Library on Time Capsule, no room on MacBook Pro

Question

Level 2

488 points

Library on Time Capsule, no room on MacBook Pro

I have a MacBook Pro with an SSD. Because of my limited space and my large Photos library, I relocated the Photos library to my Time Capsule.

Now, I'd like to take advantage of iCloud Photo Library but in order to that, the library must exist on my local machine; in other words, because it's on the Time Capsule, I get the following error when trying to enable the option in Photos' Preferences:

"iCloud Photo Library is not available if the System Photo Library is located on a network file server."

Any hope in enabling, or am I stuck with figuring out how to make space on my local machine (near impossible)?

Thanks.

Posted on Oct 8, 2015 8:20 PM

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Answer 1

Michael Paul Author

Level 2

488 points

Oct 8, 2015 8:43 PM in response to Michael Paul

Not sure why but Apple won't let me edit my own post. My Photos library is 80 GB and my MacBook Pro has only 10GB free on a 120 GB SSD drive.

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Answer 2

mayko780

Level 1

0 points

Nov 22, 2015 1:08 AM in response to Michael Paul

Hi Michael,

I've got the same problem.

Did you find a solution for this?

Thanks

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,519 points

Nov 22, 2015 1:18 AM in response to Michael Paul

You can have your iCloud Photo Library on an external drive, but it has to be locally mounted and formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled). It is not supported on a Time Capsule. Move the library from the Time Capsule to a locally mounted drive with the correct file system.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

207,253 points

Nov 22, 2015 10:46 AM in response to Michael Paul

my MacBook Pro has only 10GB free on a 120 GB SSD drive.

A bit off topic but do not let the free space fall below 10 GB if you want to maintain optimal system and application performance. Increase the free space if possible to around 15-20 GB if you can.

If you let the free space get smaller you could inadvertently get into a situation that will cause the system to essential lock up and be unable to boot.

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Answer 5

Lotsie

Level 1

22 points

Sep 30, 2016 4:43 PM in response to Old Toad

Tonight I wanted to move my Photo library from the SD card in my MacBook to a network storage, had the same error "iCloud Photo Library is not available if the System Photo Library is located on a network file server.".

I thought "ok, that's it will move it back". Did that, though when I want to turn back iCloud Photo Library it says I need additional 32GB of iCloud storage. It was all fine before...hmm...

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

207,253 points

Sep 30, 2016 4:56 PM in response to Lotsie

Do you also have the iPhoto library that was migrated to Photos? If sol moving the Photos library to the EHD breaks the hard links to the original photos in iPhoto so you need to have the full size of the library available when you bring it back.

The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto

Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

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Answer 7

Lotsie

Level 1

22 points

Sep 30, 2016 5:25 PM in response to Old Toad

Actually I just copied the Library, didn't touch the original one.

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

207,253 points

Sep 30, 2016 5:35 PM in response to Lotsie

Did you delete the Photos library from it's original location? If you did that broke the hard links. When you copied the library back from the EHD it required the full space without sharing links.

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Answer 9

Lotsie

Level 1

22 points

Sep 30, 2016 5:48 PM in response to Old Toad

I did NOT touch the Photo Library on it's original location.

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