So, my laptop storage is full and I don't have the time to go through and delete files right now to free up room. But, in the meantime, I have a bunch of pictures on my camera that I want to download. Is it possible to use my laptop as a "middle man" and simply download the pictures directly to an external hard drive?
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.7)
Robert, we need more details to help you.
What application are you using to download the pictures from your camera? iPhoto, Photos, an app of the camera's developer?
Regards, Lars
I use a Canon camera. I keep the memory card in the camera and hook it up to my computer and then download the pictures into IPhoto.
Now that I say that, I'm thinking ahead. Even if I can put my pictures on the external hard drive (which is where I've historically moved my pictures to once I see I'm about to run out of room on my computer), I'm now wondering if I'll be able to do anything with them (i.e., edit them) if they're on the external drive.
Very long story short, with the old version of IPhoto, I knew how to move "Events" from my laptop to my external drive. I really haven't been able to do that with the new version of IPhoto (the process seems like it will be different). But, I'm straying from my initial question.
Do you use iPhoto or the new Photos app?
Maybe it would be a solution to move the iPhoto- or Photos-Library to an external HDD completely? Have you ever thought about that option? That would keep all photos within one app with all the features it offers you. And external HDD are cheap, but you have to keep it connected always to download new pictures to the library.
Regards, Lars
Now that you mention it, I guess I use the new Photos App. The pictures that I previously moved to the external hard drive were originally imported/saved into the IPhotos app, but the last several hundred (probably a few thousand) have been imported into the new Photos app.
Robert, you'll have different options.
One could be to move the whole library of Photos/iPhoto to an external HDD. That would ensure, that your pictures would be kept together. But that would mean you have to connect that external HDD always when you'll want to work with any single picture you have.
Another option would be to change the location where Photos stores your files. This is described herein:
https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/pht1ed9b966d
This matches your initial question of storing new downloads from your camera in another location as long as you copy the pictures directly from the memory card to the external HDD and import links to them in Photos. You'll have to steps to do: 1st: Copy the pics from the memory card to the external HDD, 2nd: import links to them in Photos. And you have to connect the external HDD to your MacBook, when you want to work with the pictures. The advantage would be, that the pictures are available within the Photos app. The disadvantage would be, that you end up with pictures stored in your Photos library and other stored in links on an external HDD.
I would prefer the first option, 'cause it keeps the files together in one single structure.
Regards, Lars
Is your problem solved now, Robert? Or do you need additional support?
Regards, Lars
You can bypass iPhoto/Photos entirely by plugging the card directly into your Mac and using the Finder or with Image Capture (in the Applications Folder)
can you download pictures directly to an external hard drive
