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

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 RU-vid. 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! 🙏🏻

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!

Really this and your others video are the top pn RU-vid. 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!

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!

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.

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

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

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!!!

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.

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

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

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!

Thank you so much for the all new information

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.

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?

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

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!!!

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

Really appreciate your work

Great detailed video, thanks Joel.

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.

Very informative and concise!

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.

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)?

Thanks a lot!! love from India ❤️

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?.

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!

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!

Nice video of the day.

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)?

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.

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

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!

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.

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?

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)

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

very helpful :)

Good job thank you

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?

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?

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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 !

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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?

Thanks!

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?

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

Excellent!

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 :,)

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

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 ?

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

I can't figure it out. At first i didn't know and i used icloud, now most of my photos are on the cloud so i cant move them from my phone to my hard drive , and i can't figure out the mac because i just bought it, i am really close to deleting most of my photos and stop caring because this is getting so annoying , but there are so many good memories

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?

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.

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?

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.

Question Joel, I moved my photos to my Lacie drive some time back but now when I click on the icon it says "photos cannot find library". Last found on Lacie. Did I do something wrong? I thought I was moving just the photos, not the entire application? Of course when I click on the icon when connected to Lacie drive, I can see my photos.

I do RU-vid and when I upload a video the Imac stores it on the hard drive. Applecare took 4 hours on the phone for find them on my 2010 Imac but my cat Fuzzy pulled out the power strip and killed the hard drive. I am using a 2008 Imac now. If you have any idea where it might be hiding them so I can delete them I would appreciate it.

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...

Great video, though I wish it weren’t necessary. I like Apple products, use an iPhone, iPad, and an iMac. I still carry an ancient iPod shuffle when I run. I even, in maybe the only good financial decision I’ve ever made, picked up some Apple stock several years ago and held onto it. So I’m a fan. But for the life of me, I don’t know why Apple makes this whole iCloud thing so overly complicated and difficult to navigate where photos are concerned. Seems to me that software engineers should first ask themselves, “Is this helpful?” rather than, “Can I do this?” But again, thanks for this and your other informative videos. I subscribed.

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?

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.

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?

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 🙏🏼

Hi Joel, been having issues uploading pics to my new PhotoLibrary after moving it via your vid. Yes it moved great as I messaged you 1 month ago. So here is the issue. I formatted the SanDisk incorrectly for some reason I formatted it EXFAX. I found this because iCloud keeps telling me Cant Work with anything format other then - then list the formats that work Properly with it. Funny thing is iPhotos won't even upload photos from my iPhone while while wire connected. Weird. So I went back and watched this vid again and YOU did mention that viewers should format as then it list the formats. Photo stream in working however while I thought was an iCloud thing. Should I move from SSD Sandisk and all other files on that disk, reformat to the format you suggested in Vid, then put everything back on that disk? I really want to plug in my phone and see new pic files and upload the ones I want. I can do it now with airdrop but then it goes to my internal in downloads file. Please advise. Thanks RJ

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.

"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.

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 ???

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 RU-vid 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

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

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

Joel, i understand the i cloud, and i have google photos also. question if i want to save room on my iphone and delete a photo on my iphone it removes from i cloud and google photos. how am i suppose to back up and save my photos for ever?

I do not have my Mac photos on icloud. I am trying to download photos from icloud (from my iphone) to my desktop. It keeps saving them as a zip file. Of course when I go to view them Mac is not able to open them. How can I fix that?

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

Followed every step, and several hours later, received this gem: icloud photo library is not available if the system photo library is located on a network file server I had to re-establish my original library as the system library :-(

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.

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.