Prepare your external drive
- Change Picture Library Location On Same
- Change Picture Library Location On Iphone
- Change Picture Library Location On Windows
- Change Picture Library Location On Computer
You can store your library on an external storage device, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). However, you can't move your library to a disk that's used for Time Machine backups.
To prevent data loss, Apple doesn't recommend storing photo libraries on external storage devices like SD cards and USB flash drives, or drives that are shared on a network.
When you insert a picture into a document, Word always defaults to the Pictures Library folder for selecting your picture file. However, you can specify a different folder as the default picture location that displays when you insert pictures in Word. RELATED: How to Change the Default Save Location and Local Files Folder in Word 2013. In the Photos app on your Mac, choose Photos Preferences, then click General. Deselect the “Copy items to the Photos library” checkbox. Now, when you import photos or video, Photos leaves the files in their original location and accesses them as referenced files. Find a referenced file in the Finder. Select all the photos. (by default just the first one is selected so I hold down the shift key and click the last photo as well). Then I click Upload and Close. Optionally I can change the settings to send pictures optimized for viewing on the web but I’ll stick with the defaults for now since I already optimized the photos. Can't change documents folder location because 'there is a folder in same location that can't be redirected' Hello. I reinstalled Windows and want to redirect my Documents and Pictures folder to be in their own folder on my HDD instead of on my C drive in Properties Location since my C drive is a smaller SSD.
I need to change the default import location too, saving them to the 'pictures folder' is useless and I do not want my photos sorted by the silly gallery, I have 1000's of photos in a library on an external drive system, in Win 7 you could set the default import location to whatever folder or drive you wished to import too, this is basic stuff!
Move your Photos library to an external storage device
- Quit Photos.
- In the Finder, go to the external drive where you want to store your library.
- In another Finder window, find your Photos Library. By default it's stored in the Pictures folder located at /Users/[username]/Pictures.
- Drag Photos Library to its new location on the external drive. If you see an error, select your external drive's icon in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info. If the information under Sharing & Permissions isn't visible, click the triangle , then make sure the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' checkbox is selected. If it's not selected, click the lock button to unlock it, enter an administrator name and password, then select the checkbox.*
- After the move is finished, double-click Photos Library in its new location to open it.
- If you use iCloud Photo Library, designate this library as the System Photo Library.
Make sure that the drive is turned on and available to your Mac before opening Photos. If Photos can't find your drive, it stops using the Photos Library stored there.
Change Picture Library Location On Same
Delete original library to save space
After you open your library from its new location and make sure that it works as expected, you can delete the library from its original location.
Change Picture Library Location On Iphone
In a Finder window, go back to your Pictures folder (or whichever folder you copied your library from) and move Photos Library to the trash. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash to delete the library and reclaim disk space.
Change Picture Library Location On Windows
Open another Photos library
If you have multiple libraries, here's how to open a different one:
- Quit Photos.
- Press and hold the Option key while you open Photos.
- Select the library that you want to open, then click Choose Library.
Photos uses this library until you open a different one.
Learn more
Change Picture Library Location On Computer
If you have a permissions issue with your library, you might be able to resolve the issue by using the Photos library repair tool.
* If the volume isn't formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or has been used for Time Machine backups but hasn't been erased, this checkbox will either not be present, or it won't be selectable after unlocking. Erase the drive for this option to be available.