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kayakfromluling

Q: How to photos library on external hard drive?

I have a huge photos library and an ssd local hard drive which is small comparatively. I have a raid 5 external disk array that I want to move my photos library onto and get the images off my ssd. How can I do that?

Mac Pro (Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Dec 22, 2015 10:47 PM

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Q: How to photos library on external hard drive?

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  • by Niel,Solvedanswer

    Niel Niel Jan 13, 2016 10:50 AM in response to kayakfromluling
    Level 10 (311,951 points)
    Jan 13, 2016 10:50 AM in response to kayakfromluling

    In the Finder, drag it to a volume formatted as Mac OS Extended, launch Photos with the Option key held down, click on Other Library, and choose it.

     

    (137505)

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jan 13, 2016 10:59 AM in response to kayakfromluling
    Level 10 (105,771 points)
    iCloud
    Jan 13, 2016 10:59 AM in response to kayakfromluling

    Are you using iCloud Photo Library, with the option "Optimize Mac Storage" enabled?

     

    Then it would be easier to move the Photo Library to your external drive, if you disable "Optimize Storage" and wait for the originals to download. And only then drag the Photos Library to the external drive, provided your internal drive has enough free storage to accommodate the library.