Move Photos to a USB drive

Step-by-step

1 Turn off icloud

Open the Photos app and go to Photos> Preferences> icloud. It is useful, but not essential to download originals to the Mac. Turn off all the options and then quit Photos.

2 Find the library

Open a Finder window and go to your Pictures folder. Look for the Photos library. If there is more than one file, it will be the biggest with the most recent date on it.

3 Copy the library

Plug in a USB drive. We use one that is partitioned so one half is for Time Machine backups and the other is for Photos. Drag the Photos library to the drive to copy it.

4 Select a library

Hold down Option, click Photos and keep holding until this window appears. Select the library on the USB drive (the path is below) or click ‘Other Library’ and select it.

5 Delete incomplete

After selecting the copied library, this message might appear. Don’t worry, just click ‘Delete Incomplete Items’ and in the next step, follow the instructions it gives.

6 Set as system

When the library opens, go to Photos> Preferences>general and click ‘Use as System Photo Library’. Select the icloud tab and turn on all the features as in Step 1.