Use an external drive Only for Photos

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Level 1

12 points

Use an external drive Only for Photos

Sorry if this has been asked but I can not find a clear answer.

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) with smaller storage (250 gb) and large photo library over 60 GB. I would like to keep all photos on an external drive (backed up from time to time to another EHD). I would also like to use the iCloud Photo Library as I now have 200 GB available there for this purpose.

The big picture question is, can I have an EHD used for my main location of photos while using iCloud Photo Library and still get all its benefits or do I need to have it also present on my local hard drive?

If I have the <iPhoto Library> file on my EHD and plugged in when launching Photos will it sync to the iCloud Photo library to do its syncing? The EHD needs to be formatted for a Mac as a condition, I understand already.
My other mobile devices will sync with the iCloud Library if set up correctly so they will then be downloaded to the EHD when connected to the Mac and network via the iCloud Photo Library?
I was using iPhoto and loved it. Face id'd all photos so concerned about that carrying over to Photos as well as smart albums. Are there issues with this?

Thanks for the help in clarifying what seems like a very complicated conversation.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Mar 4, 2018 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

194,743 points

Mar 5, 2018 4:49 AM in response to cosmojr

So do I need to create a System Photo Library something or other?

You have to enable the external library as your system photo library, as Larry explained. The Photos Preferences are a bit confusing.

While you are browsing your library on the external drive

open Photos > Preferences > General.
Click "Use as System Photo Library".

The panel should look like this, when the library has correctly been enabled:

The option "Use as System Photo Library" should now be grayed out.

You may want thave a look at this page in the Photos User Guide: System Photo Library overview for Photos on Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Mar 4, 2018 2:29 PM in response to cosmojr

The big picture question is, can I have an EHD used for my main location of photos while using iCloud Photo Library and still get all its benefits

Yes as long as it meets these requirements - Where is it safe to store a Photos Library? Requirements for the external drive - set the library on the EHD as the system library and be sure it is always available prior to launching Photos

3 - maybe - read this for more information Details of how Photos handles the migration from iPhoto

LN

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,743 points

Mar 4, 2018 2:46 PM in response to cosmojr

A photos library can sync with iCloud from an external drive, as long as the drive is locally mounted. It needs a wired connection. And it should not be used as aTime Machine drive. The file system should be MacOS extended or APFS.

It may not be convenient with a portable mac to have the external drive connected whenever you are logged in. But you should connect the drive as much as possible, so photos can sync the library with iCloud and can run all background processes.

See: How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support

Photos will try to save the smart albums, but cannot always succeed, because the constraints for smart albums differ slightly in Photos from the iPhoto constraints. For example, the smart albums based on events will not work, because Photos has no events. The same goes for flags and ratings.

The Faces will be saved.

But Photos has its own face detection algorithm, so you may be required to name some faces again.

As a precaution, you may want to assign keywords with the faces names to the photos in your iPhoto faces albums. The keywords will make it easier to recreate the faces, if some faces should get lost during the transition.

See also: Notes on Migrating an iPhoto Library from iPhoto to Photos for Mac

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Answer 4

cosmojr Author

Level 1

12 points

Mar 4, 2018 3:43 PM in response to léonie

This is what I get when I use the EHD just after migrating to it.

"iCloud features for Photos are only available in the System Photo Library"

My EHD is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" it does have other files and folders on it. I have the <Photos Library> library in a path <My Passport for Mac/Mike_Photos/Photos Library>

So do I need to create a System Photo Library something or other?

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