Splitting Photos Library on macOS (Sonoma)

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BlueberryLover Author

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Splitting Photos Library on macOS (Sonoma)

You may want to consider splitting your Photos library in two:

One System Library with Shared Albums (or/and iCloud Photos) enabled
A second library that in my case contains a large number (16,000+) of images stored locally (on an external SSD)

Pressing the "Option" key while launching Photos allows switching between the libraries

Advantages for my situation:

System library is relatively small and is stored on an internal SDD while the larger second library is stored on an external SDD
The second library (container file) can be locked to inhibit the photoanalysisd (Photos analysis) background process from consuming excessive computing resources:

1. Select Photos System Library in Finder
2. Navigate to and lock the second library (using Get Info)
3. Log out and back in to your user account

Note that the locked library can still be accessed (even though its ReadOnly) by importing (all or selected) images (Photos>FIle>Import) into the Photos System Library

Hope this helps.

- Pie Lover

P.S. photoanalyisd was running on a large library for over a full week without completing and with no indication of progress

Mac mini

Posted on Sep 17, 2024 7:44 AM

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Answer 1

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BlueberryLover Author

Level 4

1,248 points

Sep 21, 2024 4:38 AM in response to BlueberryLover

One additional consideration is that only images from the Photos System Library can be viewed on an Apple TV (HD version in my case). As mentioned, photos from the second Photos library can easily be imported to allow viewing on an Apple TV.

The Photos System Library on the internal SSD is automatically backed up by Time Machine. In my case, I exclude the external SSD volumes from Time Machine so I use a second (smaller and slower) external SSD to make a copy of the large Photos library stored externally. Backing up the entire library (~36GB) is quite fast (takes about 4 minutes on a Mac mini M2). The backup copy can also be locked in Finder to prevent Photos analysis by photoanalysisd. For added protection, I use file access permissions to completely prevent access of the backup from my usual user account (I use a separate account to make the backup).

So far, the described setup is quite workable although, admittedly, somewhat less convenient than maintaining a single Photos library.

- Pie Lover

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Splitting Photos Library on macOS (Sonoma)

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