christophst

Q: how to export part of the photos library

Hi there,

 

I have a MacBookPro with 750GB.

Unfortunately, it is now almost full, leaving only some 5GB free space.

I have identified that my photo libraries are very big

My iPhotos library has 190GB

My Photos library has 250GB

 

I would like to free up some space on my laptop (some 100GB or so), by

pushing some older photos onto a cloud storage hard-drive, or other external hard drive.

 

- How can I know whether the pictures in the iPhoto library are also in the Photos library.

- How can I move a portion of the older images away whilst keeping the last few years on the laptop?

 

Your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated !!!

 

Kind regards,

 

chris

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Time capsule

Posted on Sep 22, 2016 3:00 PM

Close

Q: how to export part of the photos library

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 22, 2016 3:04 PM in response to christophst
    Level 10 (84,745 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 22, 2016 3:04 PM in response to christophst

    When you migrated your iPhoto and Photos libraries were identical - any thing deleted from Photos since that migration is still in the iPhoto library unless you also deleted it there - it looks like you have not used IPhoto for a while so you may have unnecessary duplicates there - if you have not used it for three or more months archive the iPhoto library and delete and empty the trash and see where you are -  5 BG is not enough at all - you need a minimum of 10 GB just for normal operation

     

    Once you srchive and delete the iPhot library post back with where you stand

     

    LN

  • by christophst,

    christophst christophst Sep 22, 2016 3:09 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 22, 2016 3:09 PM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks a lot for prompt reply.

     

    - How do I archive the iphoto library?

    - once archived , can I still access individual photos, or do I need to "un-archive" / "unzip" in order to see them?

     

    chris

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Sep 22, 2016 4:00 PM in response to christophst
    Level 10 (141,132 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 22, 2016 4:00 PM in response to christophst

    Why do you need to access the Photos in the iPhoto Library?  Didn't they all migrate over to the new Photos library? They should have.  Therefore, you don't need the iPhoto library anymore and can delete it.

     

    By archiving Larry is referring to copying it to an external HD for long term storage.  But, if you've not been using it since migrating to the Photos library you shouldn't need to keep it.  But that will depend on if you're sure there are no photos in the iPhoto library that are not in the Photos library.

    OTsig.png

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 22, 2016 4:16 PM in response to christophst
    Level 10 (84,745 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 22, 2016 4:16 PM in response to christophst

    To archive you drag the library to an external hard drive formatted Mac OS extended (Journaled)

     

    assuming you are not using iPHoto (part of my original  statement)

    it looks like you have not used IPhoto for a while so you may have unnecessary duplicates there - if you have not used it for three or more months

    then you will not be accessing it in the future either - there is no connection  between the iphoto and the Photos library and deleting the iPhoto library has no effect on Photos at all

     

    LN

  • by christophst,

    christophst christophst Sep 23, 2016 7:34 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 23, 2016 7:34 AM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks for you advice.

    I have copied the iPhoto library to an external harddrive.

    Then I have deleted the iPhoto library (the file info stated 195GB size) on my macbook, empties the trash, and restarted.

    The Photos library still contains all my photos.

    The free memory space has now increased from 5GB to 16GB.

    so far so good;  but I still would like more free space on the laptop (as I need to install additional software and I also have continously more pictures coming in).

    - is this normal that deleting the iPhotos library freed up only some 10GB? (Is this just the file/space organising the photos, but not the photos itsself?)

    - at the moment in have some 6 years of private and professional photos in that Phots library.

     

    Coming back to my original question:

     

    How can I move away/out a portion (shall we say 4 years worth) of pictures whilst preserving the more recent 2 years, in a way that I can still access them (for example onto an external hard drive or a cloud storage) ???

     

    Many thanks for your help

    Chris

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 23, 2016 7:52 AM in response to christophst
    Level 10 (84,745 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 23, 2016 7:52 AM in response to christophst

    IMHO the best choice is to use iCloud Photo Library with optimized photos on devices with limited storage - http://www.apple.com/icloud/photos/

     

    And other solution is time consuming and error prone and gives you only access to part of your library at a time

     

    LN

  • by christophst,

    christophst christophst Sep 24, 2016 3:34 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 24, 2016 3:34 AM in response to LarryHN

    Ok.

    I have access to 1TB OneDrive cloud server space.

    Can I use this instead?

    And if so how?

    c

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 24, 2016 5:58 AM in response to christophst
    Level 10 (84,745 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 24, 2016 5:58 AM in response to christophst

    YOu can use it for Photos but you can not use it for a Photos llibrary

     

    To put photos on an cloud service (or anywhere else) select them in Photos and export to a desktop folder (file menu ==> export) and then you can move them form that folder to anywhere you want

     

    I personally would not count on this as archival storage for my photos - you can do what you please

     

    LN