Lost photos library on my Mac

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Lost photos library on my Mac

I had my Photos Library stored on an external HD and this has just failed beyond repair - several of the heads are not working properly. All my photos are on iCloud and I want to download these to a new location. If I just create a new Photos library on my HD will it then be possible to download all the photos from iCloud?

I now have NAS RAID drive, would it be possible to create that new photo library on that drive?

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.5), iPad Air 2, iPhone 7 +

Posted on Jul 4, 2018 9:42 AM

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Answer 1

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Old Toad

Level 10

207,643 points

Jul 4, 2018 9:51 AM in response to RobbieSnr

I now have NAS RAID drive, would it be possible to create that new photo library on that drive?

NoI The library must be situated on an EHD the is formatted OS X Extended (journaled) and connected by wire (USB/FW/Thunderbolt) to your Mac. Where is it safe to store a Photos Library? Requirements for the external drive

If I just create a new Photos library on my HD will it then be possible to download all the photos from iCloud?

That should work as long as you designate that library as the System Photos Library.

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Answer 2

RobbieSnr Author

Level 1

78 points

Jul 5, 2018 6:35 AM in response to Old Toad

Many thanks for your help. I found I had enough space on my internal HD so have created my Photos library there, as a System Photos Library, and my photos are downloading. So far I've noticed that none of the albums that I had created are appearing but perhaps this will follow later when it's further on with the download - they are all shown in iCloud.

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Answer 3

Jul 5, 2018 6:06 AM in response to RobbieSnr

Apple recommends that the Photos library not be maintained on NAS.

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Answer 4

RobbieSnr Author

Level 1

78 points

Jul 5, 2018 6:07 AM in response to Allan Eckert

Thanks Allan, I had thought that might be the case.

Eric

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Lost photos library on my Mac

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