Recover Photo Library Mac Pro
Photo Library Download

Apple's photo management software for the Mac, Photos, has grown to be a fairly competent all-purpose storage locker. But as your photo and video library grows — and especially if you've taken advantage of iCloud Photo Library — you may find that your Photos library strains to fit on your Mac's hard drive.

While there are options to keep your Mac from running out of space, like optimizing your photo storage if you use iCloud Photo Library, it comes at a cost: Without a fully-stored Photos library, you won't be able to create secondary backups of your images and video. (And as good as iCloud has become, your photos and video are precious enough that they're worth keeping backed up in multiple places.)

There is an alternative: Moving your Photos library to an external drive (or creating an entirely separate library and syncing it with iCloud). Here's how to do it, and some reasons why you should — and shouldn't! — consider it for your needs.

How to use Time Machine to restore photos you’ve deleted from the Mac Photos app If you have a backup that’s old enough, you can use Time Machine to restore photos that you’ve deleted in the. Restore a library from Time Machine in Photos on Mac If the Photos app on your Mac is open, choose Photos Quit Photos. Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and choose Enter Time Machine. Click the date of your last backup, navigate to the backup of your photo library.

Why you should (and shouldn't) use an external drive with Photos for Mac

The recovery mechanism of iPhoto library recovery software is so powerful that it can recover all kinds of photo formats stored in the iPhoto library folder without any problem and in quick interval of time. The tool supports restoration of iPhoto library data on all Mac operating systems. Efficiency of iPhoto Library Recovery. Back up the library in Photos on Mac. Even if you use iCloud Photos, it’s important that you always back up your library locally using one of the following methods: Use Time Machine: After you set up Time Machine, it automatically backs up the files on your Mac. If you ever lose the files in your Photos library. Photo Library First Aid is the build-in feature of iPhoto. It is the most direct way to resolve issues such as the library appearing to be unreadable, missing photos after macOS Catalina update, etc. Now, let's start to recover photos disappeared from Mac using Library First Aid. First, turn on iPhoto’s “First Aid” mode.

There are a number of reasons why an external drive might make sense when you're working with Photos for Mac:

You have a giant Photos library (and, if you use iCloud Photo Library, you want to ensure you have a secondary backup of everything in that library)
You frequently swap computers and want to work on your images from any Mac
Your library isn't huge, but you'd prefer to save space on your Mac for other files
You share a computer with other users and you have limited drive space
If you're working with space constraints on your primary computer, it's one of the easiest ways to back up your full iCloud Photo Library

That said, there are some downsides, too. Here are some reasons you might not want to use an external drive:

You don't have a big enough library to warrant moving it off your Mac
You don't want to have to worry about always having your external drive connected to view and edit your images
You use a laptop frequently and can't afford an SSD, and you don't want to risk breaking your disc-based hard drive by constantly moving it
You don't want to accidentally create duplicate libraries that can't be connected to iCloud Photo Library (because your offsite library is connected)
Unless you purchase a speedy drive, working externally is almost always slower than working on your default hard drive
You don't want to spend the money on an external drive
If you use an automated backup service for your computer, you'll have to set up a second set of rules for backing up your hard drive

Best external drives for storing photos

Okay, so you've decided to move your Photos library over to an external drive. What next? If you already have an external drive, you can always use it for storing your Photos library (and save on cash). But if you're considering getting a new drive for this endeavor, here's what I suggest:

Get a drive that's at least 1-2TB in space, preferably 4TB. With the iPhone able to save 4K video, our space needs aren't shrinking anytime soon: The bigger hard drive you can afford, the better.
If you're buying a stationary hard drive, buying a disc-based hard drive is great, but buy good brands — don't try and save $50 on an off-brand hard drive. It's rarely worth the HDD failure.
If you're buying a portable hard drive, consider SSD: It's very pricey in comparison to a disc-based drive, but if you know you'll be frequently moving around — especially if you plan to move around with the drive connected — you want a drive that can take a little rumble and tumble without skipping or failing.
Hard drive speeds are important, too: The faster a drive's write speed, the quicker your images will copy; the faster a drive's read speed, the easier it will be for you to view images or video and edit them, too.

Want some recommendations for specific external hard drives? We've got those, too.

How to move your current Photos library to an external drive and use it as your primary library

As with creating a new library, moving your library to your external drive is a multi-step process. Here's how to go about it.

Step 1: Copy over your Photos library

Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.
Open a new Finder window.
Open your external drive in that window.
Open a new Finder window. Don't close your previous window (open to your external drive), as you'll need it shortly.
Click the Go menu and navigate to your Home folder.
Select the Pictures folder.
Select your old library.
Drag it to your external drive in the other Finder window.

Your library will begin to copy over to your external drive. Depending on the size of your library and speed of your drive, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, so be patient. Don't unplug your drive or turn off your computer during this process.

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Step 2 (if you use iCloud): Turn off iCloud sync on your old library

Before you open your copied Photos library on the external drive, you have to disassociate the library on your Mac from iCloud. (If you don't use iCloud Photo Library, you can skip these steps.)

Open Photos on your Mac.
Go to the Photos menu.
Select Preferences.
Click on the iCloud tab.
Uncheck iCloud Photo Library.
Press Remove from Mac to remove any undownloaded low-resolution items from this library.
Quit Photos.

Step 3: Make your new library your system default

Now, it's time to make your newly-copied Photos library your system default.

Open Photos on your Mac.
Go to the Photos menu.
Select Preferences.
Click Use as System Photo Library.

Step 4 (if you use iCloud): Connect your new library to iCloud

Your external library is now set up to be your system default, but it's not currently connected to iCloud. If you use iCloud Photo Library and want to keep that connection active so that you can continually download items you've stored, read on. (Otherwise, you can skip this step.)

Open Photos on your Mac.
Go to the Photos menu.
Select Preferences.
Click on the iCloud tab.
Check iCloud Photo Library.
Click Download Originals to this Mac.

Recover Photo Library Mac