Photos not copying to External Drive

Greetings Elizabeth,

My understanding is that you are trying to copy your Photos library to an external hard drive but getting an Error Code -36 that won't allow the copy. Is that correct?

The Error Code -36 is an issue that you can correct using the resource in this post - Error -36 when copying files

For ease with changing the location of the pictures in your Photos library, use this help article - Change where Photos stores your files - Photos Help

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Be well.

I am trying to copy the Photos file to a external drive to free some space on my hard drive and after an hour of copying, it gives me this error and it doesn't copy anything: "The Finder can't complete the operation because she data in "Photos Library" can't be read or written, (Error Code -36)

In addition to joe_7399's advice, check the filesystem on the drive you are trying to copy your Photos library to.

The external drive should have the same filesystem as your internal drive, or you may encounter problems when copying to the drive.

If the file system on your external drive is not MacOS Extended (Journaled), reformat the drive. If there are already files on the drive, save them to a different drive before reformatting, because that will erase the drive. How to format a drive for photo libraries is described here for Aperture. The same will work for a Photos library: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture