MartinWP Author

Level 1

13 points

Copying photos from MacBook to external hard drive reduces the file size

For long term storage I want to keep my photos on an external hard drive, not on my MacBook. I set up a folder on the external drive, select all the photos on the MacBook, and drag and drop to the external drive. This works, but the file size on the external drive has at least halved, so the copied photos have presumably been degraded. How do I preserve the original file size?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Mar 23, 2016 1:56 PM

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4 replies

Level 10

215,706 points

Mar 23, 2016 2:42 PM in response to MartinWP

and drag and drop to the external drive.

Dragging and dropping only gets you the preview version of the photo which will be a smaller file size than the original.

To get the original files either Option - drag and drop or use the File ➙ Export ➙ Export Unmodified Original for XXXX files menu option.

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Level 10

106,142 points

Jul 19, 2016 2:46 PM in response to massao

Not fot the Photos users here - what you might consider better is a personal decision - we choose and use Photos

And of course if you even bothered to read the answers Old Toad provided the answer to keeping the size the same in his answer 3/23/2016

LN

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MartinWP Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 23, 2016 3:15 PM in response to Old Toad

Many thanks! I'll try that. My Googling had not yielded anything like such clear advice...

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Level 1

4 points

Jul 19, 2016 11:05 AM in response to MartinWP

I have always had trouble with Photos, this same issue. Always smaller. Is there a better app out there for Mac instead of Photos?

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Copying photos from MacBook to external hard drive reduces the file size

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