One question: what makes getting images with attached metadata from apple's photo difficult? Thanks for taking the time to share your obvious experience. If not, maybe then the two library solution. Obviously not a problem for you though, so just keep adding and see if you notice any slow downs. But more importantly, I'm reluctant to commit important images to Photos since getting them out of that system with metadata I've added intact is too difficult. Of course part of that is that I can accomplish everything you list and much more with Lightroom Classic. Not what you want to hear, but I wouldn't use it at all for many photos, or important photos.

And if you're willing to do some work you can use Hazel and exiftool to semi automate a lot of that see here for a comprehensive exampe: Even Image Capture would be better than drag and drop. Look at something that can ingest images. And if you go that route I strongly recommend this application to help manage libraries: Holding down 'option' at startup lets you choose which to use. And of course you can't search across two open libraries. But only ONE can be the System Library, which is the one that syncs with iCloud. It is possible to have more than one Photos library. And of course there's Apple storage limits.īut locally, I suppose it would still work. I assume you're not using Apple's iCloud Photo Library, as moving that many photos to the cloud is going to be tough. So, how big is TOO BIG for apple's photo library function to be useable?Īny and all thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Yes, i tried photo mechanic and found it confusing and i was overwhelmed. Yes, i could continue with the 50k external images as is and continue to load more images via a folder system but my present system is clunky and takes me forever to off load SD cards because each images needs to be physically drop/dragged into the proper folder. Yes, this is really an issue of cataloging/creating a useable library structure/ Yes, all the above drives have been backed up and backed up again. If the above would bog down apple's photo application, can someone have more than one apple photo library?ĭoes having more than one apple photo library confuse the OS or does it merely ask for the catalog/external hard drive each time photo is launched? If i load in the additional 50k/2.2tb, will the 100k images/2.75tb apple photo library barely crawl? I would combine the 50k internal + 50k external into a single apple photo library on a 5tb external hard drive. The 50k images not in the library is approx 2.2tb large residing on an external hard drive. The 50k images in the apple photo library takes up 540gb of internal hard drive space. Right now, on my 2015 27' imac i7/3tb/40gb ram, i can fly through the 50k images in apple's photo and find anything. these are not loaded into apple's photo.įor convenience, i was thinking of combining the two sets. I have another 50k images of mostly folders filled with the last 10 years of client's stills. Those are mostly family and some client stills, as my stills business has grown considerably in the past 10 years. I have 50k images loaded into apple's photo. If you use iCloud Photo Library, designate this library as the System Photo Library.I do not use any adobe photo processing software, so as a mac user I have been relying solely on apple's photo as a library tool.After the move is finished, double-click Photos Library in its new location to open it.If it's not selected, click to unlock it, enter an administrator name and password, then select the checkbox. If the information under Sharing & Permissions isn't visible, click, then make sure the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' checkbox is selected. If you see an error, select your external drive's icon in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info. Drag your library to its new location on the external drive.The default location is Users > Pictures, and it's named Photos Library. In another Finder window, find your library.In the Finder, go to the external drive where you want to store your library.Move your Photos library to an external storage device 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.

How to combine mac photo libraries