Q: How much extra space do you need during the process of executing a migration from iphoto to photos?
I want to migrate a 200gb iPhoto library to the new photos app but am not sure how much extra space I will need to perform this operation. I do know about the hard links and after the migration it doesn't take any additional space if only a little, but I have heard that I takes more during the migration process is this right? Is it a percentage of how big your library is? I only have 25gb left on my hard drive. Please help!
iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), running iphoto 9.5.1
Posted on May 23, 2015 8:50 PM
So after I do as you say, when all is said and done after copying the migrated photos library back to the internal drive, will I have both iPhoto and Photos to use on my iMac without the plugged in external HD where the migration took place?
No, if you follow that procedure, you will have to plug in the external drive to access the iPhoto Library. when you migrate the libraries on an external drive, they can share the files only while both libraries are on the external drive.
It is unlikely, that both the iphoto Library and the Photos library will fit on your internal drive, with only 25GB left. It would be a tight fit, and nearly no storage left for the operating system as working storage. The mac would be terribly slow and you would risk crashes.
So one of your libraries needs to stay on the external drive, your iTunes library, the iPhoto library, or the new Photos library.
Posted on May 28, 2015 3:03 PM