Mac Photos App Storage Options
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2024
- macmost.com/e-2964 Most of the time you can just use a single iCloud photo library stored in your Pictures folder. But if you have other needs you can move it to an external drive, create more libraries, and even link photos to your library without importing them.
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00:00 Intro
00:22 Single iCloud Library On Your Internal Drive
01:31 iCloud Optimize Mac Storage
03:21 Photos Outside Of Your Library
05:01 Additional Libraries
06:27 External and Networked Drives
07:33 iCloud Library On an External Drive
#macmost #mactutorial - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Hi Gary, I have been a fan for years! You are amazing. Your attending to all the questions is impressive. I am trying to read all the posts and catch up before asking lots of redundant questions. Just wanted to to feel the gratitude!
Pardon my tardiness today! Excellent video tutorial today! I’m saving this. Very useful and always very informative. Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️
Your timing is amazing. I was about to search out this issue this weekend. Thanks!
Great video! I'm a PC power user, and still couldn't figure out Photos App. Watching your video cleared up everything for me. Thanks! For me, I like putting the photos library on an external, as I don't need my photos with me 24/7 on my MacBook. Different strokes for different folks!
Very helpful. Photography is one of my hobbies and I do use the Mac Photos App along with Adobe Photoshop. It's helpful to understand just how the storage works and the available options. Thanks
Yes! Always so clear and easy to understand. Thanks, Gary. 🙏🏻
This just solved a couple issues for me; bookmarked. Thanks, Gary!
Thanks for the info. Stay Calm and Snap On
I have a rather large collection. 114,782 photos, 2,330 videos. Total space is 824.61 Gb. I have a 2TB SSD drive on my 2019 iMac. It was taking up too much space. So I went and bought a 2TB SSD External drive and moved it there. It's lived there since.
How is that working? I purchased a 5tb external HDD just for photos. (have some ssd's but I understand they can just fail without notice - so even though HDD will be a bit slower it will give me more peace of mind. I imagine I will have about the size library you have when I recombine all the different libraries I have created since 2008 while attempting to simplify and organize!!! HA! (before I moved to mac I had a wonderful file system)
My internet is molasses slow so I don't like iCloud. I want to move everything to one library then organize then back up. Before I do all the work again, I am checking out youtube experts to see if anyone can weigh in on my plan before I proceed.
(2015 Macbook Pro ... getting ready up upgrade to a newer mac) I have used about 1/2 of 1tb of its storage, but like giving it alot of extra space for ssd health.
Awesome video! So glad you shared this info.
Nicely done. Think I'll just stick with the library that Photos defaults to, but useful information here for sure.
Thanks for this one. It will help me manage my photos as I have too many for my icloud account
Very helpful, thanks!
Great job. Many thanks.
Thank you! Very helpful as usual. : )
Thanks , most helpful
Very interesting options. I have over 3TB of photos, which is more than iCloud can hold. I’m considering treating that as a negative repository in local drives, and moving only edited/exported photos to my iCloud library.
Demystified! Can't thank you enough.
Thanks a lot
Thanks bunches
My main computer is a 512 GB Mac Mini with a permanently-attached external USB-C combined SSD and multi-port hub, this drive is also of 512 GB capacity. The Photos System Library of 30.52 GB is stored on the Mac's Pictures folder.
Other computers regularly used have smaller internal drives, such as my M1 MacBook Air. Since its storage is more limited, I have chosen the Optimise Mac Storage option. This means the Photos Library, while it contains the same number of files as the Systems Photo Library, occupies just 6.64 GB.
My iPhone (128 GB) and iPad Mini (64 GB) also have Optimise Storage set whereas the iPad Air 5 of 256 GB, can store full-sized photos, so its Photos are also 30.52 GB.
Great video thanks! Have you done on of migrating pictures from Lightroom to Photos.
Gary, I've been watching your videos for a while now, they are easy to follow and clear thinking. I'm trying to emulate the work flow that I used when I had Adobe Bridge, but using Mac Photos. Adobe pissed me off when they started with the predatory pricing of Photoshop and requirements for logging in to use Bridge. On a weekend I'd typically upload and quickly review a few thousand photos, rate (1-5*) and then delete about 90%, anything less than four stars. I haven't yet found a way to do that in the Mac Photos software. Do you have a workflow algorithm that might fit?
Keywords. You can use keyword tags like "1 Star" or "5 Stars" or get more nuanced if you like. Then use Smart Albums to quickly view things you have keyworded that you want to delete. th-cam.com/video/h-a739LKnro/w-d-xo.html
Yay, Randers Denmark😀
Excellent video. Thanks a lot for the comprehensive guide. Is there a way to merge 2 photos libraries without any application?
the only way would be to export from on library (unmodified originals) and the import those files into the other.
Perfect video! Gary's information is priceless and WAY faster than calling Apple Support
Thanks Gary. Very helpful with very clear explanations and examples.
When using references photos (say on an external drive), are they searchable through the iPhoto search function - text of people?
You can search any photo for text, but it has to be in the Photos app to do it in the Photos app. Otherwise, do a Finder search and it should find text in photos you have stored as plain files outside of the Photos app.
Fantastic video. You answered all of my questions. Thank you thank you thank you 🙏
Well copying the system library to an external SSD with this mentioned method took me forever to synchronize. Even though I had my library (1 TB) downloaded before syncing back, it took more than a week to finish the task. There must be some other way to move the system library because this was ridiculously slow.
My iMac photos has custom albums and I’ve switched to iCloud Photos. Everything has uploaded and synced fine so iMac and iCloud look the same. What happens when I enable iCloud Photos on my iPad and iPhone which have their own custom albums? Will each device retain custom albums but merge device photos into iCloud Photo Library? Note, I have download originals enabled on iMac so I ca use Time Machine backup, but plan to use Optimize storage on the IOS devices. Just a little nervous to pull trigger on IOS devices until I know what will happen before I do. :) Thank you!
of solutions - was about to pull out all originals and import them into a new library - when read on this post about duplicating the library file > did that (not copy... duplicate) > opened up just fine (photo app updated the file and then opened it up).
Great video, thank you. So what happens in iCloud when you change the system library to a different one? Do the photos that were in the original system library on iCloud remain on iCloud? Or are they deleted/replaced on iCloud by the photos in the new system library? Thanks!
Merged.
@@macmost thanks!
What happens to your photos when icloud is hacked.
Excellent video. So could you create a separate library and keep all videos in that?
You could. But I just put them as files, named well, in folders.
@@macmost that sounds good to me. Will you elaborate on how to do that? I would love to have photos not in apple photo library. Have 10's of thousands of photos and find photo app (with its' many changes over the years) confusing and way too much work!
@@ny6901 I assume you mean videos, not photos. Export the videos (originals) as files. Store them with good names and folder organization as you like. But I would never do it with photos as they work better in the Photos app. Take the time to learn it, it is pretty simple. You don't need to use all the features. See th-cam.com/video/pTe3TSAgQgE/w-d-xo.html
@@macmost I think iPhoto then photos of old gave me a bad experience. After watching many of your tutorials last night, I have much more hope. You are making it feasible! Thanks for clarifying and answering AMAZING!!! Thanks for the new link.
Thanks for this. It almost answers my questions. I want to use Photos to manage a huge catalogue/library of photos in an external SSD (speed is not a concern) and also to be able to access that library from my MacBook when in the road. As well as having the library itself on the SSD and turning iCloud off (not interested in having parts here and parts there and all the syncing and bandwidth issues), how can I ensure everything shows up in the Library but nothing is actually moved. Hope that makes sense! Thanks again.
Not sure what you mean. If you put your photos in the library then they are in the library. Maybe you are leaving out details here because I can't figure out your setup from this.
@@macmost Thanks a lot for responding. Apologies if I didn’t explain clearly. I want to share a large ‘folder-tree’ of photos on an external SSD between a Mac and a MacBook (on the move), but don’t want to use iCloud. Can I use the same Library (presumably on the SSD) with both computers, and are there any obstacles/dangers to doing so? Thanks again.
@@PoetryFilms Depends on how you do it. I assume you want to change the setting in Photos so it doesn't import the file, correct? So then the file remains on the external drive even though you see it in your Photos library? Try it with one or a few photos. See how it works in all situations (that computer, that computer without the drive, another computer). If that's OK for you, then you know you can do it for the rest. I haven't done it like that myself because I would always want all my photos available.
Thanks for this response, and apologies for the delayed reply. With the library and all the associated photos on an external SSD, it works great with my Mac. But when I connect to Macbook, and open the library from there, I get only low-resolution representations of the photos and can't edit etc. This, even though the actual original photos are on the external drive and therefore in the same place, relative to the library file, as when connected to the Mac. aybe Apple have made this 'library on the road' impossible. But thanks again in any case for your advice. @@macmost
Hard to tell what could be going on without knowing all the details. It should work but maybe your library isn’t set up correctly. @@PoetryFilms
Is their a program to find double pictures? and did you do a video on? I found it thank you
th-cam.com/video/RVw-nVWQwKU/w-d-xo.html
Gary, would this (the last option) be the best option for moving to a Synology NAS?
Well, I suppose. But I think it would be a very bad experience putting your Photos library on a network drive. It is important to be able to flip through your photos in the app, and over a network I'd imagine it would be painfully slow.
Great video Gary! How would I create a new library and then transfer photos from my current library to the new one. I recently sold a company that required several progressive pictures. I would like to keep them but I’ll likely never need them gain.
If your current library has the pictures you want, then what is the purpose of starting a new one and transferring the same photos to it? Just keep the current one.
@@macmost its more for archiving purposes. there is somewhere to the tune of 5 thousand pictures there that I will never look up that I do not want mixed with my personal photos
@@cdoggsawesomevids2784 Oh, I see. I would just export them to files in a folder. But another option is to duplicate the library and then in the duplicate delete everything but those 5000, and in the original library delete those 5000.
For us who have lots of photos and videos on our iPhones, what’s the best way to back those up without having to pay for lots of iCloud space? I have even external drives, but I don’t know the best method of how to back those up what are your suggestions for a possible solution that doesn’t involve paying for more iCloud storage? I’m even willing to buy adapters or anything else to store those photos if needed.
Sync to your Mac (second copy) and then backup your Mac as normal with Time Machine (third copy).
Great video. I have an internal drive on my iMac with about 180gb unused. Seems like moving photo library to an external would free up a lot of space. Is this a smart move?
I tried this (I have a similar situation) and it didn’t free up any space. I guess I still had plenty of space so it decided to leave the files in place. I wish there was an option to force the optimisation and free up all that space - perhaps we need to try filling up the drive with junk files to trigger the optimisation.
I prefer to keep mine on an internal (super fast) if at all possible.
So you moved your library to your external drive and it didn't free up space? Even after your next Time Machine backup? Maybe you left the old library on the drive?
@@macmost No my library is on the Air’s internal SSD. Haven’t done a Time Machine backup yet. I guess my point is that turning on "optimise" does not necessarily reduce the size of your photo library immediately.
@@abulka Oh, so you just turned on Optimize. Yes, then it will take some time. If you have plenty of space you won't see a difference 180GB free is fine. It is only when you start to run low that it will get smaller as needed.
Is it possible to install the latest version of macos on MacBook Pro 2016 ?
No. See macmost.com/macos-system-requirements-list.html
What happens if I import a large library (over 450gb located on external ssd) to my iCloud system library, on a MacBook with 256gb of storage? Will it start uploading directly to iCloud, or is more local storage needed?
Thanks for all your helpful guides and walkthroughs!
Probably won't let you do it. You'd need to import in smaller pieces. With such a small internal drive, everything will be harder.
@@macmost Thanks for the reply. I suspected as such, but haven’t actually tried. I guess I will need to import smaller batches, like photos by year or something.
2 questions my good man
1- does the .photoslibrary file contain my albums as well as the photos?
2- can I send specific photos from my iPhone to an empty or new .photoslibrary
Yes. No.
Thank you for video. I'm still having a problem. My I cloud is taking up a bunch of space. It seems like even though I have photos is I cloud they are still taking up space on my hard drive. Any idea why?
It will still use some space, yes. Recently-viewed photos will be cached locally. When you need more space then Photos and iCloud Drive will offload these to make room. (Provided you have the Optimize option checked).
Hi, Gary. Nice video as usual. I have two libraries on my mac: a Photos Library and a Iphoto library. I don't remember creating either one. Why do I have two? Should I merge them together? Will that mess up my albums on the Photos App? I also intend to copy both libraries and pate them on a Windows Laptop computer. This means that I will copy the original files and paste them onto a new computer system, correct? Then I will have to use whatever App windows has equivalente to Photos, to view and edit them, correct? Thank in advance Gary.
A guess would be that you had an iPhoto library from back in the iPhoto days. Then when Photos came out it prompted you to update that library to a Photos library. You did. But then you never deleted the old iPhoto library. If you really don't know then you have no choice but to open that iPhoto library in Photos and let it update and then see what is in there.
If you are moving these photos to Windows, then you'd need to export all of the photos from one or both and use File, Export, Unmodified Originals to get files. Then bring those files to your new computer.
@@macmost Gary, you were right. When I tried to open the iPhoto library, it told me that those were already migrated to Photos. When I do the same to my Photos library, I can view the whole 281 albums of pictures that I have. So, if I delete the iPhoto library, it won't affect my albums, correct? So, I guess I have to export my 281 albums of photos one by one, correct? Thank you very much for your time, Gary. Cheers!
@@paulo1901 Yes, if it is your old one you don't need it. You would just go to All Photos and export all your photos. You'll lose your albums. To save those groupings you'd need to decide what you are using on the new system first. For instance, Apple has a way to transfer everything to Google Photos: support.apple.com/en-us/118257
@@macmost Thanks, Gary. I'm planning on getting the new Mac Mini M3. I'll have to transfer everything from my old Mac. I know I can use Migrate or from TimeMachine. I still use Aperture for some projects on my old Mac. Since It's no longer supported by Apple, will it transfer normally? Thanks again, Gary. Cheers!
@@paulo1901 You can't run Aperture on your new Mac, so I would transfer your library to Photos now, before moving to a new Mac.
Suggestion: - Please make a video on iCloud Photos back up plan because 1. Time Machine doesn’t restore individual item. 2. iCloud storage fills up fast, even 2 TB. What are others back up options than Time Machine?
So your Photos library is approaching 2TB? Maybe consider breaking it up. Myself, I like to store large videos as files separately (with good names and folders) which brings my Photos library way down in size.
Great video. Question. Could you / someone better explain what is System Photo Library mean or control? Is that just where iCloud library would connect too? Does that just mean primary library? Can you help me understand that?
The Photos "System Library" is the one used by iCloud, yes. You can have other libraries, but only the name designated as the System Library would be synced to iCloud.
@@macmost why can't we sort our own photos on mac in Photos by newest?
@@Meekseek All views are already sorted by chronological order.
3:21 - So, are you saying that it might be possible to store the image files in folders in the Finder rather than in Photos itself? And, at the same time be able to use all the Photos features and capabilities? Would I then need to import photos from my iPhone through a physical connection since they would not be shared through iCloud?
Yes, but as you can see it isn't ideal. I certainly don't do it that way. But it is an option. Big drawbacks though.
Excellent explanations, as usual. Is it true that iCloud cannot backup from external drives, nor can time machine do that, therefore a photos database on external drive would require periodic manual backup for security. Thank you.
@@artmaltman iCloud isn't a backup service, so I'm not quite sure what you mean. Time Machine is a backup and it certainly can backup external drives as well as your internal one.
Legit question:
At one point I copied all of my photos and deleted them from the iCloud Library. I didn’t want to pay for additional iCloud storage at the time.
Now, after a few years, I want to get this pictures back to my library. I have them copied with all metadata on my external drive. How do I synch them with my existing library so the iPhoto will recognize them with the metadata and merge it into one library with my existing photos?
Do you mean you exported them as files from Photos, or you split your Photos library? For the former, just drag them back into Photos. For the latter, it gets complex but you can switch to that second library and make it your System Library, let everything sync to merge them.
If I move my photos library to an external drive (and make it my system library), will it still be backed up in iCloud? Will Time Machine still include it in backups?
As long as you make sure that external drive is included in your Time Machine backup, yes. Just check the Time Machine settings to make sure it isn't excluded in Privacy.
Question: If I use the referenced library option and delete a photo will Photos properly delete the file out of the finder folder?
No. I would say that the "proper" thing to do would be to NOT delete the photo. You don't want an app reaching out to your files and making changes like that.
Perfect! But complicated - but Im starting to understand.
Q: The system library is synced, correct? How can I delete bulk photos from iCloud but keep them on my home library? I have original size photos on my home library. Im afraid the sync system will delete my pics in both places?
ALSO: When I attempt to drag a pic or video from the home library to the Desktop or wherever, I get an error message. Apple wont allow apparently. HOWEVER, I can download (about 900 items at a time) to my computer. They come as a Zip file. But its slow!! and if you got 100k items it can take constant work and forever. Plus often with 900 to 1000 the zip file wont even open and you have to start again.
The entire library is synced. If you really want something not in iCloud (why?) then you'd need to export it (unmodified original), store it somewhere else safely, then delete the one in the library. You should be able to drag (or export) to the Desktop no problem. Not sure why you are getting an error message.
@@macmostThank you. Your info is spot on. The drag and drop resolved itself- maybe a glitch on my computer.
I found another one of your videos that helped me a great deal: 5 Ways to Download All of Your iCloud Photos.
@@macmost
I have another issue that has bugged me for years. When I export, the files loose their time/date stamp. In Info it shows Created on the day of export. I know the original data is there still in the deep.
It’s as if Apple has gone outta their way to hide the metadata.
Do you have a video on solutions? Can I run a bulk action to easily have the date and time recovered?
@@AlohaMichaelDaly Two different things: the FILE date and the PHOTO date. One is a property of the file, the other is a property of the photo inside the file. Open the photo in Preview, go to View, Show Inspector, then look for the EXIF info. That will show you the photo date. See th-cam.com/video/b33ir6FZMlY/w-d-xo.html for more.
I have too many photos and videos to keep on my local MacBook Pro. How are you able to keep a system photos folder on your local drive? Is it gigantic?
Use the "Optimize" option in Photos, Settings, iCloud. This is exactly what it is for.
Can you change the photos library iMovie points to or is it only the system library it will reference?
Only the one currently being used by Photos, which may or may not be the System Library.
@@macmost it seems to only use the system library “Photos” because I have a different library open and when I use iMovie it points to the System Library one. Thanks.
Over the years I’ve ended up with 2 library’s. My older pictures show in my current library as thumbnails but when I try to edit one of those it can’t find the file. It’s in the other library which I can open and edit. What is the best way to bring those old photos into the new library, knowing that the new library has thumbnails of all of my pictures?
First, you need to figure out what the deal is with those thumbnails without photos. Any idea how that happened? I suppose you can delete them if you know for 100% that they were created in error and you 100% have them in the other library. Then I would export all of your photos from the other library (Unmodified Originals!) and import those into your current library. Make sure you have your import settings correct and it isn't set to not copy the items into the library or something.
I have a MacBook, Mac, iPad, and iPhone. I’m logged into my Apple ID on all 4. I see the same photo on all 4 devices.
Are all 4 devices sharing the same photo library?
I want to back up the library to an external drive so I have my own backup in addition to iCloud.
So if I backup the photo library from my MacBook that would back up photos from all 4 devices, correct ? Thanks !
It sounds like you are using iCloud Photos so you will see the same photos everywhere, yes. If you have the Optimize option OFF on your Mac, and you backup your Photos Library, then you will have a complete backup, yes.
@@macmost Thanks so much. Between your videos and explanation, I'm finally getting it! ;)
Hi, I have a question: I am looking for a workflow to save icloud storage space. I have tons of photos and videos on my mac (external drive) outside of my icloud library. Is there any way which would enable me to synchronise only a few pics of the the last pictures taken from my Mac library to a different iCloud library so that I could have all the pics in all the devices? I should be able to do vice versa , i.e. save the latest pictures taken from my iCloud library to the mac library.
No easy way to do that. Why not have them all in iCloud?
@@macmost I have 2 TB of photos and videos. I don’t need everything everywhere. Cost of iCloud being the main reason
@@Quixorion Maybe consider storing videos as files elsewhere? That's what I do, at least for any video of more than a few seconds.
Videos are not the only Problem but RAW files
Question: When I make a setting like "Save these photos locally" is this setting ONLY effecting this location (say my iMac) - or is it telling ALL apple devices I own (iPhone , iPad) to also save their images in their images library. Or ... is there only ONE image library and all other devices (iPhone, iPad) are just access the photo library images that are copied to the cloud. I'm confused about the "Voodoo" behind this whole system.
I don't know what setting "Save these photos locally" is referring to. What's the exact setting and where is it located?
I have question I didn’t see yet covered: What happens if you switch your system library?
Will all iCloud Photos be removed from synchronized devices? Will it be merged into one gigantic library? Should be downloaded all photos to local HD before or it will be safely stored in iCloud?
In my use case: I have reached my HD limits so I have multiple libraries. Higher iCloud plan is already expensive. There are apps like Photomator, which can access your photos library if you allow it, but it is only system library…
Follow up question: I understand that Optimize is helping with space, but what about all metadata after switching system library? Will it still be possible to access it? Considering that iCloud plan to store all files exceeds current financial possibilities.
Thanks in advance for any help in this topic.
If you choose a different system library it should then merge everything from iCloud Photos to that new system library.
@@macmost Thank you for prompt answer :)
Thanks for the video. I dislike using iCloud for photos because I only shoot RAW and I’m not sure if it saves RAW. But, I often take 1,000-2000 photos in a single day of shooting. I don’t want to upload that many photos to iCloud automatically especially when I may not have time to edit them anytime soon. I prefer backing them up to an external drive.
I use a MacBook Pro, no desktop. My problem is when I backup a folder with 95 GB of photos and then delete the folder from my MacBook because I only had 3 GB storage remaining. I’m expecting to have 98 GB available on my MacBook yet end up with only about 75 GB? I don’t get it. This happens all the time. Can you please explain what’s happening? Thanks
Yes, iCloud Photo Library does RAW, FYI. Hard to say with the space, but it could be waiting for your next Time Machine backup before releasing those files (saving them in a Local Snapshot until then). Just a guess.
@@macmost Thanks, much appreciated. I don’t use Time Machine. But, I wish I clearly knew what happened to my space. Hopefully it’s a solvable mystery.
I may have an answer for you....Have you tried clearing the "recently deleted" folder inside photos? That folder keeps everything you have deleted for 30 to 40 days. Hope that solves it. Also I used to use Clean My Mac and it, if I recall, would find residual trash and leftovers.
@@ny6901 Much appreciated. I’m aware of it and always delete all from the folder right away. I’ve yet to try the cleaner app.
@@jcowboy53
In my experience it could be cached files in system. After restarting Mac it is usually freed space.
Question please:
If I change my system library, will I lose access to iCloud streams that were shared with me?
Streams? Not sure what you mean by that. But if you switched to a new library and made that your system library then it should merge everything in iCloud with the new library.
@@macmost sorry, “shared albums” not streams. Thanks Gary.
that is a great question. All the unintended consequences!
Hi, I need more advice on this topics. Can you give a contact for a possible short training. Thanks. Nena
Sorry, I don't know of any trainers. I'm sure you can find some near you if you ask around.
Do you have a movie on copying originals to external drive
Do you mean export them? You can export in the File menu, just choose "Unmodified Originals." Then you can save those files anywhere you want.
Is there a way to have the library saved on a nas storage or network drive? I do not need access to it to view photos so the app being slow in scrolling photos is no issue. I just do not want my macbook drive to get full with photos. Thanks
Sure, you can do that. Just put the library there. It would need to be a Mac-formatted drive though, I think. But I'm not sure why you need a Photos library but "do not need access to it to view photos." That doesn't make any sense.
@@macmost thanks for that. I mostly print the photos that i want and just keep the rest saved/backed up.
I have a question on the “iCloud library on external drive option”. I am looking in roughly 1 TB Photos and Videos on my NAS which I want to mass / bulk upload to iCloud (4 TB Plan) on my M3 MacBook (512 GB Storage).
Can I create Photos library on an external USB hard drive. Switch on iCloud for this library and then copying all my 1 TB photos into it for getting them uploaded to iCloud.
Once finished the idea is to disconnect iCloud with this external hard drive photos library. And set a new one up locally on my Mac again and connect it with iCloud photos and “optimize Mac storage “ switched on.
I’m hoping that iCloud is only downloading mostly thumbnail to my Mac then and keep the main storage in the cloud.
Does this all work or do you see any problems in my plan / idea?
That could work, yes. But why not just create the library on your internal drive, set to Optimize. Then import the photos. The result may be the same. But you may need to import them in smaller groups to let it upload them first, then optimize (offload them).
You could also set it up on your internal, set to Optimize, then import the photos over the web with iCloud.com.
@@macmost thank you very much for the fast answer. And thank you for the video and your support. Highly appreciate it!
great one, however you forgot to talk about iCloud Library On an External Drive. You talked about only Photo Library On an External Drive in the last part.
iCloud Library? There's nothing called that. Do you mean iCloud Drive? Or iCloud Photos Library? If iCloud Photos Library you can do that, you just need to select a library on your external drive as your system library. And of course always have that drive connected.
In the settings there should be the option for the shared albums , but on my mac this option is not on the setting screen.
How could that happen?
Do you have iCloud disabled for Photos? But it should still be there I think even if that is off.
I have a 2013 iMac running Catalina and it doesn't have a Pictures folder showing in Finder.
It should be in your Home folder unless you intentionally deleted it at some point.
Some apple support articles say keeping photos on network drives and referencing them in Mac photos is actually not supported. I tried an experiment and it kind of worked but as you say, was slow, almost to the point of freezing up mac photos for long periods. My network started slowing down and misbehaving. And this was for only a couple of dozen test photos kept on the network - via samba on a Synology NAS. Such a shame as i keep my photos archive on that NAS.
Now how the heck can you see the actual date you took or photos or videos once you have transferred your photos/videos to an external storage device?
Every time I transfer any photos/videos from my iphone or mac to an external storage it only shows the date they were transferred not taken. Its so frustrating, so how the are we supposed to remember what day they were all taken if we delete them from our iphone or mac after the transfer????
HELP!!!!!!
Are they just normal files now, not in a Photos library anymore? If so, you need to open them in an app that can show you the metadata. One is Preview. Open it in Preview, then Tools, Show Inspector. Go to the "i" tab and look at the Exif data.
I did the same as showed in the video and my system library is now stored in my 2T SSD but the space that the downloads are occupying is still on my Mac ( iCloud and every option are on) how it is possibile ? The files are stored in the old library and not in the new one (that is selected as system library!) please help me! @macmostvideo
If your system Photos library is on your SSD, then what makes you think that they are taking up space on your internal drive as well?
@@macmost Thank you for the answer! Luckily today I called apple support and they solved this issue after more than one hour call. In fact my Mac wasn't doing his work well as confirmed by support, (the Mac created another library itself that was 0kb) the problem was solved with this passages: I Copied the Mac library in the ssd for backup< deleted all libraries on Mac
Can you delete photos from iCloud or are they there permanently?
You can delete them, and they'll be in a separate folder for "recently deleted" files. If you delete them from there as well, they're gone for good.
As Andreas said, they go to the Recently Deleted folder and if you delete them they are gone forever, but also keep in mind, the automatically disappear from Recently Deleted after 30 days of you don’t delete them yourself. Plus, they are deleted from all your devices that are signed into the same iCloud account when you delete them.
Hi Gary! Please guide me on this. I have 200GB subscription and want to downgrade to 50GB plan. I guess my photos will be deleted, how to protect my photos from being deleted and how can I keep them in local drive on Mac and not in iCloud.
Just switch photos preferences from "optimise" to "download originals" then when all the original files are back on your Mac, export the photos you don’t want in iCloud out to to a folder and then delete them from photos. Then switch back to optimise. You are now using less iCloud. If you want your extra photos back in Photos, drag them in to Photos again as externally referenced files and they won’t be synced to iCloud.
First, they won't be deleted. You'd just have to get under 50GB before you could store anything new in iCloud again. But you don't even want to go there. Instead, first get your storage needs under 50GB and then switch plans. So you need to take photos and videos out of your iCloud system library (and files out of iCloud Drive if that is using a lot of space) before doing this.
@@abulka will you explain the difference between exporting or copying or drag and drop to the folder?
they give you 30 days to download your photos if I remember correctly.
@@ny6901 If you use File, Export, Unmodified Originals you get the original photo as it came from your camera. This is what you want. A regular export or a drag-and-drop gets you a compressed one with any changes you made (light adjustments, etc).
Seems like placing the library outside the MacOS drive is not something we can do in MacOS 14.4, I am getting and error and it says the library needs to be on the MacOS drive :(
Not sure what you mean. Your Library folder needs to be in your home folder on your Mac, yes. But that's a different thing than your Photos Library (considering this video is about Photos).
I do wish Apple would bring back Aperture - I hate having to pay the Adobe subscription for Lightroom!
What feature did you have in Aperture that is missing from Photos in 2023?
@@macmost Gary, do you use Lightroom? Or does Photos accomplish most of your photo editing needs? I've used Lightroom for years and I'm wondering if Photos can get the job done for me. Thanks for your excellent videos!
@@mrktm65sx I use Photos. It has tons of features plus iCloud.
@@macmost Fair point but the Photos App seems geared towards iPhone users. How about a Photos vid for the more serious photographer?
@@peterc2248 I have a lot of videos on Photos. It works well with photos from all sources, not just the iPhone. RAW photos, etc.
My _window server is the only thing under cpu in activity monitor preventing my Mac to go to sleep but it won’t fix it when I close it, how do I make it so my Mac goes to sleep
Hard to help with so little information. Call Apple Support and walk through the problem with them.
@@macmost my Mac OS Ventura isn’t going to sleep even when I press sleep, I don’t know what’s preventing it from sleeping how can I troubleshoot this?
@@Digitalcataloghub I can't begin to guess what the problem is. Call Apple Support. You need to walk through the problem with someone.
@@macmost i updated to Ventura on an outdated iMac so I’m going back to Monterey
ssd's like to think! If it is still working it might be bad to put it to sleep. Especially if you have an external connected.
Hi Gary apart from BAD filing ! HOW TO A FIND ALL OF MY PHOTO CO
I HAVE 5 COPIES OF MOST IN MOST ! HOWEVER HOW DO I FIRST FIND THEM A DELITE THEM 7,600 IN THIS DISC ONLY CHEERS BRIAN
th-cam.com/video/502eMhFsTeM/w-d-xo.html
the problem with the external option ( linking only ) is that if you edit a photo with Mac OS Photo app, the external photo will not be modified instead an internal copy will be created
Right. This follows along with the idea that the original is always maintained in the Photos app. You can always revert to it. That's very important. If you really want to impose a change, you can always export the new version and then import that as a new original photo.
@@macmost and can you confirm that the import is per single file . You can not say sync this folder and if a new photo comes into that folder then the photo app will not see it m you know what I mean . I have now a nas with all of my photos and I am trying to understand what is the better way to manage my photos since I have left icloud
@@14Musical_Instruments Not sure what you mean. If you set the import options they apply to any files you import. If you change the setting, then the new setting applies to any you import after that, etc.
I have lost hundreds if not thousands ph photos from my collection. Apple cannot explain why. I can go back and look for a specific photo and complete months of pics are gone. Any ideas why? thanks
Impossible for me to guess. Maybe you switched libraries at some point? Or deleted them by accident? I can only make wild guesses.
@@macmost I now backup everything on to Amazon photos
I found changing system libraries a dicey thing. I lost years worth of photos! However, things may have changed with iCloud to make it safer now and I clearly didn't understand how anything worked within photos and between photos and iCloud. Still learning.
I like the hard drive local back up idea after studying for years! All the constant changes make things too hard to keep up with.
Have you done a search by holding down your option key to find all your photo libraries?
This is a ridiculously complex and confusing explanation of storage options for a typical user, especially if you are coming from a Windows environment where a photo file is a photo file and it lives where it lives!. On my new Mac I’ve decided toI use a second library with albumns for premanent storage of All my photos, and only use the iCloud sync’d System Library as temporary storage for photos taken until I export them to permanent storage in my non iCloud sync’d second library
Having switched to Mac from pc I dearly wished I hadn’t. Windows explorer is light years ahead of finder for photos. You can’t even view in name order on finder. It does what it wants. And as for iptc tags, don’t get me started.
Advice for people on windows who want to swap is test thoroughly before you swap. I think the premise with Mac is that it treats you like your lacking in tech knowledge so if you have renamed photos properly and thoroughly tagged photos you are penalised somewhat. 😊
Not sure what you mean here. You can certainly view your photos by filename order in the Finder. You can choose between a variety of views including the photo-centric Gallery view. Sounds like maybe you just need to learn a few things to get what you want out of it if you decide to just keep your photos in the Finder as files instead of using the superior Photos app for this.
@@macmost windows explorer does it all simply. The photos app seems to pick its own order. I also have a 2023 keyword and there is no way to specify to search just for a keyword. If I search or spotlight search it finds the 2023 keyword but also any photo that was modified in 2023. In explorer you type ‘tags: 2023 animals’ for example and it can search for multiple tags and just the tags. It’s a new Mac mini and I didn’t realise that Apple have lesser versions of os with less functions. A terrible oversight of mine and probably the reason my new Mac doesn’t do what I want and why I’m returning it.
@@JonBushell In the Photos app the order in All Photos, or Years/Months/Days is chronological. If you search for something that is both a date and a keyword, like "2023," then in the results page you can see several sets of results and one of which is "Keywords" and it would only contain the items with 2023 as a keyword.
Also not sure of the utility of tagging something as "2023" when that information is already part of the metadata for the photo.
Also keep in mind you are comparing two different things here: the Windows file browser and the Mac Photos app. The equivalent to Windows Explorer on the Mac is the Finder, not the Photos app. You've got a ton of functionality in both though. It just may take some time to learn how to do things in the Finder and the Mac Photos app if you have been used to the Windows versions of these things.
This is strange that you can't sync more than one library with iCloud. 😢😢😢
I tried to combine 2 photo libraries (my partner's and mine) before I understood system libraries. I think I lost YEARS worth of my own photos.
I just upgraded my iCloud storage plan to 2TB, but found out that I can't use more than 500GB of it because my Mac HD is only 500GB. So the extra iCloud storage is totally useless. I was thinking I could use it like an external HD. So. . . Apple gives me the "One-Finger-Salute" again.
Just turn on the "Optimize" option in both Photos and iCloud Drive and you can do that. It is exactly what "Optimize" is for.
@@macmost Thank you so much for replying to my complaint. I must be doing something wrong. I opened my Photos app and Optimize was already selected. The only place I could find settings for the iCloud Drive was under "about this Mac" then "storage settings" where there is just one option to select "Store in iCloud". Under "System Preferences" all that is available is to turn ON or OFF the sync feature for apps that are stored in iCloud. The problem isn't with not having enough space on iCloud, it's when I try to add more files to it I get the message that there isn't enough storage on my Mac HD; or down another menu path, I get the option to buy more Cloud storage. Where do I find the "Optimize" choice for iCloud? I have a MacMini M2 Pro with Ventura 13.0, 500 GB SSD that has 490GB used. Thanks for any additional suggestions you can offer.
What about those of us that do not want to store any photos on icloud and want to sort our photos via newest instead of scrolling down for newest, I guess some genius came up with that idea to push icloud.
I guess only they who don't care about privacy want iCloud photos? I'm curious wouldn't store our own private photos on iCloud and allow AI
to have access to them please don't tell me pswds help, it also has access to that.
"But if you have other needs you can move it to an external drive, create more libraries, and..."
Need not so much WANT privacy & know more than the usual new and iphone user, I know icloud is not an option.
And frankly they wouldn't even warn people that icloud has been hacked.
"How Your iCloud Can Be Hacked and How to Protect It" There is no protecting it when it's within.
If you copy the library to another place and you have a large amount of not referenced fotos in your library, because you unchecked the import function. you will be forced to upgrade your icloud volume if you set this library to system library. Apple is such a bitch