Once you are certain that the process is completed, you can drag the Photo library on your Mac to the Trash. Disconnect your external hard drive and verify that all of your photos are indeed in the Photo library on the device.Select iCloud Photo Library to turn iCloud back on for your Photos. Go to System Preferences > iCloud > Photos > Options.This is mandatory if you use iCLoud with your Photo library. In the Photos app, click on Preferences > General and select ‘Use as System Photo Library’.Click Other Library and navigate to the new location on the external device.When finished copying, hold down the option key ⌥ while launching the Photos app.The elapsed time will vary based on the size of your library. Drag and drop the Photos library icon onto the hard drive icon either in Finder or on your Desktop.Verify that you have enough free space for the library on the external drive. Right click on the Photos library icon and select Get Info.If Pictures is not an option, go into Finder’s Preferences > Sidebar and check the box Pictures.

From the left panel in the Finder window, select Pictures.You should see it listed under Locations in the Finder Window. Open a Finder window and verify that your new storage device is correctly attached.We suggest using the same filesystem format that you are using on your internal hard drive. If you have not yet done so, format the drive.Attach your external hard drive to your Mac.Steps to Move your Photos Library to an External Drive Just imagine all of your photos gone for good. This adds a little time to the whole process, but in the event that something goes wrong during the data move, you will be glad that you have that backup. As with any major modification that you will be making to your computer or storage system, we recommend that you make sure that you have a good backup of your device before proceeding. Let’s take a look at how to transfer photos from a Mac to an external hard drive. How to Move Your Photos Library to an External Hard Drive Near the end of the article, we will show you how to recover photos that may be accidentally deleted from your external hard drive. We are going to show you how to do that, as well as point you toward a few externals storage devices that will work very well as repositories for your photo libraries. What you need to do is to move photos from your Mac to an external hard drive. There is a simple solution that can be used whether you earn your living with your photos or just like to take a lot of pictures.

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