Effortless Guide to Moving Your iPhoto Library to an External Hard Drive
Learn how to seamlessly transfer your iPhoto library to an external hard drive to free up valuable space on your Mac while keeping your photos safe.
With the upcoming release of the Photos app, managing your photo library has become more important than ever. Moving your old iPhoto library to an external hard drive is a smart way to free up precious storage on your MacBook Air or Pro, especially if you have limited internal space. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you accomplish this.
Before you start, we highly recommend creating a backup using Time Machine to safeguard your photos in case anything unexpected happens during the transfer.
Once your backup is complete, launch the iPhoto app, click on the “File” menu, and select “Switch to Library.”
A new window will open displaying all your photo libraries. Select the library you want to move or create a new one here. Then close iPhoto and connect your external hard drive or USB flash drive. The drive’s icon will appear on your desktop and in the Finder sidebar. Next, open the Finder and navigate to the “Pictures” folder, where you will find your iPhoto libraries.
Drag and drop the icon of your desired photo library onto the external hard drive. This action copies your library to the external storage. To have iPhoto recognize the new location, hold down the Option key and click the iPhoto icon in the Dock or Applications folder. A window will pop up listing available libraries. Click “Other Library” and select the one you saved on your external drive.
As long as your external drive remains connected, iPhoto will list and access the library stored there. You can now open Finder, go to the “Pictures” folder, and delete the original library from your Mac to free up space.
Don’t forget to empty your Trash afterward to reclaim the storage fully! :)
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