He wanted to migrate his Photos library, but continue to use iPhoto. You can just copy a Photos library to another drive and delete the library from its origin, and iPhoto is unaffected. Photos doesn’t copy the iPhoto images, but it uses a special kind of link that lets the same file exist in two places, avoiding increasing your storage requirements. Switch to Google Photos. Where Are Photos Stored on Mac? The photo files are stored in this location on Mac: /Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Masters/. It is important to note that the tilde indicates the users home directory, if you are going to utilize the “Go To Folder” command to move through that directory, do not skip the prefix. A Mac that was upgraded to a new version of OS X that added the Photos app, however, can end up with what look like duplicates of their photo libraries. The first time you start up Photos after upgrading, your Mac will copy over your photo library into the new software (if you explicitly set up more than one old iPhoto library, you’ll have to.
Prepare your external 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 (Journalled). However, you can't move your library to a disk that's used for Time Machine backups.
To prevent data loss, Apple recommends not storing photo libraries on external storage devices, such as 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 the triangle , then make sure the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' box is selected. If it's not selected, click the lock button to unlock it, enter an administrator name and password, then select the box.*
- After the move has 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.
Iphoto Migrated Library
Delete original library to save space
After you've opened your library from its new location and made sure it's working 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 bin. Then choose Finder > Empty Bin to delete the library and reclaim disk space.
Open another Photos library
Can I Delete Iphoto Migrated Photo 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 you want to open, then click Choose Library.
Photos will use this library until you open a different one.
Learn more
Can I Delete Iphoto Migrated Library
If you encounter a permissions issue with your library, you may be able to resolve it by using the Photos library repair tool.
Change Photos Library Mac
* If the volume isn't formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journalled), or has been used for Time Machine backups but hasn't been erased, this tick box will either not be present, or won't be selectable after unlocking. Erase and reformat the drive for this option to be available.