Apple's photo management software for the Mac, Photos, has grown to be a fairly competent all-purpose storage locker. But as your photo and video library grows — and especially if you've taken advantage of iCloud Photo Library — you may find that your Photos library strains to fit on your Mac's hard drive.
Nov 23, 2016 Moving a Mac’s Photos Library. Is copied properly to the new drive first — and then delete the old library. To the library’s new location, hold down the Mac’s Option key and click. Apr 21, 2015 Hi, I can't import my iPhoto library to Photos. Every time I select the iPhoto library icon to be import to Photos, it doesn't give me the option since it is a grey-out icon. How can you do this? Also, I heard some people losing photos in the process. Does anybody confirm this?
Mar 30, 2020 Part 1. Transfer Photos from iCloud Photo Library to Mac. Photo Library uploads all photos to iCloud and keeps them up to date across devices and you also can get access to them through iCloud.com. To transfer photos from the iCloud Photo Library to Mac, please refer to the two methods below. Transfer Photos from iCloud Photo Library.
While there are options to keep your Mac from running out of space, like optimizing your photo storage if you use iCloud Photo Library, it comes at a cost: Without a fully-stored Photos library, you won't be able to create secondary backups of your images and video. (And as good as iCloud has become, your photos and video are precious enough that they're worth keeping backed up in multiple places.)
There is an alternative: Moving your Photos library to an external drive (or creating an entirely separate library and syncing it with iCloud). Here's how to do it, and some reasons why you should — and shouldn't! — consider it for your needs.
Why you should (and shouldn't) use an external drive with Photos for Mac
There are a number of reasons why an external drive might make sense when you're working with Photos for Mac:
That said, there are some downsides, too. Here are some reasons you might not want to use an external drive:
Best external drives for storing photos
Okay, so you've decided to move your Photos library over to an external drive. What next? If you already have an external drive, you can always use it for storing your Photos library (and save on cash). But if you're considering getting a new drive for this endeavor, here's what I suggest:
Want some recommendations for specific external hard drives? We've got those, too.
How to move your current Photos library to an external drive and use it as your primary library
As with creating a new library, moving your library to your external drive is a multi-step process. Here's how to go about it.
Step 1: Copy over your Photos library
Your library will begin to copy over to your external drive. Depending on the size of your library and speed of your drive, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, so be patient. Don't unplug your drive or turn off your computer during this process.
Step 2 (if you use iCloud): Turn off iCloud sync on your old library
Before you open your copied Photos library on the external drive, you have to disassociate the library on your Mac from iCloud. (If you don't use iCloud Photo Library, you can skip these steps.)
Step 3: Make your new library your system default
Now, it's time to make your newly-copied Photos library your system default.
Step 4 (if you use iCloud): Connect your new library to iCloud
Your external library is now set up to be your system default, but it's not currently connected to iCloud. If you use iCloud Photo Library and want to keep that connection active so that you can continually download items you've stored, read on. (Otherwise, you can skip this step.)
Once your library has fully synced and downloaded images, you can disconnect your drive; whenever you want to use your Photos library, you now need to connect your drive to your Mac.
Step 5: Get rid of your old library
A personal plea: Please, please, please make sure your library is fully copied and working on your external drive before you follow the steps below — once you've thrown away your original library, it's gone!
Now you have a direct link to your copied Photos library from the Pictures folder: This prevents your computer from accidentally creating multiple Photos libraries in case you forget to launch Photos with your external drive connected.
Note: If you're worried about accidentally creating libraries, you can always launch Photos by option-clicking on its icon in the Dock or Applications folder; this will give you the option of picking which library you'd like to launch.
How to create a new Photos library on your external drive and use it as your primary library
Creating a new library on your external drive is a multi-step process. Here's how to go about it.
Step 1 (if you use iCloud): Turn off iCloud sync on your old library
Before you create a new Photos library, you have to disassociate your current library as your system default. (If you don't use iCloud Photo Library, you can skip these steps.)
Step 2: Create your new Photos library
Once you've done this, it's time to create a new library.
Step 3: Make your new library your system default
You'll now have an empty library on your external drive. Next up: Making it your system library.
Mac Import Photos From Iphone
Step 4 (if you use iCloud): Connect your new library to iCloud
Your external library has now been set up from scratch. If you use iCloud Photo Library and want to download all the items you've stored there to have an external backup, read on. (Otherwise, you can skip this step.)
Once your library has fully synced and downloaded images, you can disconnect your drive; whenever you want to use your Photos library, you now need to connect your drive to your Mac.
Step 5: Get rid of your old library
A personal plea: Please, please, please make sure your new library is live and working on your external drive before you follow the steps below — once you've thrown away your original library, it's gone!
Now you have a direct link to your Photos library from the Pictures folder: This prevents your computer from accidentally creating multiple Photos libraries in case you forget to launch Photos with your external drive connected.
Note: If you're worried about accidentally creating libraries, you can always launch Photos by option-clicking on its icon in the Dock or Applications folder; this will give you the option of picking which library you'd like to launch.
Questions?
Let us know in the comments.
Updated March 2019: Updated for macOS Mojave.
Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this post.
iCloud Photo Library: The Ultimate GuideMainImport Old Photos Library To New Mac ComputerBacking up: The ultimate guideMainFor all your USB-C needsThe HybridDrive is a USB-C dock with an SSD built in
You need more ports, right? And you probably need more storage, right? What you really need is the HybridDrive.
A few months ago when OS X Yosemite was first shown to the public, Apple demonstrated its new Photos app. This app is meant to simplify photo management for all Mac users by emulating the looks and functions provided by the Photos app on both the iPhone and the iPad. This simplification comes at a cost though: when it finally releases its Photos app, it will replace iPhoto, its legendary photo management app that has been on every Mac by default for years.
This move will definitely be hard on a lot of users, especially those who, like me, got used to working with iPhoto for so many years.
Even worse: for most of us, our photo albums hold a huge number of dear memories, and as with every update, there is always the possibility of something going wrong when the time comes to migrate to the new Photos app.
Why is it saing library in trash mac. With that considered, here are a couple of short guides on how to back up your iPhoto library both the simple way and the not-so-simple way.
Back Up Your iPhoto Library: The Easy Way
First, the good news (or bad depending on how you see it). In a very Apple way, in order to keep things simple and integrated on OS X, Apple consolidates your photos into a single, giant file that represents your photo library. But this file is not composed of just your photos, it also holds very important meta-data, like your events, photo stream shots and such.
To find your iPhoto library, open any Finder window and click on the Pictures folder. There you should find it.
To back it up manually and without complications, all you have to do is copy the entire file to any destination you want. It can be a USB flash drive or a portable backup disk if you want and that’s it.
Cool Tip: If you want to transfer your iPhoto Library to another Mac just plug your drive to it and copy your iPhoto library backup to the target Mac’s Pictures folder. Be warned though, this will replace your existing iPhoto library. So this tip is mostly targeted at new Mac owners or for those who perform a clean install of OS X.
Back Up Your iPhoto Library: The Less-Easy Way
If you want more control over what to back up from your library, there’s a way to do it that requires some digging around but that is perfect for that purpose.
For this, you have to head to the same iPhoto Library file within your Pictures folder, except this time instead of copying it, right-click on it and then select the Show Package Contents option.
Then, head to the Masters folders. There you will see several folders categorizing the different years your photos belong to.
When you open each of them, you will find folders for the different events, albums and dates that contain the photos as you organized them in iPhoto. There you will be able to select exactly what you want to back up and the way that you want to back it up.
And there you have it. Now you will always be in control of your photo library and most importantly, you will have peace of mind in case things don’t go that well with the new Photos app. Enjoy!
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