Moving Photos library to external hard drive - half of photos missing

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Level 1

7 points

Moving Photos library to external hard drive - half of photos missing

I am trying to downsize the space used on my hard drive (OS X El Capitan 10.11, 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3). I took a new Seagate Backup Plus Portable External Hard Drive (1 TB), formatted it and copied the Photos library to it (took over an hour to copy the file with other programs on my MacBook Pro not in use). I then opened Photos (version 1.1) using the option key and redirected it to the library on the external hard drive. When Photos opened and showed my pictures, only 9354 photos were there while there are 22,745 photos in the library that I "copied" from my hard drive. When I re-opened Photos using the option key and redirected it back to the original library on my hard drive, all 22,745 photos were present and accounted for. My hard drive is 500GB and the new external hard drive is 1TB and this was the first file I copied to the new hard drive so the issue is not lack of space.

Is there a way to ensure that ALL of the photos in my library are copied when I copy the Photos library from my hard drive to the external hard drive?

Must I export all my photos to the external hard drive and then reimport them if I want to use Photos and have a complete library on the external hard drive?

Would doing a restore from Time Machine (on another external hard drive) to the new external hard drive work better than copying the file from my hard drive?

My external hard drive uses the USB port on my computer - could I get a thunderbolt cord and use it between the my computer and the external hard drive for better results? Is that even an option?

Thank you.

Posted on Oct 18, 2015 11:41 AM

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Answer 1

efrensdb

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2017 8:54 AM in response to LarryHN

HI larry

i have followed all your suggestions, from formatting my ehd to draging the library from my hd to my ehd. Still not all pictures were saved to the ehg. In my hd i have 5,911 pictures but it only copied 1,000+ of my pictures to the ehd. What should i do?

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Answer 2

LarryHN

Level 10

106,212 points

Oct 18, 2015 11:55 AM in response to pageta

well clearly something is wrong but since you do not share exactly what you did or how no one can guess

the correct was to do that you want is to make sure the EHD is connected with a fast wired connection (USB, FireWire or ThunderBolt), is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and is not being used as a TImeMachine Backup Volume then drag the library to it and double click on the library to open it after the transfer is complete

No you do not export or import anything - you only drag the library to the EHD

either USB or ThunderBolt are fine - as to if they are options only you know what ports your drive has

LN

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Answer 3

pageta Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 18, 2015 3:46 PM in response to LarryHN

"well clearly something is wrong but since you do not share exactly what you did or how no one can guess"

Well, since you didn't tell me what information you think I left out, I, too, can only guess.

I formatted the new hard drive Mac OS extended (journaled). My TimeMachine Backup Volume is on a completely different device - in fact, no other files are on this drive (as stated in my original post). And I was using a USB cord between my computer and the external hard drive (again, as stated in my original post).

I copied and pasted the file. In Finder, I did a right click on Photos Library and selected Copy. Then in Finder, I did a right click on the window belonging to the hard drive and selected Paste. Over the course of the next 75 minutes, there was a little pop-up saying it was copying the file from my hard drive to the external hard drive and what percentage was completed, including the GB copied and the GB remaining. I didn't drag and drop like I do when I organize my files because I wanted to COPY the file rather than MOVE it.

Theoretically copy and paste should work. But since Apple hides the actual file structure in how the photo library is managed, it does not surprise me that only half of the files copied. Yes, I shouldn't have to Export and Import in order to move the files. But again, the file structure is hidden so I cannot see what is happening. I didn't write the software - I'm just trying to use it and clearly it is not working.

Hopefully someone else will have a more helpful response.

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Answer 4

LarryHN

Level 10

106,212 points

Oct 18, 2015 3:57 PM in response to pageta

AS I posted we needed to know exactly what you did and how - which after you made a SA remark you did post

my advice is to drag it over as that seems to always work - copy and paste does not for what ever reason - you can either use the advice or not - your choice

the correct was to do that you want is to make sure the EHD is connected with a fast wired connection (USB, FireWire or ThunderBolt), is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and is not being used as a TImeMachine Backup Volume then drag the library to it and double click on the library to open it after the transfer is complete

No you do not export or import anything - you only drag the library to the EHD

Exporting and importing will not work as you lose everything except the photos and the selected metadata - al organization is gone as is non-destructive editing, projects, etc

Maybe if you learned how to ask questions and did not attack people who try to help you your results would be better

Have a nice day and good luck solving your problem

LN

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Answer 5

pageta Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 19, 2015 9:00 AM in response to LarryHN

Actually, I've now determined that the file did copy completely as the sizes of my "Photos library" 98.5 GB (right click on the file and select Get Info to see file size) and that was the size of the same file on the external hard drive.

There are actually two photo libraries in the Pictures folder. The "iPhoto library" is 122 GB which is considerably larger than the "Photos library" at 98.5 GB. When I had Photoshop Elements 13 Organizer import the files from my "iPhoto library" last night, it copied 22,304 photos, which is a lot more than the 9845 photos I could see when I opened Photos using the 98.5 GB "Photos library" I had copied to the external hard drive (it was the older photos that were missing which are smaller files so that makes sense). The last time "iPhoto library" was updated was April 2015 (most likely when I switched to Photos vs iPhoto), so it makes sense that 22,304 is the number of photos I had at that time. As of this morning, I have 22,739 photos per Photos on my MacBook Pro and 22,752 in "All Photos" on my iPhone, which is give-or-take about the same.

In copying my Photos into Elements, the disk space used by "photos" on my hard drive went from 160GB to 250GB. Previously I used iPhoto to edit my photos but purchased Photoshop Elements 13 when they came out with Photos as all of the editing features I used had disappeared and my computer was now as dumb as my iPhone. I have never used iPhoto to make projects or calendars or other things. So how much space are my photos actually using and how much of the space used by the "iPhoto Library" and "Photos library" is stuff made up by iPhoto and Photos?

Bottom line: from what I read on these forums, Photos is somehow using both libraries. How do I copy both files to the external drive AND tell it to read both files from the external drive (and not treat them as individual libraries) so that I can see ALL of my photos when they are stored on the external hard drive and thus they can sync to iCloud properly? Can I tell it to use two libraries at the same time as it is doing now on my hard drive or am I forever married to using the hard drive on my computer if I want to view all files without switching libraries?

I wish they just had the folders out where the user could see them so you could know how everything was organized and go from there. This share two libraries thing and "upgrade" to software to share items across all devices (and then upgrade hard drives so it costs 50% more to buy a new computer with the same amount of hard drive space) is seeming less and less like a good idea - I fear what "improvement" they might come up with next.

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Answer 6

JWD88

Level 1

50 points

Dec 3, 2015 7:35 AM in response to pageta

Good luck. I am getting ready to do this myself. Let us know here if you solve the problem. BTW: As far as I know, Copy & Paste is the same as dragging to a separate hard drive--whether internal or external (You will see the little "+" symbol while you are dragging). That is, drag within one hard drive and the default is "Move". Drag into a separate HD and the default is "Copy". If you want to Copy when dragging WITHIN one HD (and most folks just have one HD), hold down the Option key while dragging--you will see the little "+". I am still in Yosemite, but I believe this has not changed in EC.

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Answer 7

Ptati

Level 1

5 points

Dec 18, 2015 8:06 PM in response to LarryHN

Hi Larry! (or whomever decides to rescue me with a solution)

I want to take my individual photos OUT of Photos Library.photoslibrary and park them on my Western Digital "My Book".

and then? And then after iCloud for Photos is empty and all my devices are empty, I want to import those individual photos back into Photos.

How do I do that?

Patti Harada

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Answer 8

Ptati

Level 1

5 points

Dec 18, 2015 8:12 PM in response to LarryHN

I figured out how to copy all my individual files in Photos and plop them on my WD "My Book".

I selected all of the photos and dragged them to the external device. I feel much better now

Patti Harada

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Answer 9

Old Toad

Level 10

217,506 points

Dec 20, 2015 3:25 PM in response to Ptati

I selected all of the photos and dragged them to the external device.

That does not give you the original files but only the preview jpeg versions created by Photos during import or the edited version. If you want the original version you must export out of the library via the File ➙ Export Unmodified Original for X Photos menu option.

You can select to have them put in folders named for the Moments in the library If you don't want them all in one folder:

If there are any videos in the library this will get a copy of the original video file otherwise they will all get converted to .m4v format. There is a slight difference.

Exported Original Dragged version

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Answer 10

Mar 24, 2016 9:47 AM in response to Old Toad

I also have iphoto drawing from two files. It's odd. I just wish I could see what was going on too. I feel like I am going to lose my photos unless I go through them one by one which will take days.

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Answer 11

Old Toad

Level 10

217,506 points

Mar 24, 2016 9:51 AM in response to rakehellkat

I also have iphoto drawing from two files.

Care to explain this in more detail? Are you running a manger or referenced library?

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Answer 12

Aug 28, 2016 12:37 PM in response to pageta

has anyone here have any other idea on how to transfer photos to an external drive?

Copy and Past control does not work.

Select and drag does not work.

Using the 'Export' link does not work as well.

I am getting really frustrated with Apple.

Please help .

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Answer 13

Apr 24, 2017 10:09 PM in response to efrensdb

did you make sure your computer and ehd both stayed on (didn't sleep) while the library was copying? did you try to leave it alone of as long as possible so as not to interrupt it?

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