Turns out that Photos does pretty sophisticated library management; enough so that you're not duplicating space if you're migrating from iPhoto or Aperture. If you've migrated an existing iPhoto or Aperture photo library to Photos, Photos creates a brand new library structure but doesn't, in point of fact, duplicate your images. Instead it creates links to the original and preview versions of your images.

This implies you need to manually import your photos from the laptop library when you want to archive them to the external library (photos older than 1 yr per your example). They automated switching libraries and I archived via importing into the 'master' library. I used apps that were developed for the iPhoto app in the past to do just that.

• Clear Photos Library Mac

When you're looking at your Photos library in the Finder, it includes all of your original images and previews. But the images exist only in one location on your hard drive, even if you have multiple photo libraries.

Deleted photos from MacBook but storage space not reclaimed. Ask Question. Did you empty Trash (Recycle Bin for Mac) (After moving your files to the external HDD? If you have Time Machine setup on your primary HDD (where your OS X is setup), setup it up on another HDD (External HDD). Can my Mac save photos from iCloud Photo Library, but. Even if you don't find your library file in the trash, I would highly recommend that you do not empty your trash — at all — until you have found your original iPhoto library file. If your library file is in there, and for some reason you overlooked it, and later empty the trash, your odds of recovering your entire photo. Oct 20, 2014  Isn't the way it works that iCloud Photo Library stores all the photos that are also on your phone, (the ones on your phone are either full size or smaller res versions). If you delete pics from your phone, then it will indeed delete from the cloud as well. If you don't want that to happen, switch off iCloud Photo Library. Jan 12, 2020  Apple hides the Library folder by setting a file system flag associated with the folder. You can toggle the visibility flag for any folder on your Mac; Apple just chose to set the Library folder's visibility flag to the off state by default. Here's how to change it. Launch Terminal, located in /Applications/Utilities. With the upgrade to Photos, many Mac users have been left with a duplicate iPhoto library on their Macs. Here’s how to delete iPhoto library and clear out some clutter. IPhoto used to be the standard photo editor and photo management system on Macs, at least for the average computer user.

Here's what Apple has to say for people anxious to pull the delete trigger:

After you migrate your iPhoto or Aperture library to Photos, you might feel tempted to delete your original iPhoto or Aperture library. Because the migrated library takes little additional space, you don't need to delete the original library.

So don't do it, even if you're tempted to.

You can still use your original photo library with iPhoto (version 9.6.1, as of this writing) and Aperture (version 3.6) after you've migrated it to Photos. Just bear in mind that any changes you make in iPhoto or Aperture will be resident only in those applications, not Photos. So if you make new image edits in Aperture or create a new iPhoto album, those will only appear in their respective apps, not Photos.

(Hat tip: Dave Sanderson)

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The HybridDrive is a USB-C dock with an SSD built in

Clear Photos Library Mac

You need more ports, right? And you probably need more storage, right? What you really need is the HybridDrive.