fabdana

Q: Photo library too big for hard drive

My iMac has two internal drives - a 250 solid state hard drive, and a 1 TB drive for data.  I'm in the process of importing about 80 GB of photos. In order to be able to access them on my other Apple devices via iCloud, I know they have to be on the HARD DRIVE, but I don't have enough room due to the large number of iTunes files already there. Is there any solution to this? I'd love to be able to share all my photos among the desktop, iPhone and iPad. Thank you. 

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Feb 15, 2016 9:11 PM

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Q: Photo library too big for hard drive

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  • by Niel,Apple recommended

    Niel Niel Feb 15, 2016 9:18 PM in response to fabdana
    Level 10 (312,709 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 15, 2016 9:18 PM in response to fabdana

    Launch iPhoto, Aperture, or Photos with the Option key held down, create a library on the external drive, and if you're using Photos, set it as the system library. The volume used to store it needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended.

     

    (139585)

  • by fabdana,

    fabdana fabdana Feb 16, 2016 1:10 PM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 16, 2016 1:10 PM in response to Niel

    Hi Niel.

     

    Thanks for your fast reply last night. I followed your instructions after reading the link you provided. As I said earlier, the photos are now on an INTERNAL drive (which was built into the Mac), NOT the 250 GB hard drive (which is too full to store the files). I want to share the photos on iPad and iPhone via iCloud.

     

    I held down option to open Photos, and here's the screen I got (attachment). As you can see, none of these are currently set as System Library.

     

    Do I choose Other Library or Create new? See the other image. This is how my hard drive looks. Do I choose the Pictures folder or a Library? And then do I have to create a "System Library" name

     

    I don't know what to do next. I'm afraid of messing something up.

     

    Currently I'm stuck on that screen and can't exit Photos unless I Force Quit. Thanks very much. Screen Shot 2016-02-16 at 4.02.28 PM.png

     

    Screen Shot 2016-02-16 at 3.55.21 PM.png

  • by Old Toad,Apple recommended

    Old Toad Old Toad Feb 16, 2016 4:47 PM in response to fabdana
    Level 10 (141,095 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 16, 2016 4:47 PM in response to fabdana

    Open the library you want to be the system library, open it's preferences and set it to be the System Photos Library in the General preference pane:

    Psysphotolib.png

     

    OTsig.png