Hi Richard. Thanks. Yes u r right I meant Photos. Old habit! I must have created a library on my external hard drive a year or so ago. All I recall is it took about 3 weeks!I probably should say I use TM on the imac to select where it backs up to, not move the TM app. Since Im starting again with backing up using TM to an empty external passport hard-drive, I will simply select this now empty one for TM from my imac - formatted (to APFS as thats what my imac uses and I've read its better than Mac OS (journaled)) - and back up my imac overnight. Like Ive done before. That works fine. I wish Id known not to use TM back ups on the same ext HD!
With “photos” I moved it to an ext HD a year or so ago to free up space on imac as it became so slow. Then in order to clean up that old passport from any TM files, I recently moved that app off that older passport to an empty 6 elements (also now APFS).( Id had to move a lot of files/ old back ups around to free it up.) But it still freezes my imac when I open it. Just like it did when it was on a passport that I had mistakenly also selected for TM and had copied about 6 TM back ups to. Then moved them off it but it still froze. That one happened to be formatted to Mac OS (journaled) as thats how it was set by western digital. I was hoping a freshly reformatted and first aided big back up would solve the issues.
I only have three ext HDs (4, 5 and 6 T) and a lot of old files so I have spent days shifting them around via my imac so they are separate. It takes ages to do any copying with my imac. I didnt want to pay for yet another new ext HD. Ive just finished yet another tidy up of my passport via imac and have trashed any unnecessary files off imac to see if it'll work better.
When I originally moved photos Library to an ext HD from imac it took about 3 weeks to move. I think it was downloading from icloud. Hard to recall. But now Ive simply copied it to the empty 6 elements from the passport. This also gave me the chance to reformat that passport and remove any traces of TM back ups.
(I had to manually go thro 6 back ups and copy files onto this 3rd HD so the files simply sit with a load of old files in Folders, ignoring any duplicates to my 3rd HD to ensure I didnt loose them. It would have been easier to splash out on a new HD! Even so Ive discovered that moving TM back up files is -almost impossible. Ive been doing this for so long I can hardly recall!! Irrelevant by now.)
The way I use photos library on the ext HD is to attach it to imac, open the photos library, ensure its selected as the photos for icloud and allow it to update. It opens shows me the photos just like it did on the other ext HD. My imac wifi is on and it starts with the updating.
Weirdly it shows recent shared album of my Dads wake. Says 71, 438 photos, 1862 videos, 2 items. Updating always starts uploading (Why as have hardly used it on here?!) 75.779 items. (After a while it used to reduce to about 40,500 items. It used to allow me to look at photos for a while). But it often freezes before it even gets past the first notice of an update now. I actually want it to Download the last 6 mths photos (taken on iphone) that are on iCloud. Then use for edits or searched etc. These show on my old ipad just fine.
I read that if I open and edit a photo it might force a download from icloud. Ive just tried that. I dont see why that would work. But by this stage Ive got to hope for a miracle! It just froze after editing one photo.
I have spent weeks without photos working on imac whilst making huge photo books for my 96 yr old Dad before he passed away. Its been grueling and so time consuming not having it working. I cant justify splashing out on a new computer and keep Monterey for old 32 bit apps to work.
After all of the shifting around & juggling of back ups and files and the photo app, erasing/ reformatting my 3 ext HD, recopying etc with a slow, small imac (and ive still got some more to do inc a new TM back up! ) I would expect a photos library thats now sitting all alone on its 6 elements 6T hd to work! NO! Im sick up rebooting and not being able to use my imac.
Could the photos library be corrupted because it used to be in an ext HD with TM back ups?
Could the issue be with my old imac using Monterey. My Imac has got 1.11 of 2.12 TB space free.
Im considering copying onto my imac as Ive space, a copy I have of photos on one of the other HD from a few years before and seeing if that might work. But Ive no idea if that will be worse as it would need selecting as the library then have even more photos to download.
Do I have to start all over again and create a new photos library on an empty ext HD knowing that can take weeks & at times looks like its not doing anything 🤷🏼♀️.
Thanks for yr patience and any help. Im not an IT person so I rely on online info and years of using apple.
