ruzzmasta159

Q: Downloading my photos library to and external

Hi recently my 200gb plan for icloud has expired and i keep constantly getting the message saying that iCloud will no longer sync your information so I'm attempting to download the whole library onto a hard drive and then delete them from icloud. I have a PC and I used the iCloud control panel app to tell where to download the pictures but for some reason it feels like it needs to save it somewhere on my local HD also and I cant find it anywhere. Its not taken up all the storage on my local disc C when its been downloading it to another HD. Does anyone know where its been saving these pictures and whether or not it will free up the space on my Local Disc C: once its done downloading?

Posted on Aug 29, 2016 2:44 PM

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Q: Downloading my photos library to and external

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  • by Kappy,Helpful

    Kappy Kappy Aug 29, 2016 2:49 PM in response to ruzzmasta159
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    Aug 29, 2016 2:49 PM in response to ruzzmasta159
  • by ruzzmasta159,

    ruzzmasta159 ruzzmasta159 Aug 29, 2016 2:49 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 29, 2016 2:49 PM in response to Kappy

    Sorry it doesnt work

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Aug 29, 2016 2:51 PM in response to ruzzmasta159
    Level 10 (270,165 points)
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    Aug 29, 2016 2:51 PM in response to ruzzmasta159

    Why didn't it work? What aren't you telling us?

  • by ruzzmasta159,

    ruzzmasta159 ruzzmasta159 Aug 29, 2016 3:17 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 29, 2016 3:17 PM in response to Kappy

    The link you referred to is broken and its not that I need to move a library from my internal to my external. Im downloading all the pictures I have in iCloud to my external HD and it has stopped because it says i'm out of space. That hard drive that I'm downloading all these pictures to has 150gb left so it cant be full. What I had noticed is that when it is downloading the pictures it puts the picture to the destination but it seems to be putting a copy somewhere on my internal hard drive which now has 40 kb, which explains why it thinks I don't have any space. I was wondering if anyone knows where its saving these files to on my internal HD or whether its a temporary file that will erase itself once its finished downloading all the pictures to the destination.

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Aug 29, 2016 5:29 PM in response to ruzzmasta159
    Level 10 (270,165 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 29, 2016 5:29 PM in response to ruzzmasta159

    Does not sound as if the pictures are downloading to an external drive, but to your computer's internal drive. If you are down to 40KBs on the internal drive, then the directory is likely now corrupted meaning you may not be able to delete files nor restart the computer without erasing the drive and installing from scratch.

     

    i'm not a Windows user, so I don't know what you were doing nor why it is not working.

  • by ruzzmasta159,

    ruzzmasta159 ruzzmasta159 Aug 29, 2016 10:37 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 29, 2016 10:37 PM in response to Kappy

    I have no idea why it put this in a Mac Photos Discussion. Yes your assumption would be correct if I was on a Mac, I dealt with that type of thing as a genius at the Apple Store a lot. This is on a windows PC like i stated. On PC there is a couple things it does differently with Apple products. When you backup your phone to iTunes it makes 2 copies of the backup. One is a temporary file just in case the backup didn't work. Once the backup completes that temporary file is deleted. I'm wondering if it does this same thing when you are downloading photos to a PC through iCloud control panel because then it would explain why its saving the photos in 2 places. I have a 50gb photo library and I don't have enough memory to put all of this on my internal drive so I told iCloud to download it to an external. Its going to the external but for some reason its saving to my internal also and now it tells me that I don't have enough space to download the rest of my pictures when clearly there is 150gb left on the destination drive. Before I started the download I had 40gb free on my internal and now I have 40kb, so i know its saving it somewhere I just don't know where. My concern is that it won't ever delete those pictures off of my internal drive and they will be taking up 50gb of space, if that happens then I want to know where they are so I can delete them. Kappy I know you won't be able to answer this question, i'm just leaving more information for the next person to see.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 30, 2016 6:30 AM in response to ruzzmasta159
    Level 10 (84,105 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2016 6:30 AM in response to ruzzmasta159

    have no idea why it put this in a Mac Photos Discussion.

    Because you put it there - you specify  which forum you are creating a post in and no one but you has any idea why you choose to post in the Photos for Mac forum - this article will help you learn how to write and post a question - Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question

     

    LN