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My system hard drive is becoming full and I would like to move the system folders for pictures and movies to an external hard drive. Can this be done using terminal? Or is there another method that I am unaware of?
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
It is quite easy to do this.
Drag one of these folders to the external drive to copy it. (Do NOT try to move a folder between different drives, that could be a recipe for disaster).
Once the copy is done, delete the original folder, and replace it with a symlink.
For example, I will use the Movies folder.
1) In the Terminal, type
"ln -s "
without the quotes, but WITH a trailing space; do NOT press enter.
2) drag the new folder from the external drive onto the terminal window
3) type "~/Movies" without the quotes
4) press enter
The Terminal command could look similar to this:
ln -s /Volumes/MyDrive/Movies ~/Movies
It is quite easy to do this.
Drag one of these folders to the external drive to copy it. (Do NOT try to move a folder between different drives, that could be a recipe for disaster).
Once the copy is done, delete the original folder, and replace it with a symlink.
For example, I will use the Movies folder.
1) In the Terminal, type
"ln -s "
without the quotes, but WITH a trailing space; do NOT press enter.
2) drag the new folder from the external drive onto the terminal window
3) type "~/Movies" without the quotes
4) press enter
The Terminal command could look similar to this:
ln -s /Volumes/MyDrive/Movies ~/Movies
You may not need to "move" them at all.
You can tell Photos, iMovie, and TV to store their libraries anywhere you want.
If you want other apps that default to saving there to open the folders on the external, then Luis' suggestion will do that.
Applications may be written that expect a real folder and contents in the user account on the startup drive. They may be programmed to not follow links, as that is not the standard Apple installation for these System created, embossed folders.
I also prefer Barney-15E's suggestion of storing libraries on external media over linked/removed content.
VikingOSX wrote:
Applications may be written that expect a real folder and contents in the user account on the startup drive. They may be programmed to not follow links, as that is not the standard Apple installation for these System created, embossed folders.
I also prefer Barney-15E's suggestion of storing libraries on external media over linked/removed content.
I agree that placing libraries in another location instead of the whole standard folders is a less invasive and perhaps "safer" modification.
That said, if an application is programmed using the standard system API, it will never know about symlinks, they will be completely transparent. The only thing that might be of concern is that one may have to grant "full disk access" to these apps, as the system itself may otherwise block their access to the external drive.
Frank Judnich wrote:
Thanks for the reply Luis. Before I go ahead with the change, if I wanted to change it back, would I do the same in reverse to get the Movies Folder back to the system disk?
The reversal would be easier. You'd just have to copy over the folders from the external to their usual locations, replacing the existing symlinks.
That said, you may want to consider what Barney and VikingOSX suggested.
Thanks for the reply Luis. Before I go ahead with the change, if I wanted to change it back, would I do the same in reverse to get the Movies Folder back to the system disk?
Move system folders for pictures, movies, & music.
