How to MOVE your iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARIES and APPLE PHOTO LIBRARIES to an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!

Are you migrating to a different Mac or trying to free up your hard drive space? Either way, you may find yourself wanting to move/copy your Apple Photos Library to a new location.
This tutorial walks through steps of moving non-iCloud Photo Libraries and iCloud Photos Libraries to an external hard drive to free up space on your Mac.
We will also discuss referenced photos and consolidating photo files as it is good thing to look at before moving your files!
How to merge Apple Photo Libraries
• How to MERGE and COMBI...
00:00 | Intro & Welcome Back!
00:36 | How to find your Photo Libraries
02:15 | Renaming Photo Libraries
02:55 | Why you Need/Want to move Photos Libraries
03:24 | Understanding referenced files
04:14 | Finding referenced files manually
05:17 | Finding referenced files automatically with smart albums
06:12 | Understanding Missing referenced files
06:59 | Moving Photos Library to External Hard Drive
08:02 | Review of consolidating files back into Photos
10:43 | Verifying iCloud Photos
13:19 | Third Party App Recommendation
14:18 | ONE MORE THING - Repairing Photo Libraries
#iCloud #Apple #Photos #iPad #iPhone #Mac #Applephotos #libraries #joelfeld #learnwithjoel
If you have a video suggestion, let's chat!
/ learnwithjoel
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[@alvarorivera7372]

I am a real fan of this “how to move your photo libraries” series of yours. The best content and crystal clear explanation in whole KZbin. Mastering this skill is a must when you want to preserve all your pictures and having enough internal space in your Mac 24/7 💻 I’ve been following your advice since day 1 and it completely changed my life. Thanks a lot! 🙏🏻

[@Learnwithjoel]

WOW, thanks so much for the kind positive feedback @Alvaro Rivera! If I'm able to help a handful of people in the world with what I've learned over the years, that's my whole goal! Thank you so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@alexisnoyes499]

@@Learnwithjoel awesome video Joel

[@RJUnleashedVideos]

Joel thanks! I watched several Tutorials about IPhoto. This one was easiest to understand. I bought an MacMini last jan. with the M1. Its amazing but like most I upgraded to 16GB of Ram. Only 256GB HD so space is an issue. I finally broke down and bought a Sandisk 1 TB SSD. Man that thing is fast. I completed all your tips and process. All totals of files on the money. And no Reference Files to deal with. The Big Tip was Directing ICloud to use the Library on the EXT SSD. It was a cake walk with your instructions. Successfully Copied to the SSD, then a Back up library to 4TB WH disk EXT drive. Now I just need the courage to move the library from Home HD to the Trash. I think tomorrow will be good. All this and setting up the NEW iPhone 13 Pro Max phone I got from Santa. Life is Good!

[@Learnwithjoel]

@RJ Unleashed my friend! It's comments like these that keep me going. I'm so grateful for the kind words and that my content is helpful! I love those Sandisks too! So small, fast and durable, and honestly pretty well priced! I hope the rest of your setup goes well, and I wish Santa brought me a new iPhone 13! Never hesitate to reach out! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@cnielson01]

I found this video extremely helpful primarily as it relates to feeling comfortable all files stay where they belong such as with Imovie and the related media files.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks @Charlie Nielson! It truly means a lot when i'm able to create some helpful content to teach others! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@BrizzaAnahi]

I believe I'm getting good karma here: I just typed "download all icloud photos to hard drive" and this video was the first option that popped up in my search, and Im glad it did. I don't feel I have to look for more videos bcs it was clear and easy to understand. Thanks for creating quality content!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Wow, thanks so much @Brizza Anahi! I'm always grateful to hear when some of my content is helpful for others! Thanks so much for watching and I truly appreciate the support!

[@cosimop1539]

Really this and your others video are the top pn KZbin. I was going crazy on how to backup my icloud photos on an externalssd without loosing all metadata. All your video clear any question. Just stay there and look at it, every question will be answered. Really thank you Sir. Have a good day!

[@Learnwithjoel]

I appreciate you and your kind words @cosimop1539! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@Pioneer_Classic_Trucks]

Thank you! Your videos are really helpful when learning this and I successfully moved a large library to an ext. drive.

[@coachminawatkins]

THANK YOU!! You just solved two of my biggest problems - to merge a really really - really OLD iPhoto library that has been corrupt for 10 years now. LOL. Yay!! And then move my photo library to an external hard drive to save space on my mac.

[@Learnwithjoel]

You are so very welcome @Mina! I'm happy these videos were helpful in making you successful! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! Also if you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@MikahWonders]

This was extremely helpful!!! Thank you thank you! I have been trying to get my phones consolidated for a while and haven’t been able to do it successfully until this video! Thank you!!!

[@Learnwithjoel]

That's always great to hear when my content helps someone @Mikah Wonders! You're very welcome! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@Trackhoe075]

Wow way to go and take what should of been a fairly easy simple process and make it so confusing with a bunch of other issues great job

[@georgetischenko4372]

Thanks Joel, have been pulling my hair and out all day till I found your videos Fantastic and thanks Geo T

[@Learnwithjoel]

Happy to help @George Tischenko! Thanks so much for watching!

[@hagemanfamily]

I have become a fan of ALL your videos. You have a way of explaining in a clear, uncluttered manner. No Ha-Ha jokes or ringing bells. Love it. Watching some videos just for the fun of it. So easy to learn..... Thank You

[@Learnwithjoel]

I appreciate you and your kind words @hagemanfamily! Thank you for your continued support! I appreciate you more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you!

[@nickmonaco7451]

I have already transferred my photos to external, although it is still optimized for storage. I am a little bit weary of making my external the default iCloud library until I download the originals, although I don’t have enough room on my original location to download them…. What is a good (safe) work around for this? Or am I good to download originals after I make it my default? Thanks in advance!

[@Learnwithjoel]

@@nickmonaco7451 You should be totally fine to make the iCloud Library your default. It won't start downloading the originals unless it's linked with iCloud as that's where all the originals live

[@johnhassan2074]

You are the first one to provide a very clear precise “how to” I will now check out other videos. Do you reply to questions?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @John Hassan! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the kind words! Yes! I do my best to try to respond to every single comment. It may not be right away, but I get to them sooner or later! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support! I hope you find some useful content!

[@cnielson01]

Being aware of where physically one's Data lives and accumulates will make the organization of all types of files more efficient as your video brought to light. One's primary drive by definition will continually grow with videos being a big contributor. Changing where the system stores new data from the outset could potentially avoid the need to move data simply because of a capacity issue related to the primary boot drive. Of course there are yet other reasons one may want to move or consolidate libraries etc.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Very true @Charlie Nielsen! Thanks so much for watching and the continued support!

[@RJUnleashedVideos]

Charlie, Transferring from my old 2009 iMac to Mac mini M1 during the height of the Pandemic, was a nightmare, even using the Apple Transfer tool. At least I have my Library Ext. Now with a TB to work with vs. 256 on the Mini. I still have Photos and Videos an Externals everywhere. At least I can build the Library now from a large space. Looking for the best Find Duplicate software.

[@kimfrench7478]

Hi Joel, Great video and I am in the process of moving my photos to an external hard drive. My 2 questions before I delete the photos library (that I just copied to external drive) from my MAC is "Will my MAC create a new photo library to add new photos on my MAC or do I need to create a new one?" and "when using iCloud how have I reduced the storage if iCloud still has the photos from this library I copied?" Thank you for your help with all of this.

[@portdawg66]

Joel, first of all, love your channel! Really my first choice for info on all things Apple. This particular video has recently become very relevant to me, as I am getting ready to migrate all of my photos to a new Mac (Studio). I may be overthinking this, but here is the dilemma I am facing... I bought the new Studio primarily for photo management and editing. I will not be adding any other apps of files to it, other than my photo libraies and editing software (Affinity, Luminar Neo, etc.). I am a dedicated amateur photographer, and have experienced over-tasking of memory and process latency using my editing software on my current Mac (2019). Hence my purchase of the Studio. I will continue to use my Mac for routine work and home management. My plan has been to move me Apple Photos library to an external drive, and use that on the new Studio. But I can't help but think that might not be necessary, if once I fire up the new Studio and establish my profile on there with my iCloud account, my photo library will simply sync to it (hopefully full resolution). I can then add a clean (formatted) external drive to the Studio, and move the newly synched library from the hard drive, over to the external and be right where I want to be. Does that make sense? Am I indeed overthinking this? Or am I missing something obvious? You comments and recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Again, love your channel and thanks for the outstanding content. Always looking forward to your uploads! Kindest regards!

[@MarthaDelgado-yw5fz]

Joel, I finally get to understand much of the tech you discuss, thank you! Questions: 1) New photo library on external drive, can phots be edited in mac without having to import back in?2) Are phots available on iPhone and iPad even when computer is off?

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @marth Delgado! Question1: So if your Apple Photo library is located on an external hard drive, that external hard drive must be connected to view/edit/use all the photos. If you have that drive disconnected from your Mac and open Apple Photos, it will create a brand new separate Apple Photo library locally on your Mac. You then would have to constantly merge libraries together, which would be a hassle. Question 2: If you're using a cloud service like iCloud Photos, then yes, you would have full access to all the photos on your iPhone or iPad even when your Mac is turned off. The biggest thing is paying for enough storage to accommodate the total amount of photos that you have. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@g.r.2985]

Great tips, thanks! Really easy to follow. Looking forward to learning more from your new videos.

[@Learnwithjoel]

I am grateful for you and your kind words @g.r.2985! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@anthonya824]

Good video. Professional, clear, instructional. Thank you!

[@Learnwithjoel]

I appreciate the kind feedback @Anthony A! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@DebbieHardingPastelTapas]

Hi Joel, thank you for all of this info. I appreciate it. In order for this new external hard drive to be synced with iCloud, does the computer need to be plugged into the hard drive at all time? I use a laptop, and I cannot keep the hard drive plugged in at all times. I'm so new at this, it must seem like a goofy question. Now that I have re-found you...I subscribed a long time ago...I plan to watch more. I bet you answer this question at some point, but maybe you will give me a brief answer now. Thank you.

[@tenso1987]

Very useful videos Joel! Thank you I have a question - I move my main library to an external HDD and I would like to mage all pictures from there as the HDD is always connected. After opening the library from the HDD and trying to import pictures stored on my Mac or iPhone, it never finish or import anything. I had to quit the library as looks like there is an import session in progress. is this even possible? or maybe the format of the HDD must be APFS (currently ExFAT)?

[@hughmnyks]

You are a star! Wish I'd seen this yesterday, then I'd still have hair on my head!

[@rodcord]

I am grateful for this video! Thanks a lot! :)

[@sulai6i]

Thank you so much for the all new information

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're welcome!

[@RoarkGourley]

This video saved my ass. Thank You! all the other ones forgot Use as System Photo Library... and how to do it.

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @Roark Gourley! Very happy it was helpful! Thanks for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@epiedra99]

Nice video! I moved my library to an external drive, but whenever I take photos with my iPhone, the photos automatically pop up in a different ‘library’ in my old MacBook internal storage presumably because of ICloud. Is there a better way not to have to deal with 2 libraries? Thank you!

[@ronhsieh1]

Joe, that was really helpful video! It answered a lot of questions I had regarding iCloud and backing up and preserving my original photos of several years. Once I have transfered the iPhoto library to an external drive and deleted the one on the MAC, will deleting my older photos from my Photo on my iPhone also delete them from the Photo library on the external drive? I am trying to save storage on my iPhone.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Ron Hsieh, Moving your Apple Photos library to an external drive will allow you to free up space on your internal Mac's hard drive, but it depends freeing up space on your iPhone. Are you using iCloud to sync photos? If so, iCloud Photos is designed to sync your photos so they're the same on all devices. So if you delete from one device, it will delete from all devices. A better option is to optimize the space on your iPhone for iCloud Photos. This is a setting you can easily turn on. I have a video that references this concept and will link below for reference: FREE UP SPACE on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac - The BEST WAY to OPTIMIZE iPhone & iPad Storage kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHjQf2B5YpuKbaM I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@forpaulius]

Helpfull and in depth video, thanks . I got my first mac & Iphone 10+ years ago, but still not comfortable with libraries.can you help with my issue: Have maxed out 2TB of iCloud (mainly photos), and wonder how to do it "right" with library on external drive. lets say I get 4TB(or more) external drive, and move(download ) all my iCloud photos to it. Then I want to free up my iCloud and lets say I delete 1TB of photos/videos from iCloud(would leave only "favorites" and maybe other albums on Icloud). here 2 questions pops up: - How to delete these 1TB of Icloud photos without deleting it from External drive(afraid it will sync and delete form external, while syncing) - when I take more photos, and later turn on Mac I want new photos on icloud to add to the external drive, together with these 2TB of photos from before. Can it be done automatically? or I need to move these manually? if done automatically Im afraid it (system) will delete photos from external drive library, because these are deleted from iCloud.. (ref. 1st question)

[@harrisfogel6992]

Wonderful video. I taught digital photo for years, but learned a lot from your videos! Quick question. I have a colleague with 2TBs of photos in his iCloud account. It's so full, that we need to clear it out, and save to an external drive. The option to turn off Photos in iCloud preferences, won't download the files due to restricted amount of space on his laptop, which is why an external drive is our preferred location. Do you have suggestions about downloading all the images in his iCloud to an external drive? I thought about using your suggestion to create a new library on the external drive, then hopefully, when we disable Photos in iCloud preferences, the option to download, will go to the new library on the external drive. But.. before I tried that, I thought I'd ask your opinion. Thanks for all the great work and videos!

[@Rasmus_el_Pescador]

hello Joel and thanks for the clarity. I am using a system that seems good to me but raises some questions. Well, I have a large library living on my external drive with all photos with dates prior to 30/12/ast year. At my Macbook i keep only the photos of this year and when the year ends I move them to the hard drive. So here my question, Can I somehow have an Icloud that syncs both external drive libray and my Mac's/Iphone? And if yes, could i keep the new original photos been downloaded everytime I plug my external drive and run the larget library?

[@Tajhad]

Thanks Joel. You are a wealth of information. Two questions. 1: can you use this method as a second backup of your library ? (In other words - still use the library stored on your Mac -but have a back up on the external drive if ever needed) 2: Do you miss the demise of Aperture ? Thanks again.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks so much @Terry Haddow for the kind words! 1. So in theory yes... you could use it as a second backup method, however doing it manually could probably get quite tedious. If you really wanted to do that, I would get an external drive and configure Time Machine on it to only backup your Photos folder, that way you let the technology keep track when it's updated automatically and then you don't have to manually keep dragging and copying the library over... 2. Aperture was a fantastic Application. It was introduced when I actually worked at Apple and I got the pleasure to teach it to people. I do miss it, but as everything in life, sometimes the good things just go away. I switched to Lightroom for a while, but now I currently use CaptureOne. It is a great Application and it's always good to learn something new! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!

[@t3fLoN77]

Joel Feld How would you recommend PC users backup their iCloud Photo Library (anything automated would be ideal).

[@lievenm2661]

Thank you Sir!!!! All your vids are clear very clear simple easy to follow as well!!! You’re sooo cool without trying or forcing which makes it a super awesome experience for your viewers. I’ve been on a mission to declutter my i devices and your series have been more than extremely helpful!!!! Keep this up!!! Could you do an update on M1 MacBooks since similar but a bit different.. found my way by troubleshooting.. thx a trillion!!!

[@meetjoe8630]

Thanks Joel, you solve my problem. Wondering if I want to move back photo library from external drive to Mac, are the same processes applied?.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Meet Joe86! So happy to help! Yes, the process would be identical to move the photo library from the external hard drive back to the Mac! I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@colin031051]

Hi Joel, love your videos, I've found them all super informative however, I'm a septuagenarian living in the UK who is reasonably savvy with my Windows PC, MacBook Air and new iPhone 14 Pro Max I have two questions to ask before I make a complete hash of things and screw everything up. Here's my set up, I have a massive load of photos and videos on my PC, I currently have 200GB of Apple iCloud which I will upgrade to 2TB, my 2013 MacBook Air is only 125GB with a 250GB SD Jet Drive and my iPhone is 250GB. All three are linked to my iCloud but only a fraction of my PC media has been added to my iCloud Photo Library at present until I upgrade. 1) Does my Windows 10 Laptop work in the same way as my MacBook Air so that when I upload files to my iCloud Photo Library that it effectively keeps a smaller sized file on the PC whilst keeping the full sized file in the Cloud or does it create duplicate file of the original on my PC in an iCloud Folder like Microsoft One Drive does, thus eating up my drive. 2) If I purchase a 4TB Portable Hard Drive, format it to MAC OS, copy all of my media files onto it from my PC and MacBook Air, upload them all (via my MacBook Air) into my iCloud Photos Library and then move my iCloud Photo Library from my MacBook Air onto the Portable Hard Drive making it the Master Photo Library, what happens if I disconnect the Portable Hard Drive from my MacBook Air, will all of my Media be unaccessible from my MacBook Air and iPhone until I reconnect the Portable Hard Drive or will I be able to view the smaller sized files until the Hard Drive is reconnected. Sorry for the long question but as you can see, I am a little confused and don't want to lose everything but would love to be able to look at everything via my iPhone wherever I go and that's about 1-1.5TB of Data. Many Thanks once again Joel, I hope that you can help me out.

[@darcia9316]

Now I set up my external drive Photos as the Systems Library. I need it to download the iCloud photos that I didn't back up for 2 years. Do you think it will just synch on its own. Should I be using the computer while it works at the background or just leave it and not touch it? How do I start the downloading process? Thank you so much

[@jajaborny5512]

Really appreciate your work

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @Jajabor NY! I appreciate you watching and your support!

[@elysiantoons6774]

Hi, Not sure if you’ll see this. This videos and others have been so helpful but i’m running into the same issue over and over again and can’t quite figure out what the right way to go about it would be. I have an i cloud photo/videos library that’s around 2TB spanning over several years. I am unable to download all originals to my iMac in order to move it all to a external harddrive as it doesn’t have 2TB worth of space. Is there an easier way to get all the videos and picture originals onto an external harddrive without losing it all? Do I copy half the downloaded library onto the hard drive first, then delete it from the iCloud Drive and select keep originals on computer again so that it copy’s the other half of originals to the computer and then I could transfer that over to the hard drive? Can two libraries exist in the same hard drive side by side? Please advise as to how I could work out this issue. I’d truly appreciate it!

[@sasstewart1222]

Great detailed video, thanks Joel.

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @SAS Stewart! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@Gauchosister]

Hi Joel, thanks for your great videos! I've a question: on the new M1 based MBPro, is it safe to get the main iPhoto library stored on the SD card slot? Thanks in advance!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks @Gauchosister, and great question! Here's my take on that. As great and convenient as the SD card slot is, I personally would not use an SD card as my primary location for Photo Library. My concern would be that they're small and could easily get lost or bent. Also, I wouldn't like having something that important always stick out the side of my laptop. That would my first thoughts about using it. Not saying that it couldn't work, but it would by my preference to not use an SD card. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@hagemanfamily]

Great GreatnnnAfter new library created on HD, where do you tell system (and how) that it is now the System Library?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @hagemanfamily! So after you open up the new Apple Photo Library from your external drive, you would click on Photos in the top left and go to the Settings of Photos. Under the first tab called "General" It will say Library Location and you should have two buttons: "Show in Finder" and "Use as System Library" If "Use as System Library" is greyed out, that means you're in the System Library. If it's not and you click it, it will be come the Sytem Library and merge with whatever is iCloud Photos in the cloud. I hope that makes sense! Thank you for your continued support! I appreciate you more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you!

[@mikekypriotis3862]

So if i want just a back up (no syncing), I simply do everything except the part of setting the external drive library as system photo library correct?

[@chaisiriu.2062]

Hey Joel great video! I have some questions and hope i get a reply from you: I have an 1TB Mac Storage & 2 TB iCloud Storage. I recently just bought External SSD with 2 TB storage In my scenario, it is a reverse of the situation that you explained in your video in the way that I do not want to make my External SSD "System Library" to sync with iCloud as I have enough space on the Mac. My objective is purely to create a back up for my Photos on the External SSD while still making my Mac "System Library" to sync with iCloud 1. With that being said, I would make my Mac a "System Library" to sync with iCloud and download photos as original on the mac. Then, copy the .photolibrary from my mac to my External SSD and do not make my External SSD "system library" to avoid any iCloud Photos sync. Is this the correct way to back up Photos on External SSD (without using time machine)? 2. Following #1, I plan to back up my photos on the External SSD every month, that means every month I would repeat #1 and copy .photolibrary from my Mac (with updated photos from iCloud) to the External SSD and delete the previous .photolibrary file in the external SSD from previous month. Correct? 3. This is a separate question. Ive gone through all ur videos but have yet to find a videos related to Notes and Calendar. I have big OCD about losing my data and I am quite concerned about having Notes and Calendar just sync on iCloud without backing up. Is there any method to back up Notes and Calendar on my External SSD

[@DJmicaiah]

Very informative and concise!

[@Learnwithjoel]

I appreciate the kind feedback @Micaiah Masterson! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@donnadean8879]

Would I be able to transfer iPhotos to external hard drives via albums I created in iPhoto as oppose to selecting individual photos? This way I get to maintain the photo albums already created?

[@MOGirlOutside]

Thank you for the video. It is very helpful. Do you have another video about how to move photos out of the Photos app and into folders on my computer? That's kind of how I started storing my photos before I got a Mac and it just seems easier for me. Is there a way to export from Photos? Thank you.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Laurie Medley! Sorry for the late response as I was out traveling all last week! Now that you say that, I don't think I have a video on exporting photos out of Apple Photos into Folders and such. I think that would be a good one to make next! But to answer your question, yes you are able to export the files from Photos. Before you start doing that, let me ask a few questions... Is your main goal to still use Apple Photos or something else to edit your pictures? Do you use iCloud Photos? Do you want to link Apple Photos and have all of your pictures referenced and not stored in the library? I guess my point is, before you start exporting your pictures out, it would be good to discuss the workflow of your photos as depending on how it's currently setup and being used by you, the path we take could be different! Hope that makes! Look forward to hearing from you! Thanks for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@MOGirlOutside]

@@Learnwithjoel thank you. My goal right now is to gather all my photos from iCloud & Photos and just store them in folders. Then I will have to choose a basic software to edit. I know it is sort of old-school, but I’d rather all my photos be in one spot. I’m finding it too hard to manage otherwise. Appreciate any advice

[@laurac8956]

hi! I want my external disk to be organised by years and the date that the photos have been taken, how can I do that ? I have the external disk formatted with Mac OS Extended (journaled). thanks

[@loganswift8046]

hey man so i want to put my iphotos in a external usb hard drive but want to delete from my mac and iphone so how do i safely delete my icloud photo library but have them on a usb drive for safekeeping so i can take new photos but am afraid if i delete them on my phone and mac it will delete it on the usb drive since it has to to with the cloud.

[@aliciapark6241]

Hi! Please i need help. I have a windows pc with itunes and icloud in it. I opened icloud on google and downloaded photos from there and it downloaded as zip files. Is it the original photos or because it’s zip file the quality of the photos is lowered or bad?? Or can i continue back up my photos like this or do you recommend another way? It downloaded as zip file so the downloaded photos and videos are in bad quality and not the original photos? I copy the photos out of the zip files so now they’re not in the zip files. They’re in the normal documents

[@wrc1717]

Just found your site, very informative. I have an iMac, I primarily use LR and PS, but was curious if I could use apple photos as well (without messing up LR & PS)?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @William R Cress! Great question. I guess it all depends on how you want your workflow to be. Lightroom not only is an excellent photo editor, but it also catalogs and organizes your pictures. Photoshop is primarily a photo manipulation tool that is top notch, but it doesn't organize your photos... If you store pictures in Apple Photos, you can always right click on an image and choose "Edit with" and do your editing in photoshop and the changes will be reflected in Photos, but it's not that easy with Lightroom. I would say that most people who use Lightroom or photoshop don't use Apple Photos all that much. I can speak to my personal/professional freelancing that I import and edit everything in CaptureOne and Photoshop and then I use Photos as the main location to share my pictures. So long story short, yes and no? It really comes down to the workflow of your pictures. Do you do photography for fun, or is it a profession? Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@wrc1717]

@@Learnwithjoel Just for fun!

[@soundtacular3900]

Need help with this I internal storage on my I phone is full, I have no computer and when I try moving photos of my phone onto a external hardrive it can’t because the phone has no storage space to download the photos to transfer any help appreciated thanks 🙏🏼

[@subirajkumar]

Thanks a lot!! love from India ❤️

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Subi Raj Kumar! Thanks for watching from the other side of the world! I'm happy it was helpful and I appreciate the support!

[@markkinnebrew]

Is it safe to delete your photos/videos from icloud storage once you move the library to an external hard drive? I have 2TB and it's full so trying to figure out what the best option is moving forward.

[@seanreed4820]

Hi, Joel. Great video. I'm wondering if I can install my system photo library on onedrive (or any other cloud based drive) instead of using an external drive? Also, if I have to use an external drive what does the formatting need to be? Can it be an ExFat formatted drive?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @S R! I actually use OneDrive and Google Drive on a regular basis and am very familiar with them both. I can say that OneDrive is way more picky than Google Drive, and it does not do well syncing not only a Photos Library but other files that have long file names and different permissions. We have to keep in mind that the Photos Library is not just one folder...it's hundreds of folders and files behind the scenes and when you try to upload it something like OneDrive, it will fail. Google Drive is a little more friendlier. I have been successful in syncing a Photos Library to it, however it does constantly sync and make google backup and sync run all the time and it often got hung up on files every now and then. Also keep in mind, you still need the Photos library either locally on your Mac, or on an external drive so that it can be an option for it to even sync to any of the cloud systems. Overall, in my opinion it's not worth the hassle and headache. iCloud does an excellent job syncing the photos for this particular reason. Now as far as the formatting of the hard drive, I would NOT format as ExFat or Fat32. If you're using it for a Photos Library format the drive first to either Mac OS Extended Journaled or APFS. Dedicate the external to your Mac even if you have a windows computer. The risk is not worth it and you will have issues. Even though I have seen in the past libraries put on a formatted ExFat drive, the person always has issues. Thank me later and format prior to bringing the library to an external! Hope this helps and don't hesitate to reach out! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@seanreed4820]

@@Learnwithjoel Thank you for the detailed response!

[@tommycampbell8411]

Hi, I am a bit of a Mac novice. Base in the UK. I have a Mac 27 2019. I tried moving my photos library to an offline hard drive by just dragging to the hard drive. It came up with errors about locked and shared files. I have absolute tons of photos and videos. So I tried using copy and paste and after many, many hours the vast library was apparently copied to my offline drive. However when I open the copied photos library on my offline disk it goes straight to to Photos. I was expecting all of my albums to be physically on the offline drive not referencing Mac Photos. I know that I am being dumb but any advice? Please.

[@kimberlylopez1289]

Ok so I’ve pretty much learned how to move photos but I’m still not confident to do so. After photos are removed from Mac does that mean they won’t be on ICloud ? I’m giving my Mac to my husband but I want to remove my photos to a hard drive. Once my pics are moved does that mean when my husband uses it for his photos they will be saved to my hard drive when it’s connected? If so is that why new libraries are created? I mean he doesn’t have his separate Apple ID , but would restoring the Mac back to factory settings be better? Sorry for all the questions, I would appreciate the help

[@maryjomoline1604]

Hi, Joel: Thank you for your great videos. I have been setting up iPhoto libraries per year, but since I've synched my MacBook Pro to my iPhone and iPad with the iCloud, I don't know how to set up a yearly iPhoto library. I want to get all my photos from 2000 in a iPhoto library and I want to set up a new 2021 iPhoto library when all the photos from the iCloud will go into a new 2021 iPhoto library. But I just don't know how to do that. Can you help me? Or could I hire you to help me?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Mary Jo Moline! Thanks so much for watching and i'm so happy you're enjoying my content! I started this channel with the best intent to help others, so hopefully I can guide you to your end goal! So to clarify, you can only sync one Photos library (known as the System Library) to iCloud Photos. So first, do you have a current library syncing to iCloud already? If you do, are your Photo libraries on your Mac optimized or downloading the originals? There's a couple different routes to go, but it will for sure help to know how you're currently syncing! Thanks so much for watching and I look forward to your response!

[@PrinzMegahertz]

Excellent! I'm currently considering switching from my trusty old PC to an M1 Macbook and I was wondering how I should store all my pictures without buying a huge internal SSD. Your video was really helpful

[@Learnwithjoel]

AHHH! Like switching from Windows?! I'm so excited for you and jealous at the same time. I want one of the new Macs with the M1! I've known very little people who have switched from the Windows side to the Apple Family and regretted it! So a couple things to think about....If you're debating the internal storage space, I would obviously recommend to get the minimum 512GB if possible, but I understand being on a budget. If you go with the 256GB, just make sure that for the moment you're optimizing the storage space on the Mac. This will also depend that you pay for iCloud storage to accommodate your growing Photos Library. Also keep in mind that you can always keep your Photo Library on an external hard drive too, but overtime it can be a pain plugging it in all the time! This video may help the concept of optimizing storage space on Apple devices using iCloud Photos! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHjQf2B5YpuKbaM Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@CurtS1957]

@@Learnwithjoel thanks for the info. i too hope to be getting a new mac book air in the spring and wondering if i should go with the 512 gb. i do not have as many photos as some but do not want to run out of space.

[@PrinzMegahertz]

@@Learnwithjoel Thank you for your reply! I'll have a look

[@Learnwithjoel]

@@CurtS1957 Yeah it’s something that you for sure want to plan ahead with as you can’t upgrade that later. I would for sure go minimum 512GB. Remember as far as photos is concerned, I’d recommended to optimize as long as you’re paying for iCloud, plus you can always keep it on an external drive! I’m looking forward to the new 16” M1 coming out too!

[@CurtS1957]

@@Learnwithjoel Joel thank for your input. Question I have my photos backing to the iCloud google photos a Amazon. Seems to work fine. But they are all synced. If I take something off my iPhone the others disappear also. What and how do you recommend to save all my photos good ones and bad ones. Should I go to an external? What is the best way to do that ? Thanks for your time 😎👍

[@singleart]

I moved the photo library to a NAS device. when I try to select iCloud in Photos on my Mac I get this: "icloud photos not available if system phoyto librray is located on a network file server". what to do? thank you

[@Pomdaddy]

Hi Joel thanks for the info. I have a MacBook Pro mid 2012. I had run out of space on my HD and moved my entire Pictures folder to the external drive by dragging and dropping into the external drive it moved my library to the external drive. Now I can open Photos on the external drive but not on my MacBook if the external drive is not connected. I thought I could still have the Photos app on my MacBook with whatever new photos I import. It wanted me to repair the library but it would not complete the repair saying it could not repair it. I don't know what to do and I am at a point where I think I should reformat my drive and start over. This started when I upgraded to Catilina and didn't have enough room so I moved my entire pictures folder to the external drive. Wish I never upgraded.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Frank Rende! So let me clarify a little bit...It sounds like you're doing everything right with the process of copying your library to your external, BUT when that happens that means that in order to do anything with your photos, you'll need that plugged into your Mac. It is one of the obstacles of not having enough internal hard drive space. Now it sounds like you copied your entire library to your external...is the library still on your Mac too, or did you delete it? Also I would highly recommend that when using any external hard drive with a Mac, you should format it to: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) if you plan to use it exclusively with a Mac. Right out of the box it's most likely formatted for both Windows and Mac. If your photos aren't on your internal drive and only on the external drive, but in a library that can't be repaired or opened, there is still hope! You would need to dive into the "Package Contents" of the photo library and you should be able to get to all of your original photos and create a new library. Let me know if that helps a little. Just don't format that external drive yet unless you have the pictures someplace else! Thanks so much for watching!

[@rosendosanchez1193]

Great job! keep up the good work! I have a 2tb iCloud storage. My MacBook Pro retina has 500gb. I’m starting to run out of space on the cloud and Mac. What I would like to know is how can I transfer my photos from cloud to external? Would I have to download them to my Mac in sections or to external drive? Also, what’s a better way to transfer to external? Would that be by photo library or exporting photos to external? What’s the difference? Hopefully I hear from you soon. Running out of space.. Thanks

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Rosendo Sanchez! 500GB can fill up quicker than you think! So I would first look at your preferences in your Photos App. Do you have it set to: "Download Originals to this Mac" or "Optimize Mac Storage" ? Either way, if your main goal is to free up space, and move your photos library to an external, I would move your Photos Library as a whole to your external hard drive and then make sure the preference is turned on for iCloud so it now syncs to that library that you just moved. And then I would make sure that you have set the option for "Download Originals to this Mac" so that way it downloads all the high resolution images locally (but they'll still be in the Cloud). After all of that, once you verify that it's on your external, you would be able to delete the Photos Library on your Mac and regain that space. As far as a better way to transfer...I would for sure move the Photo Library rather than exporting. The reason being is that any albums, smart albums, organization, metadata, and edits are all contained in that library. If you export all of the photos, you're just going to have one giant export off all the individual files that you will just have to turn around and import back into a new library. So save yourself the time and trouble and just copy over the library. Hope that helps! Don't hesitate to reach back out! Thanks so much for watching and the support!

[@ivuks15]

@@Learnwithjoel thank you for you effort in explaining such things. Can you please explain a little bit more what do you think under this :" and then make sure the preference is turned on for iCloud so it now syncs to that library that you just moved."

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Ivan Vuksan! So when i'm talking about the "preference is turned on for iCloud so it now syncs the library that was moved". I'm talking about making sure that in the preferences of Photos, iCloud box is checked and the "System Library" option is also clicked. Open up photos and Click on "Photos" in the top left of your screen and go to preferences. When you open up preferences in Photos, you'll have two tabs at the top. "General" and "iCloud". Under General click the button that says "Use as system library". This will make whatever library you're in sync to iCloud and in return sync to all of your devices. When you click on the "iCloud" tab, you'll have check boxes to also turn on iCloud Photos and then options to check a box for either "download originals" or "optimize storage". These are the preferences to turn on and double check to make sure that photos for that library are syncing to iCloud. I hope this helps!

[@Phizza____]

I have a question about what happens when you move a photo library to an external hard drive. During that process, do all of the photos in your photo library magically convert into like JPEG files? Or are all of the photos self contained within that photo library (so you’d need a Mac to access the contents of said library). I just recently switched over to Mac from PC (long time windows user) and I’m super confused. I’ve had an iPhone for 8 years and just got a Mac 6 months ago. What I want to do is take all of my pictures from my iPhone and upload to the local hard drive of my Mac. But the photos app complicates that process. On my windows computer I could just plug my phone in and download all the pictures onto my computer. Now, with the Mac, when I tried to do that. All of my pictures just went to the photo app. Which I don’t want. I just want my pictures to be saved locally on my computer or on an external hard drive. I’ve been watching your videos and while they’re very informative I’m still fairly confused

[@hagemanfamily]

Thanks!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @hagemanfamily! Your CONTRIBUTION is so helpful and gives me the opportunity to create more content! Thank you for your continued support! I appreciate you more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you!

[@CurtS1957]

Good job thank you

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks for watching and supporting! I appreciate it!

[@AbePelay0]

Just one issue: it migrated all the photos to the external, but no videos. How do I migrate the videos as well?

[@mvl6827]

"doing the download original to Mac" ... how exactly? Just ticking the box? Is there a process started after ticking the box? And how can you see that the 'originals' are indeed downloaded to the Mac? Where to find them? Thank you.

[@LillianKZ123]

How do I get a list of all your videos. Love them!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Lillian Zelinski! Thanks so much for the kind words! I'll get to your other comments soon! For the moment though, you would just find all of my videos on my main page of KZbin! kzbin.info Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!

[@dianed9142]

Joel - your videos are very helpful. I recently got a new Mac. I had my photo library on an external hard drive that I used on my old Mac. Now when I plug the hard drive to my new Mac, I get an error message and it does not open. I don't have the luxury to copy the photo library from my hard drive to my new Mac given the size. I saw your comment on the end to repair the library but that scares me - what if I lose it? Just wondering if you have any other suggestions. I wasn't sure if its due to old version of photos vs. new? thanks I also wonder if it is due to having to now use a USB adaptor as my new Mac doesn't have any USB ports.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thank you for the kind words @Diane D! In the grand scheme of things, Apple Photo Libraries contain your photos behind the scenes in what's called "Package Contents". I have seen before where Photo Libraries to get corrupt and unable to open. Usually a repair will work and I've never seen any issues with trying it. I have another video that talks about where the photos are actually at, but it's in one of my videos talking about merging photo libraries. It may help in your situation. Do you use iCloud Photos? Have you tried copying that library to the Mac and opening? If it's in old library, you may need to just extract the photos from the package contents and import into a new library. I'll link that video I'm talking about for reference and let me know if you have questions! WHERE ARE MY PHOTOS? Understanding Photo Libraries and knowing where your pictures live on the Mac! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXy5Xmt_i7aAa5o How to MERGE and COMBINE Apple Photos LIBRARIES - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYvZn2ijgqeroqs I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@dianed9142]

@@Learnwithjoel Thanks for these links. I will go through the videos and let you know if I have any further questions. I have subscribed. Don't use iCloud photos and given the size of the library, my new Mac doesn't have the space. I can see the photo library on the external harddrive but it is when I go to open it that I get the error.

[@ajthomsen1764]

i wish i had wached this video before i copied everything to my external hd. how do i recover photos which should be on my external hard drive? i think i converted them from live to still photos, however i cant find any of them...

[@user-fd2hl2mj7f]

Do you have advice for someone who has had security issues and is trying to consolidate important documents including pictures and word documents and emails to a hard drive. Then making those files safe to move back to a new device . I would be happy to share more information on request. Note, I've been through the process of allowing my images and documents to stay on my PC and windows 11 which is been interesting and have attempted to move according to blogs. In other KZbin videos, my iCloud information to an external hard drive. Every time I get to a point where I can do this, despite the fact that I have moved information from from OneDrive and iCloud, they both say that I need to pay for more space in order to have access to those files. I don't know if there's a way to get around that. I'm not trying to do anything sneaky. I'm just trying to be safe

[@ihymns]

Excellent!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Thanks so much for watching @ihymns! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@augrao]

Hi, I'm not sure if this was already touched on anywhere else, but I have over 1000 photos I want to download and then delete from my iCloud Library. However, when I download them to my Mac, the photos are not in order. Is there any way to remove photos from iCloud and still preserve their order ? I've tried looking everywhere and I'm losing hair over this since these are photos from over 2 years that I don't want to have rot in iCloud while I'm forced to pay for extra iCloud storage :,)

[@HG-pb4rv]

Hi Joel, Thanks for a great video. I have 50,000 photos all organized into albums and folders. I want to be sure, if I move my photo library to an external hard drive, do the individual albums and folders move with it or just the 50,000 photos as one group and folders/albums are lost. Thanks so much!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @H G! Sorry for the late response! Rest assured, when you move the whole Photo Library to an external har drive, it moves everything! Albums, edits, folders and all! Just make sure that if you use iCloud Photos that after you copy to the external hard drive and open it up, you need to reselect it to be the "System Library" I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@Micaela1527]

@@Learnwithjoel I have moved my Mac library to the external hard drive and have made it the system library, but now I want to disable iCloud photos so I have free storage space in icloud.. but it says it will erase in 30 days when I went to disable photos from my iphone, will the photos disappear off the hard drive as well if I disable iCloud, is it all connected? Because it’s a backup of my photos and vids before I moved them to the hard drive so I don’t need them backed up on iCloud anymore

[@pirkkogomsi5461]

Hello! Love your videos. Ive been trying to set up a brand new macbook pro. External hd back up, main photo library (on external). I have about 500GB of photos on icloud. I’ve synced my photos and macbook to icloud. I made the MAIN photos library the system library on my WD elements Passport HD. Now Downloading 35K original size files… would it be faster to Download to this brand new empty mac 1st ? Then relocate the main photo library to the external? Its been download for a few hours and HD phot library says it only contains 2.5GB data so far. Is it faster to download the originals to mac ? Does the macs processor effect the speed of the downloads?

[@jonathangarcia9617]

Nice video of the day.

[@billluczyk6404]

Thanks for the video, Joel. It is very clear and easy to follow. I do have an issue that perhaps you or the community can comment on. I am moving my system photo library from one external hard drive to a new (bigger) drive. My library is about 1Tb in size, and I have the 2Tb iCloud plan with about 800Gb free. After copying my library to the new drive and designating it as the system library with iCloud photos enabled, Photos asked me to purchase additional iCloud storage. My assumption is that it simply saw that my 1Tb library would not fit into my remaining 800Gb of iCloud storage, even though the pictures should be exactly the same. Is it a requirement that twice the size of the library is needed in iCloud in order to complete the move? My alternative strategy is to create a new empty library on the new external drive, designate it as the system library, then simply wait for everything to download from iCloud into the new library.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Bill Luczyk! I'm pretty sure i've run into your exact issue, as a while back I did the same thing. What I found was that it was way easy to just create a new Library and make it the System Library and have it download all content from iCloud to form the new library on the external hard drive. I agree with your assumption that there must be something on the backend for iCloud where it wants more storage to accommodate a "new" library, but once it syncs it goes back to what it was. Also for me personally, the download speeds are much faster than upload speeds, therefore creating a new library also it a little faster as waiting for iCloud with that amount of photos can take forever! For users with a smaller library, probably not too much of an issue, but with a massive library like that, for sure just start a new one. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@jennifermedia6288]

how do you clear the cache from the open option folder as I alot of old librarys i dont have. my Iphone libt is 760GB and i need to get it off and as my icloud is too full too

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Jennifer Media! So what do you mean by "clear the cache from the open option folder"? Is this on your Mac? Are you looking to free up space there too? It sounds like you have an Apple Photos Library that is 760GB, and you're looking to get that off of iCloud? I hope to hear back! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@user-zk1uu3hi9s]

спасибо за видео, очень актуально в 2021 году, у меня накопилось 52к тысячи фотографий и я не знаю как их загрузить, сейчас пробую ваши советы по востоновлению библиотеке, надеюсь получиться !

[@Learnwithjoel]

Привет @Мое ежедневное дыхание в бизнесе Похоже, у вас возникли проблемы с загрузкой фотографий? Вы используете Фото iCloud? Ваши Apple Photos не открываются? Работа с 52 тысячами фотографий - это много файлов и может занять некоторое время. Я хотел бы помочь, но дайте мне знать, в чем ваша главная цель! С нетерпением жду Вашего ответа! Если вы еще этого не сделали, поддержите меня, подписавшись! Это помогает больше, чем вы думаете, и мы вам очень признательны! Также, если вы знаете кого-то, кому может быть полезно это видео, не стесняйтесь поделиться им!

[@LillianKZ123]

Great Videos! Help me here please. I have "discovered two libraries on my Laptop harddrive not attached to iPhotos which we keep on an external harddrive! Some of the filenames are the same as those currently in my iPhoto Library but the images are different? How does that happen? How can if fix this?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Lillian Zelinski! It's can very common to have same file name and two different images. It could have been exported with a different name. The file could be changed in the finder. The actual file name can't be changed in Photos. You can add a Title to the photo, which is different, but you would have to either export it out to change the filename, or find the original in the Finder and change it there. Hope that helps! Thanks!

[@stewartross13]

Great video, Joel. What steps would you recommend for deleting all photos off your phone while keeping them in one place (not deleting your entire iCloud library). I have over 14,000 items in my library and that is what is taking up half the space on my phone. I'd like to be able to start fresh on my phone with no photos but be able to make sure everything is transferred into one spot. Is it possible to get your phone to backup the new photos via iCloud or will you just have to turn iCloud photos on and it'll download all of your photos again? Thank you!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Stewart Ross! So when you say you want the photos in "one spot", what one spot do you want them in? iCloud? Google? Computer? It sounds like you're currently using iCloud Photos, so let's assume that you are and that's where you want to manage all of your photos. If you're not optimizing the iPhone storage for iCloud Photos, then that means it's downloading every photo in high resolution which would take up space pretty quickly...So you can do one of two things. 1. Turn optimizing on for iCloud Storage. I have a whole video dedicated to this that may help that i'll link below. Turning this on will start to free up space for you automatically based off the photos you don't view and works quite well. I would try this first. Optimizing iPhone & iPad Storage - How to FREE UP SPACE on my iPhone, iPad, or Mac for photos! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHjQf2B5YpuKbaM 2. You would wipe and restore your phone back to factory settings. By doing this it would allow you to at the setup process of your phone to sign into your iCloud account and by then toggling on iCloud Photos and also selecting "optimize iPhone storage" it would start to re-sync your whole iCloud Library, but not all the High resolution that you had before. Now obviously if you were to do this, you would lose other settings and customizations and possible information if it's not in iCloud or any other cloud. I hope that helps and makes sense! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! Also if you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@stewartross13]

@@Learnwithjoel Thanks for the reply Joel! I meant like an external hard drive. Or my MacBook's drive. But I guess that leads me to my second question, do I need to restore my iPhone in order to take advantage of the "optimize iPhone storage" option? I have this option enabled yet my photos are occupying 240GB on my phone. Which doesn't seem right. I spoke with my buddy who is using 12 Pro and asked him about his photos. He said he has around 9,000 photos yet the photos are only occupying 2GB of his storage. So I had him send me a screenshot of his photos settings and they're the exact same as mine. What could I be missing? Again thanks for the reply and really insightful information I truly appreciate it.

[@Learnwithjoel]

@@stewartross13 Ah...gotcha! So you can actually optimize the iCloud Photos on the Mac as well as it's a setting in the Preferences of Apple Photos. Now keep in mind, if you've already had the setting to download all originals, it may not free up too much space yet until it learns that you're not viewing the photos. As far as your iPhone is considered, I too have an iPhone 12 Pro and currently it is only using 47GB locally on my iPhone while my entire iPhoto Library in the cloud is 642.1GB. My guess is that maybe you recently turned that "optimize" setting on? For mine though, i've always had mine set to optimize. I didn't use my phone for a long time and then flip it on, nor did i restore my phone from a backup. When I get a new phone, like my 12 Pro, I just sign in with my iCloud, and all my photos, contacts, calendars start to sync to it. Now granted, I have to manually re-download apps and make new folders, but for me personally starting with a fresh slate is really nice. So for you, you could start from scratch by wiping your phone, but it would take a little bit of time to configure everything you had before. May be worth it though! Hope that helps!

[@stewartross13]

@@Learnwithjoel ok cool. I’ve had both the optimize settings enabled for my Mac and iPhone always. I toggled between optimize and download originals to see if that would fix the problem but it didn’t seem to make a difference… maybe I should just restore and start over? I feel like I could be missing something but idk what it is.

[@Learnwithjoel]

@@stewartross13 Yeah in the moment toggling i've found does nothing immediately, it may take a few days+ for it to optimize. I haven't really found any info from Apple that really explains the timeline of the process for it.

[@tinohouse7690]

Can I do the same but using iPhone? Say “How to move photo library from iPhone to external drive”, would it be possible? I can choose all photos from iPhone and copy it, but I would refer the concept of photolibrary that could be merged and open on MacBook

[@skkrawczyk]

very helpful :)

[@Learnwithjoel]

You're very welcome @skkrawczyk! Thanks for watching and the continued support! I appreciate it!

[@shishirkumar6106]

Hi Joel! I am bit confused, and need some layman clarification: 1. Once the photo library has been moved to external drive, can I access the photos only when the external drive is connected to the Mac...Yes or No 2. After moving the photo library if I import new photographs to my Mac will it create a new photo library on Mac? 3. Later on when I connect the external drive to my Mac, will the photo library on external drive sync with the new photographs on Mac photo library? or do I have to copy the new photo library again to external drive and is there any provision to merge both the libraries? 4.Can we view the photographs from photo library of external drive to any windows system and download individual photographs to windows desktop/laptop Thanks in advance in anticipation of positive reply.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Shishir Kumar! No worries, let me try to clarify and help! 1. So if the Photo Library has been moved to an external hard drive, you will need it every single time you want to access those pictures and such. It's a pain and often people don't get a big enough internal hard drive to accommodate for upcoming years and this is one common reason for putting the library to external hard drive. 2. If after moving, if you don't have that external plugged in, when you click on Photos, it will prompt to create a new Photo Library for you and they will not be imported into the external. 3. Assuming you haven't created a new photo library, Photos will always open up the most recently closed Photo Library. So for example if you have your external drive plugged in and you're working in photos, and then you're done, you unplug and come back at a later time, when you re-plug in your external and open photos, it will open the one on your external drive that you were working in previously. So yes it will sync. 4. Unfortunately the Apple Photo library is Mac only, however depending if you use iCloud Photos there are options to view your Photos directly on a Windows computer, but it's not as pretty and organized as Apple Photos is. Big question for you is are you using iCloud Photos at all? Hope that helps a little! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support! Below is a link from Apple Support explaining the integration of Windows and iCloud: support.apple.com/en-us/HT201391

[@deborahmurthwaite6704]

Can you move photo library from iPad mini 2 to external hard drive please and how?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Deborah Murthwaite! So the Photo Library in this video is referring to the Photo library available on the Mac computer. The way the Operating System (the brain) of the Mac is made, it's slightly different than how an iPhone or iPad are, so they don't have truly identical software. So for a device like your iPad Mini 2, the iCloud Photo Library is a setting that you turn on. When you do this, it syncs the library to iCloud.com and then if you had a Mac you would turn it on there and sync the photos to create a library. Do you have a Mac? I have another video that may help explain the concept of iCloud Photos and the syncing of it among multiple devices better. Understanding iCLOUD PHOTOS - Syncing iPhones, iPads, and Apple Computers IN-DEPTH kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2q8m5eYnZaEbpo Hope this helps! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@rackieswag]

Hi Joel! Great video. But i am not able to drag the file from my pictures to my external hard drive. i've followed everything but still it won't allow me to do the transfer

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @rxd! My first hunch would be to question the way your external hard drive is formatted. This is extremely important. it should be as simple as drag and drop and if it's not letting you do that, I would look at how your external drive is formatted. I have a video that is dedicated to this and looking at how your external drive is formatted that I would highly recommend you take a peek at. I will link down below and let me know if this is the issue after watching! Understanding how to FORMAT your NEW External Hard Drive for your MAC - A look at Apple Disk Utility kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZK8l42NrrNnebM Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@ricardoramirez9510]

hi Joel how much would you charge me to complete this task for me? I need to clear up my iphone photos and save to a external but I am having a hard time. Please advise.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Ricardo Ramirez! I do offer personal help/consulting! I have information my website! I would be happy to help if possible! joelfeld.as.me/schedule.php Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@lourdeslinares3133]

export icloud photo library to external hard drive reduce file size? I transfer my cloud library to a Toshiba hard drive. I have 200GB on iCloud and is only showing 8GB in Toshiba.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Lourdes Linares! So to make sure I'm on the same page...You copied your Apple Photos Library from your Mac (that is syncing with iCloud) to your external hard drive and it's only showing 8GB for the whole size and iCloud is showing you have 200GB worth of photos? If this is the case, my guess is that you're optimizing the storage of the photos within the preferences of Apple Photos. Open up Apple Photos and go to Photos > Preferences > iCloud and see if you have the option checked that says "Optimize Mac Storage" I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and SUPER THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@hannes5301]

Nice video! I have a mac book pro 500gb and my current iPhone. The only thing i always wanted was to backup all of my photos to an external hard drive. But because i wasnt able to do so i started using Icloud so that all photos from all devices are stored together. However after using this option for the last year i dont want to pay money just because im not able to export my photos to an external. So if i want to cancel Icloud, what would be the steps? I currently have all photos from my mac on my phone and the other way around. All i want is that all my photos are saved and then delete icloud.

[@hannes5301]

Ok so after watching your newest video talking about Icloud my idea would be the following. - Make sure the iCloud Photos option „Download originals to mac“ on my Mac is activated, so that all my pictures from iCloud (no matter which device they came from) are saved in my Photos library - Make sure the „Copy items to photos library“ option is activated, so that ALL items will be backed up (please correct me, if there is anything else I would have to do with the whole „referenced file“ and consolidate thing), im sorry but since im from Germany I didn’t fully understand everything you explained - Then simply drag and drop the library to my external Drive - Now deactivate iCloud And if I wanted to safe the library in lets say one year from now I would simply plug my phone into my Mac, import the photos, drag and Drop the library to my external and delete the one I had saved? And after deactivating iCloud only the photos taken with my current iPhone will show up on it, while all photos will still be in the Mac library right? I know its a lot but I would be soooo thankful for your help

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Hannes! Sorry for the delayed response, but I just read through this comment and the previous one and looks like you nailed it! You're for sure on the right track! If you haven't moved or turned of iCloud Photos yet on your Mac Photos Library, I would do that first before you move it as it will prompt you to download all the originals and such, but you could do it after it's moved too! You certainly have the process down though! I'm very happy I was able to help! Hope all is well in Germany! Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and if you'd like to support me by subscribing, I would greatly appreciate it!

[@TR-lk2ts]

When you make the library that you’ve moved to your external hard drive the “system library“, do you have to leave the external hard drive connected to the computer?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @T R! The photo library will only update and sync with changes if it's plugged in and Apple Photos open. You don't have to keep it plugged in 24/7 if you don't use it often, but I'd plug in every now and then so it doesn't take forever to sync! I hope that makes sense! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@justleo7913]

I’m getting an error/ nothing downloads when I hit the iCloud download button. I’m running out of room and it doesn’t download.

[@TanayaJ]

Do Live Photos stay live even after moving them?

[@cmay421]

Will this save the photos by date? Because I love to organize them by date. When I transferred before, it just changed the file name and I’d have to click on each photo to find the date.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @cmay421! When you move a whole photo library, it keeps everything the same. The main library within the Apple Photos Library always organizes by date. You can narrow it by Year, Month and down to the day. It doesn't say the date on each photo, but you can click the little "I" for the inspector and that will open a window that stays open that tells you all the details of a photo as you click through them. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@ranjitshah140]

Moved my picture library of 170 GB from the Mac to an external drive as you outlined. The Mac library was synced to iCloud. Now if I enable iCloud for syncing on this external hard drive library will it upload the entire 170 GB again to iCloud and create duplicates ?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Ranjit Shah! Sorry for the late response! It should just merge them and not create duplicates! It may take a while for it to catalog and sync, but shouldn't duplicate it! Thanks for watching! I appreciate your support!

[@juliek6533]

I moved all of my photos to external hard drive a few months back. Now I want to move the photos I've taken since then and I am getting this message: "A newer item named "Photos Library" with extension ".photoslibary" already exists in this location. Do you want to replacer it with the older one you're moving?" Do I need to rename the library every time?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Julie K! So let me ask what your main goal is? Did you want to keep your Photos Library on your external hard drive? Most users will want to free up space on their Mac, so they get an external drive to permanently store the photos on the external location. Note that after this happens, you would need to have the external drive always connected to access those photos. If the drive was not connected and you opened Apple Photos, it would create a brand new Photo library on the Mac completely separate of that on the external hard drive. My guess this is what could have happened. Photo libraries end in the extension of ".photoslibrary" just like pictures end in "jpeg or jpg". Do not choose to replace, as you would lose that library, so yes this where you could rename the libraries. Some users have multiple Photo Libraries. You could have one called "Florida Vacation" or "2019 Photos". A library is nothing more than the big container that organizes and stores your collective photos. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! Also if you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@wetoffice6949]

Ho do you navigate in Di vinci resolve to movies in Icloud?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Wet Office! Fantastic question...I'm not too familiar with Di Vinci Resolve. All I know is that it's a fantastic video color editor! Thanks so much for watching though! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@jadecapo9127]

so once photos are downloaded to my external harddrive am i able to delete them off my mac? or will that delete them off my lacie? i just am so scared to loose all my photos

[@Learnwithjoel]

Totally understandable @jade capo! So if you moved/copied your Apple Photos Library to an external hard drive, you should be able to open that library directly from the external hard drive of where you copied it to. Keep in mind that you will always need the drive plugged in whenever you want to use or access the photos... Now if you open it up from the Lacie external and everything is there, you can safely delete from your Mac. A few things to note...If you use iCloud Photos, make sure that after opening up the library from the external drive that you turn on iCloud Photos in the Preferences of Apple Photos and make the library the "System Library". Otherwise new photos taken from iPhone and such will not sync. Secondly I highly recommend a backup for your library. Just because it's on an external hard drive, doesn't mean it's backed up. It just means that it only lives there. I hope that helps! If you would like to support me and the content I’m creating, please feel free to SUBSCRIBE and use SUPER THANKS on the video if you haven’t already! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@cosimop1539]

Hi, in this video you show that you have the original ones "on your mac" as so, if you copy the library, you copy all the files in it(because the check box on copy on this library is turned on and more/in primis of all. because files are in that library due to the "on your mac"option turned on too). But in my case, I got all my 150gb photos synced in Icloud, the checkbox "copy in this library" turned on, nut i'm not on "on your mac" but on "optimize mac storage". In fact my library is only 12gb. I would ask you how to move; 1)create new library in my external ssd 2)call that "backup" 3)open photo selecting the new library "backup" as the main one 4)go to photo setting and now choose "on my mac" (and in this way should download all my icloud photos to my new library in my external ssd) (assume that I don t have enough space on my mac in order to do this before, in my first/original library) 5)after downloading all, I should go to photo setting, choose my first library, and select that as my main, and I don t know if at this point it is already selected "on my mac" or the last registered on the first library so "optimize storage" (it is a library related choice or a photo app choice?) 6)i would like to ask you, if now, all my photos are still on icloud, or they have only been taken to the other library in the ssd" Thank if you have read untill here, but I don't want to loose them all.

[@cosimop1539]

7) is the first library now empty? or is Icloud now empty?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @cosimop1539! The Apple Photos Settings that says "Copy items to the Photo Library" means that when that box is checked and new content is imported or taken afterwards, it will sync to iCloud Photos. If that box was unchecked while importing new photos or videos, they would not go to iCloud and in return would not show up on other devices. The Optimize option is different. If that is turned on to optimize storage, it means that it will keep the original/high resolution images and videos in iCloud, but not locally on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Yeah, so if you created a new library on your external drive, checked the box for "iCloud Photos", it would actually start to pull all photos and videos from iCloud to that new library on your external SSD. And if you're not optimizing that and telling it to download all to the Mac, then you would have all the originals located locally on that external drive and also in iCloud. I hope that makes sense! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @cosimop1539! No, the first library would be as is, it just would not get any new photos/videos going forward.

[@cosimop1539]

​@@Learnwithjoel Hi Joel, thank you for all your effort...and as you appreciate our watching, you could n t imagine how much your contentent is helpfull for us!!! Really really thank you. I think that after all your video that I ve seen I'll feel relaxed moving library and downloading/backuping photos on external drive. Thank you very very much. Have a good day, and for sure, I'll share your channel!💪👍

[@cosimop1539]

@@Learnwithjoel Thank you again, so it remains in my case as it is, with is thumbnails! Thank you again.

[@deichkiller]

Hey! Great video but i do have some questions: 1. did i understand correctly that although you download all icloud photos to your library, these icloud photos will not be moved to the external HD? 2. if 1 is true: how can i backup my icloud photos 3. i would like to have my entire photos library uploaded to icloud. I will run out of space at a certain time and thought about starting a new library / icloud library. Any advice or objection?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great questions @deichkiller! So first off, if you want a local backup to a Mac or external drive, you need to set the preferences/settings within Apple Photos to "Download Originals to this Mac". By doing this, it will make sure that every photo in the iCloud is also physically on your device. Secondly, it's all about where your Photos library lives. If you move it to an external hard drive and make that one the "System Library" (which syncs with iCloud Photos), then new photos will automatically go there and then you can also backup that external drive with another drive for a safety net. If you create a new library, and link it to iCloud, it will automatically start downloading all of the photos/videos from iCloud to wherever that library resides. So for example... You create a brand new Photo Library on your Mac or external drive by holding "Option" and launching the application. If you tell that library to sync with iCloud Photos, it will start to download all photos/videos that you have in iCloud. Either way, the most important part is putting your Photo library where you have enough room to grow and expand, and also having the settings set to be the System Library. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t subscribed already and would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and click THANKS below on the video! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!

[@beniciomoldenado2315]

I have been watching your videos and I find them helpful, for the most part. Sometimes you gloss over things, leaving out small but important pieces of information. I have been a Mac user for about 15 years so I kinda know a little about them. My knowledge is sorely lacking in 2 areas that are somewhat related, iCloud and Photos. I never had a use for Photos, until now, because I use Lightroom and Photoshop. I started playing around with iCloud and I am totally frustrated with it. It is a decent concept that has been implemented poorly. Using this video as an example, you keep telling us how to find our photos library and in every example, it lives on the Mac, or I think it does. My first question is, is the library the place where the photo files "actually" live, or is it a catalog like some other apps use? If I am using iCloud I am guessing the photos live in iCloud somewhere so what will Photos show me as far a path to my Library?! Right now my main question is, how do I 100% stop using iCloud and how do I do that without losing any data? Is there a video or news article that describes this? It needs to be very specific. I am still subscribed to your channel because most of your videos are excellent. Thank you.

[@mattiesanders1851]

I have the same question too. Let me know if you find the answer

[@TheTruthKiwi]

He didn't explicitly say it but he showed us that the files that are consolidated are physically in the Libraries folder. If they're not consolidated, like the folder he had on the desktop, then the Photo Library program is showing them but they're still in the desktop folder. He showed how to click on the file (photo) in Photo Library and find the exact location of the photo.

[@thierryrausch4720]

Hi I exported my photo library to my external drive. It worked. Now when I open my external drive, it is mentioned " Impossible to open your Photo library!! What can I do?? Please

[@Learnwithjoel]

Great question @Thierry Rausch, I haven't seen a message like that, that says "impossible to open..." Do you know how your external drive is formatted? This can be very important when using it with Mac and Windows computers. Not sure if that is the reason you're getting an error, but I would highly recommend to format it to work with Macs if you're using it for that reason. I have a video that talks about formatting that I'll link below for reference: Understanding how to FORMAT your NEW External Hard Drive for your MAC - A look at Apple Disk Utility kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZK8l42NrrNnebM You could also try repairing your Apple Photo library. To do that, hold down "Option" and "Command" on the keyboard while opening the library from where it's stored. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!

[@doctorarvindram]

Hi If I copy and paste the entries from from my Mac to an external hard drive And then delete the library in my Mac Will it delete all the files from the iCloud too freeing up spacing ???

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hi @Arvind Ramachandran! So first off, only one Photo library from Apple Photos on a Mac can sync with iCloud Photos. It's determined by the preference within Apple Photos where the "System Library" is turned on. The System library is the one that syncs with iCloud. Now lets say you move/copy this library to an external drive and you want this to sync with iCloud Photos...You would then open this library from the external drive and make sure to click the option to have it be the System Library. After you move it open it and you're 100% it's on the external, you are able to delete the library form the Mac, but it will not free up space in iCloud, only locally on the Mac. It's a doubled edged sword...if you want to use iCloud Photos for the long haul, it can take up a lot of space based on how big the files are and how many you have in there! Hope that helps! Thanks for watching and I appreciate the support!

[@enoshkazem2325]

this is really great information; however, I apologize for asking for a more *basic* overview of file/photo management... basically this is like a 301 level course ; I realize I do not have the 101. a suggestion. appreciated.

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @Enosh Kazem! No need to apologize, everyone all has to start someplace! I have a few other videos related to Apple Photos that explain the concept and use of it that may be helpful. I'll link them below! Don't hesitate to reach out! I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along! Getting started with Apple Photos - HOW TO add and IMPORT pictures into APPLE PHOTOS kzbin.info/www/bejne/joPMkmB8abaNY8k Overview of Apple Photos on your Mac kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGfYlZiuhZxqeaM PHOTO EDITING using APPLE PHOTOS in BIG SUR! IN-DEPTH OVERVIEW of EVERYTHING! kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6iYiH-la7N7g5Y

[@enoshkazem2325]

@@Learnwithjoel thanks; great stuff - really enjoying the channel

[@centerice]

Is there a way to move iCloud photos directly to the external drive, rather than first moving them to the Mac, and then over to the SSD?

[@Learnwithjoel]

Hey @centerice! So for sure....Assuming you've been using iCloud for your Photos and you know all of your photos are there, you could just create a new Photo library on the external hard drive, and then open up the Photos preferences and tell it to be the "System Library" and it will start to download a fresh copy of all your photos/organization from iCloud! I've done this multiple times and I know it works, but it for sure takes time depending on the amount of photos and internet download speeds! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!