migrate referenced files on an external drive to a new mac

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migrate referenced files on an external drive to a new mac

I am about to migrate my Monterey iMac to a new mac mini running Ventura. I have a large photo library, and some of the photos are referenced files on an external drive. If I use migration assistant to migrate the imac to the mac mini, can I just unplug the external drive after migration is complete and plug it into the mac mini and keep the photos library on the external drive referenced correctly in the new photos library on the mac mini??

iMac 27″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Jan 28, 2023 7:20 AM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

197,363 points

Jan 28, 2023 7:33 AM in response to simpsong00

It will depend on the file system format of the external drive. Photos 8 on Ventura is much more critical with external drives, if the file system is not APFS or MacOS X Extended (Journaled).

It should work, if the path to the referenced files will be exactly the same as before.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

197,363 points

Jan 28, 2023 8:51 AM in response to simpsong00

If you have enough free storage to consolidate the referenced files you may want to do it anyway.

Photos simply has no elaborate tools to help us to fix broken references. And having to fix broken references one-by-one for a large library like you have is a daunting task.

I forgot to mention that you should enable the "Ignore Ownership on this volume" for the external volume with your library, before you plug the external into your new Mac. Otherwise you might encounter problems with the file ownership: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 3

simpsong00 Author

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19 points

Jan 28, 2023 8:12 AM in response to léonie

Hmmm, it's MacOS X Extended (Journaled)... maybe I should just consolidate everything before I migrate... It's just a lot of stuff... 161,000 photos, of which 91,000 are referenced files... Is there a size that is too big?

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Answer 4

simpsong00 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 4, 2023 7:02 AM in response to léonie

I went ahead and consolidated all the referenced files... It is now in the process of synching, which takes a LONG time... It seemed to be making good progress until recently, and now it's struggling with little synch progress in the last 20 hours. I assume I need to wait until it's done until I setup my new mac and copy the library over, or can I go ahead and use migration assistant while it's working and everything will eventually sync up on both machines??

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