1. How To Export Iphoto Library
2. Mac Photos Closing The Library
3. How Do I Export My Entire Photos Library Mac

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

The first step in exporting your Mac Photos library is determining where your library resides on your hard drive. To do that, open Preferences in Photos: Look in the General section, where it says Library Location: Now, click on Show in Finder. This will open a Finder window with your current Mac Photos library. Sep 26, 2017  ADDITIONAL NOTE OF CAUTION: you should now be in a position to delete the Photo Library off your computer freeing up valuable hard space. Note however as soon as you do this that if you use Time Machine your photos will no longer be backed up from your Mac. As such you need to have another disk with which to back up your NAS server. Mr Phong - I wouldn't be sure of that. When I export from Pictures App to the file, I use High Quality JPEG File and Full Size. After that I checked the size of exported library - it was 1 GB (about 500 pictures), but in fact on iCloud Library and in Pictures it takes 2 GB of storage.

• Nov 20, 2016  In this video, I'll show you how to safely move your Photos library to an external hard disk and free up an amazing amount of space in the process.
• May 31, 2018  The real answer is that you can get to your photos easily on a Windows computer and copy them easily to any folder (directory) you want. People who say you cannot do it are wrong. On a Windows computer the iPhoto library will appear in Windows Explorer as a Folder with the same name as the iPhoto library.
• Nov 09, 2018  If you have already transferred your Photos library onto the external storage device, now you need to follow these steps. Open Photos on your Mac. Click Photos then click on Preferences. Click on the iCloud tab. Choose Download originals to this Mac.
• How to safely move your Mac's iPhoto library onto an external drive. By Stephen Robles Saturday, January 24, 2015, 11:00 pm PT (02:00 am ET) Today's digital cameras and advanced smartphones like.

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.

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.

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.
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.

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.

How To Export Iphoto Library

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.

Mac Photos Closing The Library

• 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

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How Do I Export My Entire Photos Library Mac

Photos User Guide

By default, the photos and videos you import into Photos are stored in the Photos library in the Pictures folder on your Mac. When you first use Photos, you create a new library or select the library that you want to use. This library automatically becomes your System Photo Library. See System Photo Library overview.

WARNING: To avoid accidentally deleting or corrupting a Photos library, do not alter the contents of a library in the Finder. If you want to copy, move, or transfer files, first export them from the Photos library; do not manually access or change the library in the Finder.

If you import items from a storage device or another folder on your Mac, you can have Photos leave the items in their original locations so they don’t take up extra space on your Mac.

Although storing files outside your Photos library is a great way to save space on your Mac, be aware that:

• If you use iCloud Photos, photos and videos that are outside the Photos library aren’t stored in iCloud and won’t be accessible to any other Mac or device that uses iCloud Photos.

• If you disconnect the device where the files are located, or move or rename the files in the Finder, Photos won’t be able to locate them.

Tip: If you use iCloud Photos, another good way to save space is to turn on Optimize Mac Storage in iCloud preferences. iCloud Photos then places smaller photo files on your Mac as needed, but all the full-size photos and video are still accessible to your Mac from iCloud.