How to Move Your Apple Photos Library to an External Drive

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

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[amyhahn]

I LOVE this guy! He's clear. And fun. Good on camera. Answers all the little "what ifs" before you even think of them.

[chelseabowers]

I am working on preparing to launch a podcast. Your mic looks amazing. Do you have any recommendations?

[Robin.ThePlantPath]

Hi thank you. I am trying to move photos from my iphone to an external drive but can't find a way to do it to move the whole folder like you did. i have 22k photos and 2k videos to move. Also, if you move the whole library like you did, what happens with new photos that you take, and lastly how about if you don't want to use icloud at all. My 200 g of icloud is full and i don't want to pay them for the rest of my life lol.. so i guess i want to turn off this sharing move the library and then have a maintenance procedure to update the storage once a month.. does that make sense? just trying to find an easy way to do this.. (not one photo at a time, not drag and drop.. i'd like a copy and paste.. done)

[teflons]

Im 3 years late but I just wanted to say that your positivity and just overall energy is incredibly positive and uplifting.

[annaguettabi]

External drives go bad??? How long does it take?

[j.j]

What if you don’t have iCloud turned on, or at least photos for iCloud turned on? I was planning on getting a Mac this year. I already have an iPad, but I don’t use icloud. Would this happen if everything for iCloud is turned off?

[MamaLoLa]

I have some questions because I need to do this. 1.) Wouldn't you want to make sure the move was successful before deleting the original? Ideally there's a backup somewhere, but wouldn't that be a hassle to get back? I wouldn't know how to do that and would need a tutorial from you on that. 2.) You moved the library to the XTRM-Q drive, however, when you show how to get back in (which also took a few confusing turns for me regarding the different libraries, and "option" and comma...), you aren't accessing the XTRM-Q drive but one called Nymeria instead (at 6:03, 6:24, 6:30 and 6:37). Why is that? Did the move not work properly? I'd love to know because again, I need to do this but I'm afraid to lose all my stuff, especially now when I see the different drives/locations. 3.) I'm subscribed to you but can't find mac-dedicated playlists. I'd really like to know more about different libraries, how you choose, how you set the default, etc. Thank you.

[ChansuoTsukama]

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.

[guoanwen]

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!

[kirkaplin]

Well done! Don’t you also want to declare this new photos library the “system library” ?

[henryzhang]

Both my iPhone and iMac are sync to the iCloud, showing same amount of photos but iMac apparently downloaded significantly more data to he drive, I wonder why.

[nooorah]

Please how do I connect iCloud w the new empty photos library

[damiensimon]

Aloha Doc! I need help! I haven't been able to back up photos from my iPhone to my iMac's photos. I learned that it's because I am back up to iCloud so there are no photos on my iPhone. How do I back up the pictures from iCloud onto both an external hard drive and my iMac? Mahalo, Damien

[paulettelong]

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.

[claytondjuran]

Hi. Helpful Video. I'm trying to move 175GB photo Library from my 2016 Imac to an 1-TB WesternDigital HDD . It says 64 days (yes, Sixty Four Days! lol) to transfer via direct ethernet cable. Any advice on am i doing wrong?

[vijayashreepilli]

Awesome....very helpful! Where is the video link to move Apple Music Library to an External Harddrive?

[rosienichols]

Thank you! I got confused with the last step because you were not selecting the same external hard drive to link to photos.

[triman]

At 6:30 you are checking to see that library has been moved to your new drive, but you have the drive Nymeria selected. Wasn't that the original location of the photo library? Shouldn't have your new drive XTRM-Q selected instead to validate the photos library was moved there?

[katieeggert]

Will the photos you take on your phone continue to sync with iCloud and photos app on the computer now that you’ve done this?

[mikaylajbmartin]

THANK YOU!!! years of struggling with being stingy with downloads hahaha!!! With only 1gig left, you are a LIFESAVER!