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.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133908091/772447368.jpeg)
Prepare your drive
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).1 Find out how to check the format of your external storage device.
All your photos on all your devices. ICloud Photos gives you access to your entire Mac photo and video library from all your devices. If you shoot a snapshot, slo-mo, or selfie on your iPhone, it’s automatically added to iCloud Photos — so it appears on your Mac, iOS and iPadOS devices, Apple TV, iCloud.com, and your PC.
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.
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 library. The default location is Users > [username] > Pictures, and it's named Photos Library.
- Drag your 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 , then make sure that the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' checkbox is selected. If it's not selected, click to unlock it, enter an administrator name and password, then select the checkbox.2
- 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.
- How to troubleshoot a swollen Photos cache folder A reader uses a macOS Photos library stored on an external drive, but his startup disk has a bloated cache.
- Jul 12, 2017 To move our Photos Library, we drag it to its new location, double-click it, and the Photos app will now point to it. So, that was pretty easy. We’ll next show you how to create a completely new System Photo Library. Creating a New System Photo Library. There are any number of reasons you might want to create a new system library in Photos.
- Dec 27, 2015 Added: After you delete the Photos Library from your Mac you can only access the photos in iCloud using the web interface and the Photos.app on the www.icloud.com page. You cannot access iCloud Photo Library using Photos on your Mac, unless you make a photos library on an external drive your System Photos Library.
- How to uninstall Photos for Mac Delete Apple Photos app. It's typically called 'Photos Library' and is located in the Picutres folder (inside your Home folder). This is the bulk of the size.
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.
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 disc space.
Open another Photos library
If you have multiple libraries, you can open a different one like this:
- 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
If you have a permissions issue with your library, you might be able to resolve the issue by using the Photos library repair tool.
1. You can't move your library to a disc that's used for Time Machine backups.
![Photo Photo](https://www.anyrecover.com/images/public/where-is-other-storage-on-mac.png)
2. If the volume isn't formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or has been used for Time Machine backups but hasn't been deleted, this checkbox will either not be present or won't be selectable after unlocking. Delete and reformat the drive for this option to be available.
Photo Library Mac Cleared On Iphone
You can have multiple photo libraries in Photos app for Mac OS X. You can switch between libraries with simple steps. If you want to select a different library, then hold down the 'Option' key when you launch 'Photos' app ans select the photo library which you want to open. If your library is stored on an external drive, then you need to connect that drive to be able to select and switch to that photo library in Photos app on Mac.
Following are the steps to Switch Between Libraries in Photos App for OS X:
Repair Mac Photos Library
- Launch 'Photos' app on Mac OS X.
- Hold down 'Option' key on your keyboard.
- Double-click on 'Photos'.
- Choose the name of photo library that you want to open.
Mac Photos Library Location
Quick Tip to Prevent Photo loss Nightmare with PicBackMan
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In the case of losing irreplaceable memories like treasured family photos, it can even be heartbreaking. Luckily, with PicBackMan backing up your photos to multiple services and cloud accounts is easier than ever before. PicBackMan can save you from the absolute disaster of losing your photos by safely backing them up in one or more online accounts