How do I move my photos library to an external drive?

Why do I get this error, any one have an idea?

It's because the disk you're copying to is formatted MS-DOS (FAT32)

It needs to be reformatted to Mac OS X Extended, Journaled . Remember that doing so will erase the drive so back up any important information on it first.

If you read the answer you will see

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

Your drive is not correctly formatted - it is formatted MSDOS FAT32

As the answer states it can ony be Mac OS extended (joournaled) to work

LN

One of my favorite things about these forums is when someone asks a novice question then gets an answer something like this as an an integral part of the troubleshooting procedure: "Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"

Yeah, whatever that means.

Okay, then ask what that means. The problem for folks like me answering is that I have no idea what knowledge or skill level you have. You might be a complete newbie or the dean of a faculty of Computer Science somewhere. So, I make a guess. If you don't understand the answer, just ask for clarification. That's what adults do. Snark gets you nowhere.

I am new to this forum, or any forum for that matter. It appears several on here are quite knowledgable, and that's awesome. I'll try to be brief. I have already spent nearly 80 hours trying to figure this out. I'm probably what you'd call a medium-high beginner level of Apple/mac. My iMac is a 2010 version, 21" 1TB machine running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5, with another 1TB time machine. I was using iPhoto happily for years, and, like others, i was stupid to upgrade and get Photo. I didn't research it. My iPhotos library is 700 GB (yes, that's gig). and therefore, my iMac is literally full. I can't even sync my iPhone with pictures without getting an error that there is no disc space left.

I bought a 4 TB G-drive that was formatted for the current mac system (MAC OS extended (journaled)). And I copied my entire 700G iPhoto library to the G drive. It took 7 days. But it is all there.

My time machine was set to automatically update, and it is full too. I noticed that i had 2 more weeks of backups until the time machine was going to start wiping out the iPhotos altogether, because it was already up to the point that was 2 weeks before i upgraded to Photos. So, i figured, i could just load the iPhoto library from time machine onto the G drive, and then copy the older version of iPhoto from time machine to the G drive, and all would be well--at least up to that older point in time.

I then plugged in the Gdrive to my macbook pro, which is running OS X 10.9.5. My plan was to start using the macbook pro as my photo solution of choice, hoping i could just keep iPhotos there, not upgrade, and keep going until Apple puts back in the iPhotos features i like into Photos. When I tried to open the 700G iPhotos library on the older macbook pro, it says it can't open them because the photos had been changed in a newer version of iPhoto, which i guess my version of iPhotos on my main iMac was likely newer than the version i had on my macbook.

All I want to do is use my macbook pro to be my iPhotos program for my 700G library, and then i'll just use that going forward. Can anyone help me do that? Thanks!

P.S. I think to clarify: I can run iPhotos on my macbook pro that was already on there, which is version 8.1.2. But it won't open any photos from the 700G because they are newer. And, the G drive has both that 8.1.2 version of iPhotos, as well as the 9.6 version of iPhotos that came from my time machine backup--but the older macbook pro won't open that 9.6 version of iPhotos because it is too new.

First of all you need to have everything on the same operating system.

You can't copy the "Photos" library to an other drive like we used to with iPhoto.

Ideally you should sync everything via iCloud. But with a 700GB library it will be a challenge.

To copy the "Photos" (not iPhoto) library do this:

1. Connect the external drive (formatted in OSX Extended)
2. Start Photos while holding the option key and create a new library on the external drive
3. Quit Photos
4. Right click (control + click) on the newly created Photos Library on the external drive
5. Delete all the content of the new Photos Library folder and leave the folder open.
6. Open a new finder window
7. Right click (control + click) on the old the existing Photos Library folder and copy all content by dragging it to the new Photo's library.
8. Install the Caffeine app and keep the iMac a wake indefenately so the data transfer want be interupted
9. Wait until transfer has been completed.
10. Open Photos app while holding the Option key.
11. Select the new Photos Library

Still you are using Photos way beyond for what its designed for!

1. You might want to organize your images into a old fassioned folder structure (Year > Month > Day (event) )
2. Delete anything that isn't good unless there is an other emotional or legal reason to keep it
3. Process only the keepers using a photo editing program (Photoshop, Lightroom, Pixelmator, etc)
4. Save the processed Raw / Tiff files in the same folder structure
5. Export hi quality JPEGS to a new Photos Library while preserving all exif data so added keywords, location info etc will show in Photos
6. Never change the file name of the images. This way you can alway's trace back the original file in the library structure.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Roger. In your solution, would I be using the Photos app, or iPhoto? If Photos, that is not what I am wanting. Let me know about this if you can, thanks!

I realize I have used iPhotos in a very complicated manner, but that is why I like it. I have 30,000 pics/vids that are not only sorted into multiple folders by year, but ALSO in separate events that span all years.

Its a very personal decision.

Photos is very different from iPhoto. Changing the library to the new Photos app will be a massive change and it will be painful.

The new Photos app is a different application that's still in it infant stages. Its good but it needs to grow. Not to mention it takes getting used to.

Given your enormous Library I would wait a year or so and then upgrade to Photos. Hoping that Apple will improve this program a bit further. For example adding back something as simple as changing the sort order so we can see the latest images on top rather than the bottom...

Ultimately you will have to change over, iPhoto is no longer developed and will stop working once you upgrade to OSX 10.11 (El Capitan).

Still I strongly suggest to reconsider how you manage your images and movies.

Smiles across the wires,

Rogier

What you seem to want to do is to take an iPhoto 11 (v9) library and revert it to an iPhoto 09 (v8) Library, which you can do with iPhoto Library Manager. For specific guidance on how to do it see this:

http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/Help/downgrading%20a%20library%20to%20an%20ea rlier%20version%20of%20iphoto.html

This will allow you to use iPhoto v8.1.2 with your iPhoto Library.

A minor clarification: yes you can copy a Photos Library as you used do with iPhoto.

No you can't I have tried with many of my clients computers.

iPhoto Library folder behaves differently than Photos.

Everyone else who claims it can be done hasn't doen it with a real life library containing tens of gigs of images with albums etc etc.

Er, well I have.

Moved a 200GB library yesterday, and all of my albums and faces look good so far. What kind of problems did you see when you tried it?

Hi there, I am trying to move 600GB of photos off my iMac so that I can keep using the computer (27inch late 2014, fusion drive so I can't increase storage). I followed your very helpful instructions last night, but now when I try to access the new Photos library on the external drive from Photos (holding down the option key) I get an error message: "this library could not be recognized"

I think I did everything as instructed. Any ideas? I copied the whole 'Pictures' folder in Photos. Was that right or do I need to copy from a level below that?

Another question: I notice that the Pictures folder contains duplicates of my photos and in iPhoto. Does that mean they are duplicated? Or is it simply a translation device? How do I ensure that I retain the photo files themselves independent of software upgrades in the Apple suite that may make them unreadable or inaccessible years from now?

I back up my everyday Mac files and folders (using simple copy/paste commands) to a 2TB drive that was formatted for a pc. this seems to work fine

MY QUESTION - can i copy that photos library (mine is now 15G) to that same drive (which is NOT formatted in OS) for safe keeping? yes, i will not try to "open it" there but can i copy it back to the Mac and have it work properly . im just trying to be able to recover from a crash of my MAC.

extra credit question: what exactly is a 'library' file. i see that it shows with a different icon in finder compared to a folder or a file. im guessing it is some kind of package that has hierarchy inside that everyday user doesnt need to dive into... ? but in the context of my Q.. can i copy/paste this library (from location 1 to location 2) like it is a garden variety file ?

thx