Photos app - There is not enough disk space to migrate your library

I would suggest keeping the iPhoto library for now as it doesn't take up additional space despite what the Finder is telling you.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204476

Migrate videos to an external hard drive instead which take up much more data than photos.

I saved my iPhoto library with Time Machine on external HD.

That's a back up.

Get another drive and move the Library there:

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

1. Quit iPhoto

2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.

4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.

Regards

TD

I upgraded to the new OS and am trying to open my iPhotos library which is on an external drive with the new Photos app.

After 30 minutes it gives me this error message saying that I need another 537GB of space to migrate my library.

My external drive is 500GB with about 90GB left. I basically have to buy a NEW hard drive (over 1T I guess) just so that I can access my photos????

I find this unreasonable.

Is there any work around for this? I would think that Apple could of figured out a way to update the library in place without having to duplicate all the image files (I'm guessing this is why it needs all this space for the migration).

Please help!!! Can't get to my photos.

In addition, I need to dump photos off my iPhone (ran out of space) and I can't do this since I can't open my library. I don't feel like creating another library just to do this.

Rich

I don't think this is an accurate analogy. A better one is that my purse is currently half full. Then someone comes by and says I need to buy a bigger purse for no reason in particular (or a reason I don't agree with).

I think the migration process should be better handled so that they don't have to hold 2 copies of all the photos at on time (what I think is happening).

In any case, I switched to using Picasa. It doesn't have the Library concept, it just uses the photos in place wherever they are on the drive. Much more lightweight, and I can actually view/edit my photos.

Maybe Apple will improve the migration process so I can use the Photo app at some point in the future. Until then....

Rich

Just as a follow up to my solution. I switched to Picasa. Unfortunately, Picasa only will look at the iPhoto Library in your documents folder. It will ignore and not recognize external Photo Library folders (which is my situation. All my photos are on an external drive).

https://support.google.com/picasa/answer/134847?hl=en

By default, Picasa for Mac will look for your iPhoto Library in its usual location (Pictures > iPhoto Library); other iPhoto Libraries will be excluded from Picasa.

The picasa folder tool does not even display the iPhoto Library (folder) on my external drive.

I could move them all outside of the photo library, but don't want to destroy my library in case Apple decides to fix this issue. I can't copy them out of there as I run into the issue that I don't have enough space to hold 2 complete copies of my photo library on my drive.

Basically have to go buy a new hard drive...

Rich

Hi all,

My iPhoto library is 116GB and I have it stored in an external drive with 1.5TB of free space. My internal drive has 310GB of free space. Whenever I try to migrate to Photos I get this "not enough disk space..." error message at 8% of the process.

I even created a bootable image of my internal drive in another 2TB external disk and tried to migrate the library from that drive but the same thing happened: halted at 8%.

Can you help me please?

Thanks in advance!

Same situation here..

My iPhoto library is more or less 225 GB. It lives on an external drive with 800 GB of free space.

Around 5% while migrating, it says I need ADDITIONAL 950 GB to migrate. What the...?!

Does anyone knows of a solution?

I have had the same problem. I found one work around was to just find the IPhoto Library on my external drive and double click it in order to open Photos. This worked. Opening from the photos icon still gives the not enough disk space after I close and try to open with the icon. Perhaps the icon has a path that is directing the application to migrate.

I am having the same trouble. Upgraded to El Capitan, on Mac Book Pro. Was using iPhoto, now trying to migrate my iPhoto Library to Photos, but get this same message. Tried double-clicking on the library, from the back-up, but that only opened iPhoto - should I delete the iPhoto app from the MBP? Maybe then it will open in Photos? Did try to open holding down he "Alt" key as suggested, got the iPhoto library (listed twice for some reason), and still only opened iPhoto. Please help, this is so frustrating, making me wish I didn't update .......

I'm having a very similar problem. I need 93G of space to continue the migration, having stopped at 8%. However, my iPhotos folder seems to have disappeared, even tho the bulk of my hard drive is still taken up by photos/videos.

I, too, wish that there had been some "before installing el Capitan....." steps highlighted in bold letters before hitting start.

I followed these steps and got my massive library updated. I then attempted to move my library from the external back to my main hard drive, but I'm getting an error saying there isn't enough space, even though I have 408 GB on my main hard drive and the photos library is 362 GB. Any ideas?

I have had exactly the same issue. Just bought a new macbook pro 15" (mac os 10.11.4, 2.8 GHz) and wanted to import my iPhoto library from my old macbook which is running on Yosemite. I've started the old computer in external hard-drive mode and connected it to my new computer through the FW800 (to Thunderbolt) to directly import the library. When trying to import the library through opening Photos (on the new computer) while holding down the option key, it starts the process but then at 8% it says there is not enough disk space and 5GB extra space is needed. This is not possible: my iPhoto library is 35GB big, and I have 600 GB disk space left on my new macbook.

How can I solve this?

Thanks in advance for your help!