External Drive Photos Libraries

Can I create/store my images to a separate hard drive and see those libraries in the new (ca 2019) Photos application on my iMac (using the latest MacOS)?

iMac Pro

Posted on Dec 29, 2019 3:17 AM

Reply
Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 29, 2019 5:02 AM

Photos can’t be transferred directly from iCloud to an external hard drive for that you need to set up iCloud photo library see the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204264

And its preferences https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht5156cc968/4.0/mac/10.14 , open finder > Go > home > your user name > pictures either drag and drop Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external hard drive , the second method is right click on Photos Library.photoslibrary and click on show package contents in the upcoming column , you can also drag and drop complete masters folder to an external hard drive that is connected .

Also as per the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht6d60d10f/mac


Note : in Mac OS catalina 10.15.2 the folder name is " originals " , and in Mac OS mojave it was " masters " .

1 reply
Sort By: 
Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Dec 29, 2019 5:02 AM in response to Donald Lorentz

Photos can’t be transferred directly from iCloud to an external hard drive for that you need to set up iCloud photo library see the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204264

And its preferences https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht5156cc968/4.0/mac/10.14 , open finder > Go > home > your user name > pictures either drag and drop Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external hard drive , the second method is right click on Photos Library.photoslibrary and click on show package contents in the upcoming column , you can also drag and drop complete masters folder to an external hard drive that is connected .

Also as per the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht6d60d10f/mac


Note : in Mac OS catalina 10.15.2 the folder name is " originals " , and in Mac OS mojave it was " masters " .

Reply

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

External Drive Photos Libraries

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.