How to Move Your Apple Photos Library to an External Drive
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 30 июл 2024
- Need to know how to move Apple Photos Library to an external drive or SSD? I just got a brand new 2020 iMac 27" with a 512GB SSD and accidentally synced Apple Photos Library from iCloud to the drive and filled it rapidly. If you use iCloud Sync to protect your Photos or manage your images, it is easy to run out of space. Especially, since modern machines come with smaller faster drives. Here are simple to follow steps to move Apple Photos Library to an external SSD or Hard Drive. You can also follow these steps when setting up a new machine to be sure not to make the same mistake I did.
In this video, we'll show you how to move the Apple Photos library to an external drive. This will help you keep your photos safe and organized, and make it easier to access your photos when you need them.
If you're a Mac user and you're wondering how to move your photos to an external drive, then watch this video! We'll walk you through the quick and easy steps necessary to move your photos to an external drive. This will help you keep your photos safe and organized, and make it easier to access your photos when you need them!
0:00 - Introduction
0:52 - The Problem
2:56 - Step One Copy Library
5:26 - Step Two Assign New Location
6:33 - Alternative Method
6:52 - Double-Check
Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q 2TB USB 3.2 / Thunderbolt 3 External SSD: amzn.to/2Zb0QPL
Powered by:
• Ecamm Live: dcrk.me/ecammrocks (affiliate link)
• Restream: restream.io/?ref=gqv3G (affiliate link)
• Support the stream: streamlabs.com/docrock1
• Gear I use: kit.co/DocRock/doc-s-ecamm-li...
• My Amazon Shop: www.amazon.com/shop/docrock
• Support the Channel on Patreon: / docrock
If you are looking to do Livestreams, Skype Interviews, or make really professional looking screen captures be sure to check out Ecamm Live.
Check out Away, a travel brand making everything you need to make your travels seamless and thoughtful. (The Carry-Ons can even charge your phone!) Get $20 off your first suitcase.
fbuy.me/k9UqW (Affiliate Link. Discount will show on the last screen of checkout)
BackBlaze is an Unlimited backup for $5/month. Get the first month free by using my link: secure.backblaze.com/r/009v0c (affiliate link if you wanna help me out)
Please subscribe to the channel and like the video. #Aloha
Created using the following production gear:
[Mevo Boost] [[amzn.to/2sBIvwi]](amzn.to/2sBIvwi%5D)
[Manfrotto MTPIXI-B PIXI Mini Tripod]: [[amzn.to/2sujMdQ]](amzn.to/2sujMdQ%5D)
[Sony A7RII]: [[amzn.to/2TSS9FM]](amzn.to/2TSS9FM%5D)
[Sony A6400]: [[amzn.to/2V5FIWI]](amzn.to/2V5FIWI%5D) Pre-Ordered :)
[Sony FDR-AX100]: [[amzn.to/2r5BhOE]](amzn.to/2r5BhOE%5D)
[Sony 35MM SEL35F28Z]: [[amzn.to/2DMxNbG]](amzn.to/2DMxNbG%5D)
[VILTROX L116T]: [[amzn.to/2TKauEZ]](amzn.to/2TKauEZ%5D)
[Elgato Stream Deck]: [[amzn.to/2TX77u3]](amzn.to/2TX77u3%5D)
[Elgato Camlik]: [[amzn.to/2BKAV5V]](amzn.to/2BKAV5V%5D) New Version
[Presonus Faderport]: [[amzn.to/2NdM3wA]](amzn.to/2NdM3wA%5D)
Connect with Doc
Doc's Instagram: instagram/docrock
Doc Rock Tips Instagram: instagram/docrocktips
Doc's Twitter: / docrock
Doc's Facebook DocRockStar
Doc's Bio: about.me/docrock
My Podcast:
Please Subscribe ( / docrock808 ) and press the like and post notifications buttons. Leave me a comment if you have questions or want me to review something for you.
Track from Epidemic Sound get a free trial today: www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Doc Rock, you did a phenomenal job walking us through this process! I was able to free up some valuable gigs on my new Mac M1. Keep up the great work!
Great video! very well scripted, direct straight to the point full of information at just the right pace. This is exactly what I was looking for. You Rock!
Thanks for watching.
I LOVE this guy! He's clear. And fun. Good on camera. Answers all the little "what ifs" before you even think of them.
Mahalo and #Aloha
Thanks so much for this excellent tutorial. It was very helpful having you talk through each process step by step.
And it worked a treat! Otherwise I’d never have had the balls to empty that trash can!
Cheers from York, UK.
Appreciate that comment and the watch. #GGMU hahahahaha
You do rock, Doc! I've worried about this for years. No more.
Hey Doc you do Rock. That was a great presentation. I’ve been in engineering hardware/software for over 40 years. I use a lot of different platforms. PC, Unix, Linux, Mac… I actually owned one of the original Macs back in the early 80s so I’ve been a long time user. Thanks for your video. Totally Awesome Dude!
To the point, no fillers, top notch quality video!
You are absolutely the best. Literally everything I was searching for for AGES. Awesome work my man, you deserve more subs.
Love this guy. So helpful. I did do the bonehead thing and filled up my brand new MBP within a few days. This was perfect.
Appreciate you. Trust you are not alone. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for this! I'm new to the Apple ecosystem and have the M1 Mac Mini with 256GB storage, and didn't want to turn iCloud photos on until I figured out how to run it from my external drive. Concise and perfect tutorial!
Did it transfer all your photos and videos from iCloud to the USB drive? Mine isn't doing that. The USB drive now only contains what was already on the boot drive!
Thank you so much! I had 1.2 terabytes of photos on my computer. Your video was awesome and very clear and precise. You really are "Doc Rock"!
OMG THANK YOU I needed to learn this lol. I literally just used up all my storage on my new MacBook Air.
Happy to help. Yes it happens.
great tutorial, and very high quality video production...! animations and all that. Nice job! This is my first time seeing your videos. If others are like this, I will definitely subscribe!
Thanks Boss. Appreciate that. #Aloha 🤙🏽
This was excellent. So, if I were to take a step back, what's the best way to sync all your iPhone photos to the photo app on the mac?
You have great content Doc, I came across your video by accident, I found you easy to listen to and instructions very clear - I wondered if you could do the same video for IPad users, I am struggling to transfer my iCloud photos to an external hard drive using my IPad Pro. Any help would be greatly appreciated
I agree with your Backup philosophy. Backup, Backup, Backup! Stuff fails so one is not enough...you need a belt, suspenders, and Duct tape to keep your files from falling down! Thanks for all the info.
THANK YOU!!! years of struggling with being stingy with downloads hahaha!!! With only 1gig left, you are a LIFESAVER!
this was nothing short of amazing. exactly the content I was looking for. muchas gracias!!
Doc I found this video last year when I first got my Mac way before I knew you were going to be part of my every day life. Way before I knew what e-camm was way before everything. So I guess it is destiny I found you. Thanks for all of your teachings.
Hi Doc Rock, you're a real rock. Now with no excuses I'll find the courage to get them back and move the photos, first from my phone back to the mac (where they had disappeared) then hopefully to my new SSD. In other words you've convinced me to try again. Thanks a lot. I will subscribe as you're so clear and to the point. Keep rocking 😊
I don't know you but I feel like I've known you for years. That's such a powerful trait. Thanks for the video Doc Rock, it was very well done!
I appreciate that! #Aloha Let's grab a drink soon :P hahahaha
This was super informative and helpful, thank you.
Once you've moved your photos library from your Mac to an external SSD (Samsung T7), and if I want to select few photos from the photos library (Stored in the Samsung T7) and transfer it to my iPhone - how do I do that?
Thank you. This was super helpful and easy to follow.
Dude, you are the man! I’ve been trying to figure this out forever… You explained it perfectly!!!!!
Dude... Why is your intro so dope? This video was clear and straight to the point!
Thank you so very much. Your video has been a huge help to me 🙏.God bless you 🙏🎶😊. I just ended up freeing almost 300 GB of space on my laptop thanks to your very clear instructions.
I have 2 questions :
1) The 'consolidate' option is clickable . Once I click it, it says 'No referenced files to consolidate. The selected items are already stored in the library' .... Is this how it's supposed to be or have I done something wrong ?
2) Do I just repeat this process every time I move new photos from my iPhone to the laptop and then to the same external hard disk as I just moved what I have so far to ?
Thank you doc rock you really rock! You have save me tons and tons of time going on tutorial after tutorials to move my photos
I recently upgraded to Mac book pro from windows and yeah I felt like information overloaded
So thank you for helping me clear the cloud of confusion in my head! You gained a sub from me! Thank you again Gob bless you and aloha!
Thank you so much for this tutorial I was able to move it successfully!
Thanks for watching
Thanks so much for sharing this - wish I saw this before I called apple and they gave me the run around just for me to find this out.. but now it all makes sense ! deleted everything on my brand new macbook pro, but you live and you learn! Thanks again!
My dad’s MacBook Pro is running out of space and I found out Apple Photos is taking up 90% of the storage. I was so shocked!! I was trying to figure out how to move the Photos lib to an external and I found you. Excellent video. Mahalo.
Happy to help
I can’t thank you enough! I just got a 5 TB “My Passport” the other day to finally have a backup for my Mac, which has been my backup for several years now. Along with backing up my Mac, I also got it to back up everything else (Dell laptop, modded 3DS, which I sadly already deleted most of my photos off of by accident, etc.), as my 3DS said the photos were “corrupted ”. Being clueless at that time, I deleted them. I lost about 6 years of photos and have learned how important it is to keep a backup. I had found my video album, but would have never found my photo library if it weren’t for this! Again, I thank you.
I cannot thank you enough for this! I moved my file to an external drive and did not know to bring it back. Thanh you, thank you, thank you!
I realised this would happen before i did it. I need to move the content of my photos app to a drive not the app itself
Agreed ❤
This was extremely helpful! One question...I have been working from photos on an external hard drive (Apple Airport), and I am finding it impossible to use MOTIF or other apps to create photo books for export. I keep running into an error with their software, in that they say their program is inoperable from an external drive. Have you seen this?
Thank you so much for this video! Simple, easy to follow and said with lots of smiles. Perfect! What a lovely Guy (Smiley face Smiley face... don't know how to do that)
Hahahahaha greatly appreciated
Aloha Doc Rock, new to your channel, great tips my man. So i work for a certain fruit company doing tech support for this specific app, that being said, your instructions are spot on with moving the library. as a side note, if you do not have an external drive and go to photos > preferences > icloud tab > click on optimize mac storage. This will keep the full res images in your library in icloud and keep optimized versions on the internal mac HD, so in theory saving space on the internal drive. Keep up these awesome videos yo
Great tip. I really miss the Farm (I was a Geni). It was great but I missed content creation more 🤣
@@DocRock haha this creating content job is probably way more fun...gotta go and watch some dude on macbreak weekly now
I learned a lot. Thank you.
Can you make a video on how to retrieve or look at the photos that is saved on your external drive? I can't seem to do it.
I followed all your steps to Copy Photos Library to an EXTERNAL drive, but now I'm kinda having a hard time "looking" at those photos...
Hero Hour just double click the library 📚 file you copied over
Have you tried Adobe Lightroom Catalogues? Why do you prefer Photos over LR. Or can you make a video about advantages and disadvantages of both?
Im 3 years late but I just wanted to say that your positivity and just overall energy is incredibly positive and uplifting.
Mahalo
Very Helpful. Now question, with this method. Since now were uploading photos to the photos library in the External Hard Drive, when doing backups - should we just drag and drop the new file to another hard drive or does this not save the new imported photos to the selected drive?
Hey thanks for this saved so much space on my Mac. However whenever I try and eject the hard drive it says it is being used even though all programmes are close?
Just what I was looking for - thank you!
Glad I could help!
this sounds awesome. I have been needing info like this for years. I found you when I was needing to figure out how to transfer my photos into Lightroom (I have 30,000). I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to bother or just start start using an external hard drive for my Lightroom work. so that my Catalog would only be on the external and work directly from the external (having to make sure I have it with me at all times). instead of finding that video telling me how to transfer my photos to Lightroom, I found this video. I need this. 1. I don't understand how you can drag your photos library to the trash 2. what happens to the photos on the iPhone? won't the iPhone pictures which I guess are all in the cloud just repopulate the computer library? (I have iCloud storage of 1 T). 3. what did you mean at the end about using an external something to plug the external into to do the transfer? you bring up a device to use in addition to the external hard drive.
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!! I just upgraded the SSD in my 2015 MacBook air a few days ago. Booted it up today and was like where did all my space go. Failed to remember all my settings didn't transfer. I'm straight now lol
Thanks for Watching @Aloha
Great video! Thanks! I’m new to Mac OS. Once I’m done, how do I prevent the system from downloading the photos again from iCloud? I like having them there and sync to my iPhone and iPad, but I don’t want them in my MBP.
THANK YOU FOR ALL THE INFO!!!! I'm paranoid about losing my photos. Doing God's work! thanks!
Woah I love this!! That intro! You killed it.
Great tutorial. One question I have is the "Use as System Photo Library" switch. Is it necessary to it to be the System Photo Library? I have a client that wants to move their library to an external SSD but not lose their existing albums in the process. Does just moving the library accomplish this (the bulk of the photos on the external SSD) as you showed but leave the System Photo Library alone?
Thanks, good video. This is way I did it for my 310GB of photos. Open photo app on your MAC, make sure you highlight Photos on the left menu, once you see all your pictures, click Command A to select all, now drag to a folder created on your external SSD, let it copy. The beauty of this is that by default apple stored pictures in HEIC format but when you drag them to external SSD Pics are copied in JPEG format. I like my pictures in JPEG or RAW format. Now go back to your Photo App-Preferences-iCloud-iCloud Photo-Optimize Mac Storage. Sweet. This way is easier to work with pictures anywhere any OS. Hope this method help some people.
Thanks for that
thank you so much! this really helped me out super quick
Glad it helped!
Great video my man! This was very easy to follow!
love it thank you!! I have the. same and I should've done research before getting it because it runs out of space so much and I just started my RUclips 😫so thank you because it was not working lol
You’re smart, the thunderbolt 3 external drive is way cheaper than Apple’s upgrades. Check out My kit page. I have come drive recommendations there.
docrock.live/kit
Thank you very much for the video. I have a question: how do you upload your photos to AWS Glacier? Is there any tool for that?
Hi Doc, Great presentation on a subject that a lot of peole will be apprehensive to tackle. Thank you very much.
One question from me: Does this in any way affect the way in which iCloud works with Photos?
you are just great, you solved a big problem for me, I have same problem for creating backups to my IPAD as well, can we do same i always get like 12-15 GB of space on my 250 gb MAC Pro
Thank you! I got confused with the last step because you were not selecting the same external hard drive to link to photos.
Great video! I noticed a bunch of my photos/videos are actually stored to iCloud so image capture didn't have all of them & I don't have them in Photos Library (didn't want to use up my MacBook space), in this scenario, how can I back those up without downloading to my Mac and then moving to external drive? So basically how can I backup to external drive but skip taking up space on my Mac to do that, if possible?
This has been the BEST video to help with my issue!! Thank you so much!!
New subscriber, thank you for the help on this. recently bought the MacBook Pro M1. Great info
Very informative and to the point. Thanks :-)
Thank you sir!! The ease & clarity of it all.
This was an awesome tutorial, thank you so much!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Finally ! Video answered all questions clearly ! Thanks so much
Thanks for a clear concise video. Extremely helpfull
i feel like such a boomer trying to figure this out but thank you for explaining everything so well!!
I love your video. The only question I got is, how do you make sure that photos don’t come right back after you take them off of the cloud
Brilliant. Thanks for your help and the easy explanation!
Yo man thanks alot . I was stressing about this but you came through.
Happy to help
Hey Doc Rock, What if you use a MacBook and it isnt always connected to you external SSD? Will it not back up tot he SSD until you connect again?
Your videos are amazing and super helpful. I do have a MacBook Pro, which external drive do you recommend I buy? Thank you so very much! :)
This video is so timely thank you so much
This is so helpful! Thank you!
Thanks for watching
this is great thanks !! Can I plug my iPhone to mac and import the photos on the iPhone to the external SSD where my library is located ???
great video, easy to follow, thanks a lot!
You’re welcome, Thanks for watching.
Thank you! This was very helpful
Thanks for watching
Hey Doc, great video (as always) , but having this error message when I try to enable icloud:
"icloud photo library is not available if the system photo library is located on a network file server"
Any idea how to make it work? I'm using my Synology NAS as my external drive.
Hey Doc Rock, Doc Bob here. I happily found your site today and was glad to see that I did this task correctly a while back…whew! I have a big photo library and am kinda paranoid about losing stuff, so I wanted to ask your advice. My photos are stored on an external ssd, backed up to iCloud, and I also have hard copy backup (via Time Machine) of my ssd & computer HD on a slower, non-ssd drive. Does that seem adequate to you? Thanks for the great tip about changing out ssd drives every 3 years. Do you feel the same way about non-ssd drives? Thanks again for the great site and any advice. All the best to you, Bob
That was absolutely awesome! Thank you so much 😊👍🏾
Thank you for the clarity of your instructions!
Perfect video! This worked out perfectly for me :) Thanks
Thanks dude, you saved me a lot of time.
finallllly found a vidoe that helped. took me an hour of clicking through videos. saving the channel!
instead of using an external ssd, can i move it to OneDrive and have my OneDrive photos displayed on the Photo app?
Awesome video my man! So well made :)
I have to reformat my external HD since a friend gave me one and he had it on a PC, I don’t know too much so i was wondering which format I should use out of the list?
You are very well speaking person easily of understanding everything I learn a lot from you’re Mac stuff
Your videos are good! You've got a new subscriber, thanks for the help.
Learned so much from you, Doc, thanks but I also caught your paranoia virus - can never have too many back ups. I didn't know that an old external drive could fail through non use/old age - so I just unearthed my 2009 Seagate 500GB drive from a box where it has been languishing for many years with all my
photos from 1999 to 2007 - and guess what? Yeh, it doesn't work on my Mac which tells me it's unreadable and has max capacity of 2.2TB - really, it's grown after all these years. Now have to work out if anything at all is salvageable.......
Sorry to hear that. I think there is a place that may be able to help you.
www.300dollardatarecovery.com/
Thank you i needed to clear up my storage on my phone.
What about text messages? Could i do the same for text?
Wow! I’m so glad I stumbled on you ! Excellent tips! 👍🏾😎
Mahalo For the watch.
Hey Doc, what about updated photos? meaning after transferring to external harddisk on 1Jan- of course i'll be taking new photos after.
will icloud auto sync to the photos library app in my external harddisk?
Mahalo! Your video has solved the problem I've had with my Mac Mini ever since I first got it. 🤙
That was a great tutorial I am now subscribed thank you
Awesome....very helpful! Where is the video link to move Apple Music Library to an External Harddrive?
This is a great video. Could you tell us if we can connect the external hard disk to a windows system and still be able to view the photos? Additionally can we still use the same photo library on the mac itself by deleting the photos on it now that we have copied the photos library onto an external hard disk? Because I do not have it connected all the time to my system.
windows won't work without a MacOs reader program for windows and it will just not sync until plugged in
Wow, new subscriber and I needed this video. Thank you 😊
This is so great, but.... can you suggest an option for not filling up iCloud because I have a great deal of video stored in Photos as well. My iCloud storage is full now. With 2T. This video is a great start, but I need a part two for iCloud help. Please and thank you.
Yes move the videos to an external and trim or delete videos. This eat up the space.
Very nice overview, thank you. Do you know if there is any way to replace the entire Apple iCloud for photos from all of your devices to let’s say your own network hard disk, so that all your Apple devices sync with your own hard drive in stead of apple’s ? Greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱 stay safe and take care.
Google Photos is a good option and there is DropBox Camera Uploads. Prime users also get Photo Storage but it it more limited
Im fairly new to a mac and external storage, how can we make sure that our photos are not being transferred to our external storage multiple times when we add new photos/storage to the external? Also how can organize our photos so that on the external they show up by year/month taken and not just randomly all over the place?
Mine are hard to navigate and its hard to tell if they are all there because they are just everywhere
Hey, nice tip ! Worked like a charm ! 🙂👍✨ Thanks !
Glad it helped!
Awesome video man! Much appreciated!
Glad it helped! #Aloha