How do I gain the necessary permissions for Photos to pull in my pictures off of my external hard drive?

Question

How do I gain the necessary permissions for Photos to pull in my pictures off of my external hard drive?

I am trying to open the Photos app on El Capitan, but all of my pictures are located on an external hard drive. I get a dialogue box that states, "Photos was unable to make a copy of your library before preparing it. Photos does not have the necessary permissions to create a Photos library in the folder that contains your library."

Apple has directions for fixing this with a couple of Terminal commands if your pictures are located in your Pictures Folder. However, my pics are located on an external hard drive.

Could anyone provide either a Terminal command for tying the Photos app to the folder on my hard drive or some other efficient fix?

Thanks,

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 24, 2015 9:21 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,110 points

Nov 24, 2015 11:00 PM in response to MACaroni Homie

What format is the external drive?

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Answer 2

Nov 25, 2015 8:25 AM in response to Yer_Man

OS X Extended Journaled

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Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Nov 25, 2015 8:38 AM in response to MACaroni Homie

In the get info window is ignore ownership checked? It should be

LN

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Answer 4

Nov 25, 2015 8:43 AM in response to LarryHN

I don't see a check box for "ignore ownership" at all in the get info window of the folder where the pictures are located.

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Answer 5

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Nov 25, 2015 8:45 AM in response to MACaroni Homie

right click on the EHD and get info (not the folder - the drive) - there should be an igore ownership box near the bottom

LN

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Answer 6

Nov 25, 2015 8:50 AM in response to LarryHN

I right clicked on the EHD and there still isn't an ignore ownership option. Not even in options of the "Sharing & Permissions" section.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

216,674 points

Nov 25, 2015 10:40 AM in response to MACaroni Homie

You may have to expand the Sharing and Permissions section and click on the padlock to unlock it so you can access the checkbox shown in this screenshot:

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Answer 8

Nov 25, 2015 11:04 AM in response to Old Toad

The ownership box just simply is not there.

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Answer 9

Nov 25, 2015 11:08 AM in response to Old Toad

Even when it's unlocked, the ownership box still is not there at all. No matter whether I right click the volume or go to file get info. It's not there. I have 3 different EHD's 2-Seagate and 1-WD and the owner ship box is not there for ANY of them.

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Answer 10

Old Toad

Level 10

216,674 points

Nov 25, 2015 11:30 AM in response to MACaroni Homie

That's strange but not critical. Click on the everyone and change it to Read and Write. Also click on the "+" button and add yourself with Read and Write permissions. See if that will do the trick.

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Answer 11

Nov 25, 2015 11:39 AM in response to Old Toad

I actually noticed on your screenshot that all your permissions had read/write enabled and I changed the everyone to read/write and it worked. So, your response was spot on.

Thank you!

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