgrade without regard to your desire to NOT have to be forced to pay for newer apps that THEY BREAK!)

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Can I move an entire users folder to an external device?

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