HT204264: iCloud Photo Library

Learn about iCloud Photo Library
Huddel
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: About the backup: How to download the photo library and store them on an external hard drive?

Let's say you have a lot of pictures and it's too much to keep on your macbook or in your icloud library. I would like to for example have a new library for every year. So far I just pressed "alt" when starting the Photos app and put the old library on an external drive (twice to two different drives to back it up of course). Now if I define a new library as icloud library (eg. 2016) it will download all the (eg. 2015) photos to this new libarry that is supposed to just contain my new (2016) photos, no?

What's the easiest way to back up and get rid on the internal drive of the old photos?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Nov 12, 2015 3:44 PM

by Tom Ritch,Solvedanswer
Tom Ritch Tom Ritch
Level 2 (206 points)
Photos for Mac
A:

I think some replies miss an important part of your objective.  Your problem is that your library becomes too large for your Mac Book, and also too large for your iCloud storage.  That means you need to delete photos from iCloud as well as your MacBook 

 

Let's assume your main library is named Photos Library, and is synched with iCloud.  To create a local archive of your older photos, copy your library to your external hard disk.  Do not double-click it as recommended by rkaufmann8.  Instead, rename the library on the external disk, for example "Library 2014"  This will be your archive of photos for that year (assuming no older photos are in it).  Your existing Photos Library will remain your current working Photos library. 

 

Now you need to clean up your two libraries. 

 

Quit, then re-open Photos, holding the option key as Photos launches.  A dialog will ask you to choose which library you want use.  Choose the one you just copied to your external drive, Library 2014.  When it opens, delete from it photos which are more recent than 2014.  If there are photos earlier than 2014,  you can delete them too AFTER making another copy of the library in which they will be saved.  After the deletions the library will contain only photos for one year. Of course, make as many copies of your library as you want for separate archived years. 

 

Again Quit, then re-open Photos, holding the option key as Photos launches.  This time choose Photos Library, your original library which is your system library and synched to iCloud.  If you are very sure you made good copies of your photos from 2014 and earlier, then delete from this library all photos from 2014 and earlier.  Because this library is synched with iCloud, all photos from 2014 and earlier will automatically be deleted form iCloud, as well as from all your devices which sync with this iCloud library.   What will be left is Photos Library and your iCloud library, both now much smaller because they only contain photos from 2015. 

 

I think this is what you asked for, if I understood you correctly. 

Posted on Nov 16, 2015 1:13 PM

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Huddel

Q: About the backup: How to download the photo library and store them on an external hard drive?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 Nov 12, 2015 3:49 PM in response to Huddel
    Level 9 (58,704 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Nov 12, 2015 3:49 PM in response to Huddel

    It's pretty simple, locate the Photo library file and copy it to your external HD. Once in the new location, double click it and that will launch Photos and also "teach it" where the new location is. Once you have done that then move the library that on your internal HD to the Trash and empty the Trash.

  • by Huddel,

    Huddel Huddel Nov 15, 2015 9:04 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 15, 2015 9:04 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    Thank you! True, done that a lot. Difficulty now: How do I do this without icloud downloading all the old pictures to a new library I hook up with icloud?

  • by Old Toad,Helpful

    Old Toad Old Toad Nov 16, 2015 1:08 PM in response to Huddel
    Level 10 (141,223 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 16, 2015 1:08 PM in response to Huddel

    Unfortunately you can't.  Even when you repair the library it will trigger a complete upload.

     

    We all need to tell Apple to fix that via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html.

     

    OTsig.png

  • by Tom Ritch,Solvedanswer

    Tom Ritch Tom Ritch Nov 16, 2015 1:13 PM in response to Huddel
    Level 2 (206 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Nov 16, 2015 1:13 PM in response to Huddel

    I think some replies miss an important part of your objective.  Your problem is that your library becomes too large for your Mac Book, and also too large for your iCloud storage.  That means you need to delete photos from iCloud as well as your MacBook 

     

    Let's assume your main library is named Photos Library, and is synched with iCloud.  To create a local archive of your older photos, copy your library to your external hard disk.  Do not double-click it as recommended by rkaufmann8.  Instead, rename the library on the external disk, for example "Library 2014"  This will be your archive of photos for that year (assuming no older photos are in it).  Your existing Photos Library will remain your current working Photos library. 

     

    Now you need to clean up your two libraries. 

     

    Quit, then re-open Photos, holding the option key as Photos launches.  A dialog will ask you to choose which library you want use.  Choose the one you just copied to your external drive, Library 2014.  When it opens, delete from it photos which are more recent than 2014.  If there are photos earlier than 2014,  you can delete them too AFTER making another copy of the library in which they will be saved.  After the deletions the library will contain only photos for one year. Of course, make as many copies of your library as you want for separate archived years. 

     

    Again Quit, then re-open Photos, holding the option key as Photos launches.  This time choose Photos Library, your original library which is your system library and synched to iCloud.  If you are very sure you made good copies of your photos from 2014 and earlier, then delete from this library all photos from 2014 and earlier.  Because this library is synched with iCloud, all photos from 2014 and earlier will automatically be deleted form iCloud, as well as from all your devices which sync with this iCloud library.   What will be left is Photos Library and your iCloud library, both now much smaller because they only contain photos from 2015. 

     

    I think this is what you asked for, if I understood you correctly. 

  • by Huddel,

    Huddel Huddel Nov 16, 2015 1:14 PM in response to Tom Ritch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 16, 2015 1:14 PM in response to Tom Ritch

    Thank you, Tom!

    One addition: You probably need to activate the "download originals to this mac" in order to save the full version.