Moving photos AND iPhoto library to external hard drive.

Question

Level 1

15 points

Moving photos AND iPhoto library to external hard drive.

When I upgraded to Yosemite, I migrated my iPhoto library to Photos. I now want to move my Photos library to my external hard drive to free up space. I did this by dragging the libraries from my Pictures folder and then following the instructions to create a new Systems Library. However, when I open Photos I only have the pictures that I have taken since upgrading. None of my iPhoto library is there despite being migrated.

How do I get all of my photos in to one Photos library on my external hard drive?

Thank you!!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 24, 2016 8:57 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Feb 24, 2016 9:12 AM in response to elijoyweb

If you created a new library then that is what you have - what exactly did you do here

then following the instructions to create a new Systems Library

Since you do not actually tell us what you did we have no idea what is wrong but the correct way is

to move to an EHD you need an EHD formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) connected with a fast wired connection like USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt that is not being used as a TimeMachine backup volume and that is always available prior to launching Photos

Drag the libraries to the EHD (note this breaks the hard links so they do now take double the space) and then hold down the option key while launching Photos and select the new location and in the Photos preferences select it as the system library (when the use as system library button is dim you are using the system library) - carefully test the library in the new location and verify that everything is there and working and then you can delete the libraries on the internal drive - test one more time before emptying the trash

LN

Reply

Answer 2

elijoyweb Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 24, 2016 12:43 PM in response to LarryHN

Hi LarryHN,

Thanks so much for your response. I found intructions on moving my Photos to an external hard drive on another support forum. Here they are...

This is simple, and it's done exactly the same as with iPhoto.

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

1. Quit Photos

2. Copy the Photos Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching Photos. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.

4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.

In reading your response, I realise that I cannot use my Time Machine, this is what I was attempting to do.

Is there another solution to free up space? Most of my photos are unable to be opened properly as I get the following message...

"Error Downloading Photo - This Mac is no longer updating because there is not enough space to store all your full-resolution photos and videos."

I appreciate your help.

Reply

Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Feb 24, 2016 7:46 PM in response to elijoyweb

How much free space do you have on your Mac?

LN

Reply

Answer 4

elijoyweb Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 25, 2016 2:12 AM in response to LarryHN

I have 3.04GB free of 249.78GB. Currently, photos are taking up 30.62GB.

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 5

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Feb 25, 2016 8:09 AM in response to elijoyweb

You have problems - you need a min of 10GB of free space and should really have 20GB - 10% of your drive is a better amount

TO make more space you need to delete or move things - generally the Photos library and the iTuens library are the biggest - you need another EHD formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) for that

LN

Reply

Answer 6

elijoyweb Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 25, 2016 8:23 AM in response to LarryHN

Ah that does not sound good! The EHD I am using as my time machine is 1TB. I don't require that much space so can I partition it and use it as storage also or does that complicate things?

Thanks for your patience with all this.

Reply

Answer 7

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Feb 25, 2016 8:41 AM in response to elijoyweb

elijoyweb wrote:

Ah that does not sound good! The EHD I am using as my time machine is 1TB. I don't require that much space so can I partition it and use it as storage also or does that complicate things?

Thanks for your patience with all this.

Technically yes

But it is a bad idea as you no longer have a backup of anything on that volume

Yu really need two hard drives

LN

Reply