Moving my Home folder to an external drive

[paulcons]

When I discovered I could play some games on my M4 Mini I started getting a bit squeezed for storage. Thought my 1T internal drive would last for a long, long time but.... looks like moving my User folder to an external drive might be the best answer.

So I am researching the hardware. I will go with something that works on Thunderbolt 5 even though my current machine can only do TB 4. Future proof, I do see a M5 Pro or M6 Pro upgrade in my future. Was kinda settling on a 2T 990 Pro and a UGREEN TB5 enclosure. THEN I read something that caused me to look at this:

OWC External Drive

OWC 2TB Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 Portable SSD Enclosure External Drive, Ultra Fast with TB5 Transfer Rates Over 6000MB/s, TB3, TB4 and USB4 Compatible, Works with Mac and PC

a.co

The OWD seems to have a standard SSD, not a NVMe. Yet it says it will operate at the general I/O of an NVMe (i.e. 6k with TB 5 host, 3k with TB 4). It's also a bit less expensive than the NVMe option. Wonder what each of you may do.. i.e. which one to go with. I keep thinking about heat and heat dissipation. The UGREEN does have a fan, the OWC does not. The question there is does the NVMe generate more heat than the SSD?

Thoughts everyone?

 

[Slartibart]

using the external drive for the time machine backups, and/or moving just photos (or library), videos, documents of whatever type from your user folder (if needed symlink back to it), or even most modern apps from /Applications is the better, less tedious choice compared to moving the complete $HOME folder.

It might help beforehand to use e.g. Disk Inventory X and OmniDiskSweeper to get a more detailed understanding what occupies the storage space (compared what the finder provides)

 

[maflynn]

I ran into problems moving my home, and as I was researching the whole process, I learned that a prior update broke that functionality - that is people who had homes on an external drive and apply a macos update, had problems accessing their home. A subsequent update fixed that, but my point is that doing something non-standard (by apple practices) pose risks

With that said, I found that a better solution for me - just the external drive as a data drive. I used a sym link to point my crossover library from the internal drive to the data drive. I moved my One Drive to that drive, and any applications will host their data there.

YMMV but I found keeping my home on the internal drive and having the external for the large data files works best for me.

 

[apostolosdt]

I am using external drives like Samsung T7 for running macOS as a whole---with no problems. My advice is that should avoid moving any part of your internal, like the USERS folder, into an external drive. It's more than sure you'll run into trouble in the near future.

 

[!!!]

When I discovered I could play some games on my M4 Mini I started getting a bit squeezed for storage.

I would recommend moving the games and large apps and documents to external drives. If they're MAS apps, you can just move them, it will still update and everything just fine. If it's Steam then you can create a Steam Library on the external and move your games there. And documents are of course obvious, just move them and access them from the external.

Don't bother moving your User folder, too much trouble when you can just move almost everything else out without any workarounds or custom configurations.

 

[gilby101]

The OWC seems to have a standard SSD, not a NVMe.

What makes you say that? The OWC page says it can do 6GB/s (TB5). I don't know whether it is important to you, but there is no mention of fall back to USB 3.x - looks like TB3/4/5, USB4 only.

OWC Envoy Ultra – 6,000MB/s Thunderbolt 5 Portable SSD

Brings revolutionary speeds of over 6,000MB/s while also getting the highest speeds possible for Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, and USB4 machines.

www.owc.com

I prefer OWC to UGREEN.

 

[paulcons]

Turns out the OWC drive does have an internal NVMe stick in it, an OWC branded M.2. I am not a fan of the attached cable, but it can be user replaced after opening the unit up. Would love to see some thermal tests on the heavy all metal enclosure of the OWC drive vs. the fan driven one from the UGREEN. I’d love to see someone benchmark both enclosures with the same NVMe drive, plus thermals. I don’t have to make this move too soon (just doing my due diligence now), so I can wait on something like that.

I also read moving the home folder is officially supported by Apple. Am I wrong there? I mean the facility is built right in…

Yes. Long time user of OmniDiskSweeper. I know where all the bulges live.

Yes I will have a Crucial 4T drive for my CCC backup. Pictures, Video, Music, Documents & Downloads also live on a few flash drives. They also live on a spinner drive from the 5,1 I migrated from to the Mini. Oh, I also have a 2T Crucial drive with everything going back 3-4 months ago. Needless to say I am way more covered than most folks!

Not sure what’s “too much trouble” moving my home folder, I would use CCC to copy it, it is more through than the Finder is at copying files. Seems to me it may be more trouble to deal with sym links the big folders in there.

 

[chabig]

I also read moving the home folder is officially supported by Apple. Am I wrong there? I mean the facility is built right in…

I don't believe Apple supports this officially. There are no Apple support documents explaining how to do it. Are you referring to the Advanced Options in Users & Groups? It might work if you get it right.

I agree with the others. Keep your home folder on the internal drive and just put larger files on the external drive.

 

[Slartibart]

I also read moving the home folder is officially supported by Apple.

Where?

It can be done (have not done it with the last two macOS versions), but - I think it is fair to say, that all comments here indicate that - there is potential for trouble ahead doing so. others here and me have done it in the past, and run into problems when e.g., updating the OS or with some programs.

Not sure what’s “too much trouble” moving my home folder, I would use CCC to copy it, it is more through than the Finder is at copying files. Seems to me it may be more trouble to deal with sym links the big folders in there.

You will have to deal with at least one sym link anyway I think 😁

What in your home folder is occupying a lot of storage space if I may ask?

 

[Fishrrman]

One more vote that you leave the home folder on the boot drive.
Move large libraries (such as photos, movies, music).

Moving the home folder to an extenal drive is kinda like Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry:
"Well, kid... do ya feel lucky...?"

 

[ScanPro]

Another vote for the external drive with large apps there. I did try the Home folder move, twice without success. Permission issues galore. Side note, I will be purchasing the 4TB Envoy TB5 from OWC in Aug, I will put the OS on it and all my apps.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"When I discovered I could play some games on my M4 Mini I started getting a bit squeezed for storage. Thought my 1T internal drive..."

Sounds like you could be a candidate for one of those "internal SSD swaps" that have become available for the Mini...

 

[paulcons]

Where?

It can be done (have not done it with the last two macOS versions), but - I think it is fair to say, that all comments here indicate that - there is potential for trouble ahead doing so. others here and me have done it in the past, and run into problems when e.g., updating the OS or with some programs.

You will have to deal with at least one sym link anyway I think 😁

What in your home folder is occupying a lot of storage space if I may ask?

Library. There are 2 folders in there totaling something like 280G. Funny thing is the person who put me onto this path was none other than Mike Bombich (author of CCC). Suppose I could move Music, Movies, Pictures & Documents (and symlink them to boot drive Home folder) to the external drive and symlink the 2 biggies in ~/Library/Application Support to the external drive.

Thing is, moving my home folder in it's entirety kinda seems to be actually supported by Apple when they provided an ability to point an account to a home folder on a separate drive.

I thought about the SSD drive swap, BUT I think I may be doing an upgrade to something like a M5 Pro mini when they come out (looks like next spring). I'd face the same issue then. I DO plan on a TB5 external enclosure to get mac i/o on that machine.

 

[Fishrrman]

Have you considered:
- Leaving the internal drive alone, as a boot drive with your home folder and apps (except games) located there?
and then...
- Set up an external drive to be a separate, BOOTABLE drive...
and then...
- Put the games onto it and run them that way?