Photo Library Won't Open External Hard Drive Mac

  1. Photo Library Won't Open External Hard Drive Machine
  2. Photo Library Won't Open External Hard Drive Mac Pro
  3. Photo Library Won't Open External Hard Drive Mac Not Showing Up
  4. How To Open External Hard Drive

Jan 29, 2020  Your Photos library holds all your photos, albums, slideshows and print projects. If your library is large, and you want to free up storage space on your Mac, turn on iCloud Library and use Optimise Mac Storage, or move your photo library to an external drive. Before you start, make sure that you back up your library. “Hi Tysa, I upgraded my old MacBook Pro to the OS 10.11 El Capitan, and now the iPhoto app won’t open. It says the version of iPhoto installed on my Mac is not compatible with the current OS X. And it asks me to download the latest version for free from the Mac App Store. I’m not sure what I should do. I don’t want to lose any precious.

Tips

By Stephen Robles
Saturday, January 24, 2015, 11:00 pm PT (02:00 am ET)

Today's digital cameras and advanced smartphones like the iPhone 6 take stunningly detailed photos, but all that extra resolution comes at the price of larger image files. Moving part or all of your iPhoto Library to an external hard drive is one of the most effective ways to free up precious space.



Before starting the process, we suggest making an up to date Time Machine backup of your computer to an external hard drive or Time Capsule. Be sure the external hard drive you use to perform this backup is a separate unit from the one you will move the iPhoto Library to should anything happen.
If you have an account with a cloud storage service, such as Dropbox, Google Drive or even iCloud Drive, you can also upload the iPhoto Library to these services for extra redundancy.

Photo Library Won't Open External Hard Drive Machine



To begin moving your library, open iPhoto, click File in the Menu Bar and select Switch to Library.


A new window will appear listing any and all iPhoto Libraries detected on your computer. If you're not sure where the iPhoto Library file is located, look at the (Default) listing and the file path will be listed underneath. This should be located in the Pictures folder of your Home directory.

Open
Quit iPhoto by going to Quit iPhoto in the iPhoto Menu Bar or pressing Cmd+Q. Connect the external hard drive that you will use to copy the iPhoto Library. You should see it appear on your desktop.


Open a new Finder window and click Pictures in the left sidebar. Click and drag the iPhoto Library file onto the external hard drive icon on your Desktop.


Depending on how large your library is and the connection speed of the external drive, it may take several minutes or longer to complete the copy process.
Once the copy is completed, hold the Option key on your keyboard and open iPhoto from the Dock or Applications folder. A new window will pop up asking you to Create a New Library, Choose the Selected Library or Other Library. Click on Other Library.


In the browser window that appears, navigate to your external hard drive, click the iPhoto Library file you've copied and click Choose.

Photo Library Won't Open External Hard Drive Mac Pro


iPhoto will open and as long as the external hard drive is connected, will reference the library on the external drive and not on your computer's drive.

Quit iPhoto once again and eject the external hard drive holding your new iPhoto Library. Open a new Finder window and navigate to the Pictures folder in the left sidebar again.
Right click or Ctrl+click on the iPhoto file and move it to the Trash.


Photo Library Won't Open External Hard Drive Mac Not Showing Up

Finally, to free up the space on your internal hard drive, open the Trash from the Dock or Finder window and click Empty Trash in the upper right corner.


Your iPhoto Library has officially been removed from the internal drive. You can now reconnect the external hard drive you used to copy the iPhoto library, open iPhoto and use it as normal.
If you open iPhoto without your external hard drive connected, iPhoto will give you an error message saying the 'Library cannot be found.' Quit iPhoto, connect the external hard drive and reopen to fix.
For those looking to expand their beyond their Mac's internal storage HDD or SSD, AppleInsider recommends having at least 1TB of extra space at the ready. A few high quality external and portable hard drive options from Seagate, HGST and Western Digital are listed below.
  • Seagate 1TB Backup Plus Slim for Mac for $72.99 from B&H and Amazon.com or $88.99 from MacMall
      Also available in 2TB for $99 from Amazon and B&H or $149.99 from MacMall

  • HGST 1TB Touro S Ultra-Portable External Hard Drive for $69.99 from B&H or $83.99 from MacMall
      Available in 4TB for $149 from Amazon and B&H

  • Western Digital 1TB My Passport Drive for Mac from Amazon for $68.45, $69.00 from B&H or $70.99 from MacMall
      Available in 2TB for $96.24 from Amazon, $99 from B&H or $101.99 from MacMall

How To Open External Hard Drive

If you want to free up precious space on your Mac computer, then you can move your Mac's iPhoto Library on to an external hard drive. You can also move iPhoto Library to cloud storage service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, Box and more. You need to have an account on these cloud storage services. If you are looking for a step by step process to move iPhoto Library onto an external hard drive, read below.

Aug 31, 2019  Home › Forums › Other Stuff › 'Closing the library' note pops up when you access photos This topic has 15 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 7 months ago by Elizabeth Jones. Viewing 14 reply threads Author Posts December 13, 2015 at 3:44 PM #29273 Reply Sharon GatesGuest Tried to move some photos. What does closing the library for pictures on mac mean on youtube. Jul 01, 2015  Question: Q: Photos for Mac: Stuck on 'Closing the library.' When I try to close Photos for OS X, it closes down, but a message appears on my screen that says 'Closing the library' and will stay on overnight. The Photos program in the Dock shows that it is still 'open' and won't close or Quit unless i. Jul 11, 2016  Mac Reviews How To HomeKit Forums Other Categories. About Us Newsletter Fitness Apps. I cannot access my photos. Message says library closing. I cannot access my photos. Message says closing library. Oct 06, 2018  Recently, after using my Mac’s Photos app and uploading some photos, I wasn’t able to close Photos. I saw a pop-up message that Photos was “Closing the Library.” I left it “as is” for hours only to see that same message still there–it was still stuck on “Closing the Library” message. And the app wouldn’t close, no matter what!

Here are the steps to Move Your Mac's iPhoto Library onto an External Drive:

  1. Open 'iPhoto' on your Mac.
  2. Click 'File' located in the Menu Bar.
  3. Select 'Switch to Library..' option.
  4. A new window opens up. You will see all iPhoto libraries located on your computer.
  5. Quit iPhoto by clicking on 'Quit iPhoto' located in the iPhoto Menu bar.
  6. Connect an external hard dive to move your iPhoto Library.
  7. Open a new Finder window and click 'Pictures' located in the left sidebar.
  8. Drag and drop iPhoto Library file onto the external hard drive.
  9. Once you moved iPhoto Library to an external hard drive, hold the 'Option' key on your keyboard.
  10. Open 'iPhoto' from the Dock or Application folder.
  11. A new window opens up. It will ask you to 'Create a New Library'.
  12. Choose the 'Selected Library' or 'Other Library'.
  13. Click 'Other Library'.
  14. Navigate to your external hard drive and click 'iPhoto Library' file that you have copied and click 'Choose' button.
  15. Quit 'iPhoto' once again and eject the external hard drive.
  16. Open a new 'Finder' window and navigate to the 'Picture' folder.
  17. Right-click on the iPhoto file and move it to the 'Trash'.
  18. Open 'Trash' from the 'Finder' window and click 'Empty Trash' located at the top right corner.
  19. Your iPhoto Library has officially been removed from the internal drive.

Quick Tip to Backup your Digital Photos
If you have treasured photographs, or you take photos of everything you like, you won't want to lose them. So, what is the best way to backup photos on an ongoing basis? In the back of your mind, you know you need to backup all of your photos. But where do you start? Here's how to backup your digital life: PicBackMan is the easiest and simplest way to keep your videos safely backed up in one or more online accounts. Simply download PicBackMan (it's free!), register your account, connect to your online store and tell PicBackMan where your videos are - PicBackMan does the rest, automatically. It bulk uploads all videos and keeps looking for new ones and uploads those too. You don't have to ever touch it.