allantech

Q: Moving Photos library from external drive to 128GB MacBook

How do you move a 200GB+ Photos library, currently on an external drive, to a 128GB MacBook Pro (with the use of the Optimize Mac Storage option in iCloud Photo Library)?

 

Sounds crazy, but clearly Apple designed the Photos app and iCloud Photo Library with just this issue in mind: That is, people with big photo libraries and not much storage on their MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. In my case, I had my 200GB+ library on an external drive, and when I upgraded to Photos my new library (which I've now designated at the System Photo Library) was created on the external drive.

 

What I want is to have my new Photos library on my 128GB MacBook Pro and use the OPTIMIZE MAC STORAGE option in iCloud Photo Library.

 

Does anyone know how I can safely move my photo library, which is 200GB+, onto my 128GB MacBook Pro with that OPTIMIZE MAC STORAGE option? Again, it's clear Apple has designed that option for people just like me -- and many others -- who have big photo libraries AND have a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro that can't accommodate all the photos/videos. That's great for people who are just building a photo library, but what about all of us Mac users who have already been cobbling together solutions with iPhoto on external drives and now want our Photos library off of those external drives?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012), iOS 8.3

Posted on Apr 12, 2015 5:41 AM

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Q: Moving Photos library from external drive to 128GB MacBook

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  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Apr 12, 2015 5:55 AM in response to allantech
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    Apr 12, 2015 5:55 AM in response to allantech

    Well shut me up, Winston has a better answer down there...

  • by Winston Churchill,Helpful

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Apr 12, 2015 7:52 AM in response to allantech
    Level 10 (104,063 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 12, 2015 7:52 AM in response to allantech

    Enable iCloud photo library on your current library and wait until it has completely uploaded (may take weeks)

    Disconnect your drive and create a new Library on your mac, enabling iCloud photo library and optimisation.

    Wait until it has all downloaded.

     

    In my experience your new library should occupy about 10% of the original space (about 20 GB in your case).

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Apr 12, 2015 7:53 AM in response to allantech
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 12, 2015 7:53 AM in response to allantech

    When you choose “Optimize Mac Storage,” all your full-resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud in their original formats, with storage-saving versions kept on your Mac as space is needed.

     

    I suggest you first upload your Photos library to iCloud, while it is still on your external drive.

    • You do  that by enabling iCloud Photo Library (Beta) in the Preferences > iCloud in Photos.
    • Once the library has been uploaded (that may take several days for a large library), create a new iPhoto Library in the Pictures folder on your Mac. You do that by launching Photos while holding down the alt/options key and select to create a new library.
    • Now make this empty library your main system library in the Preferences > General tab.
    • Enable again iCloud Photo Library and set the “Optimize Mac Storage" option.



  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 12, 2015 5:59 AM in response to allantech
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 12, 2015 5:59 AM in response to allantech

    If the internal storage will not suffice, even with the "Optimize Mac storage" option, you can always browse your iCloud Photo Library using the iCloud Web Interface  using the Photos.app on https://www.icloud.com/ . But you could not use the iCloud Photo Library from the Media Browser in other apps.

  • by allantech,

    allantech allantech Apr 12, 2015 7:55 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 12, 2015 7:55 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks Winston and leonie.

     

    One issue: According to an article at iMore -- see http://www.imore.com/how-use-photos-os-x-multiple-macs -- this would mean that my books/projects wouldn't be synced (and I guess I'd lose access to those). Not ideal, but I could work with that.

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Apr 12, 2015 8:03 AM in response to allantech
    Level 10 (104,063 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 12, 2015 8:03 AM in response to allantech

    I didn't know that, I could think of ways around it though with a little manipulation though.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 12, 2015 8:31 AM in response to allantech
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 12, 2015 8:31 AM in response to allantech

    That is what this Apple Support document is saying too:

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204486

     

    It says, books are only available on the mac that created them.

     

    You could try the following:

    Enable the "Optimise Mac Storage" while the library is still on your external drive and wait for it to shrink.

     

    Then copy the optimised library to your internal drive.

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Apr 12, 2015 8:37 AM in response to léonie
    Level 10 (104,063 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 12, 2015 8:37 AM in response to léonie

    The approach I was thinking of was after uploading to iCloud, go back to the original iPhoto library, duplicate it, on the duplicated library, remove all but the projects then migrate, use the migrated library as the starting point and enable iCloud photo library to download all the photos in an optimised version from the cloud. I wasn't aware that an optimised library will shrink unless space begins to get short.

  • by martinizi,

    martinizi martinizi Apr 12, 2015 11:37 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Apr 12, 2015 11:37 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    Tell me if  you succeed. Im also looking for a way to copy my projects from the old big library to the new optimized one...

  • by jpete1019,

    jpete1019 jpete1019 Apr 12, 2015 12:43 PM in response to allantech
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 12, 2015 12:43 PM in response to allantech

    I have the exact same situation I'm looking to accomplish as well. I have the 128gb Macbook, bought 200gb of iCloud space and want to roll my 180gb Aperture library off into iCloud.

     

    I think how I'm going to accomplish this is to just start from scratch and bring my new albums into Photos one by one over time and just let it slowly upload to iCloud. I've had 1,500 photos uploading taking forever though.

     

    Let me know if somebody has decided to start from scratch and if they felt this was a good idea.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 12, 2015 12:50 PM in response to jpete1019
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 12, 2015 12:50 PM in response to jpete1019
    and bring my new albums into Photos one by one over time

    How are you planning to do that? If you simply export the photos in the albums and import them to Photos, you will break the lossless workflow.

     

    You could however export each album as an Aperture library from your library and migrate each exported album library separately to Photos. If you select the newly migrated partial library as the main library, and enable iCloud Photo Library Beta for it, the libraries will merge in iCloud.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 12, 2015 12:58 PM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 12, 2015 12:58 PM in response to Winston Churchill
    I wasn't aware that an optimised library will shrink unless space begins to get short.

    Yes, you have to force it to shrink by wasting space.

     

    duplicate it, on the duplicated library, remove all but the projects then migrate,

    The problem is, how to find quickly the photos that have no face labels and have not been used in projects? Photos has no flags to quickly tag all photos that have a face assigned or are in book album. I will be error prone to delete all photos that are not used in Faces albums or books, cards, etc.

  • by jpete1019,

    jpete1019 jpete1019 Apr 12, 2015 12:55 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 12, 2015 12:55 PM in response to léonie

    Not really worried about lossless issues. I don't have a lot of albums I have edited. I really use Aperture because it had a better file management structure than iPhoto, so I kind of feel like I'm taking a step back here a bit....but  the greater good prevails. (photos anywhere with my iOS devices).