Photo Library is on an external drive not on my main computer

Question

Level 1

21 points

Photo Library is on an external drive not on my main computer

For some reason my Photos Library is on an external drive. I use this drive to free space on my main computer. This library is named Photos Library 2. It is not complete and seems to have stopped in April this year. All my photos are in iCloud though. I really want all photos on my Mac mini albeit optimised for storage. Should I delete the library on the external drive and download all photos from iCloud.com? Many thanks in advance for any help (which I hope won't be too technical). I'm on Sonoma 14.7

Gill

Mac mini, macOS 14.7

Posted on Oct 17, 2024 11:03 AM

Answer 1

Oct 17, 2024 1:03 PM in response to Gillie69

I am not sure why you have nothing since april, but you can easily create a new library:

Create additional photo libraries in Photos on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

Set it as the system library and over the course of a few days, it should repopulate from your iCloud Photos Library. Keep the external one intact as a backup for a few days.