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High Desert

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 26, 2015
180
68
Powell Butte, Or.
First off, new to mac, so bear with me. I have downloaded photos from my camera to my macbook pro 13" and want to transfer them to my ext hdd so as to save space on my internal SSD. Each time I try to do this, the Photo Application will not allow this. I can do this on my Photoshop software, but not on the Apple Photo app. Am I missing something here, or is there a simple item I am overlooking. I generally get a message saying "could not write files to destination (1016). Am almost at the point of just deleting photos and starting over.
 
A few questions:

* How did you try to move the photos? What did you do exactly? Did you try to drag the entire Photos library to the external?
* Are you able to edit or export the images from the Photos app?
* Is your external HDD formatted properly for OS X?
 
A few questions:

* How did you try to move the photos? What did you do exactly? Did you try to drag the entire Photos library to the external?
* Are you able to edit or export the images from the Photos app?
* Is your external HDD formatted properly for OS X?


To try to move the photos from the Photos file, I did a drag and drop to the ext HDD.
Did not try exporting the images as the ext HDD was not reflected anywhere. When I did look to try exporting, I stopped when the command ended eat "export", as I had no idea where it would export to.
Yep, the Ext HDD is formatted for for OS X and have been using it for backups and other functions.

This is probably something real simple that I cannot find in books or online, so hoping help is here. Thx
 
To try to move the photos from the Photos file, I did a drag and drop to the ext HDD.
Did not try exporting the images as the ext HDD was not reflected anywhere. When I did look to try exporting, I stopped when the command ended eat "export", as I had no idea where it would export to.
Yep, the Ext HDD is formatted for for OS X and have been using it for backups and other functions.

This is probably something real simple that I cannot find in books or online, so hoping help is here. Thx

As in...quit the Photos app, you dragged the entire "Photos Library" file (not individual photos) and tried to drag it to the external HDD? I just want to make sure you and I are talking about the same thing. Naming the application "Photos" and talking about the photos makes it necessary to clarify. I'm assuming you have proper permissions set since you can write to the drive in other ways but it never hurts to check.

Apple support might be the fastest way for you to get help. Otherwise, you're waiting for people to reply and it's hard to know the depths of this w/o any screenshots. In the meantime, I googled your error message and found this and this.

Try exporting a photo. If it still gives you an error then the master images might be missing.
Screenshot 2015-12-14 19.06.36.png

Check to make sure you can access the master images by right clicking on the Photos Library and Show Package Contents.

Screenshot 2015-12-14 19.08.41.png
 
Apple software uses two approaches to image file management, Managed and Referenced. Managed, which is the default, stores all image files in the Photo Library on the main drive. Referenced, which is a user option, allows you to place that Photo Library anywhere as long as you point the app to it so it can locate image files to work on and store. You found how to do this but here is another link anyways.

http://www.imore.com/how-use-external-and-referenced-libraries-photos-os-xhttp://www.imore.com/how-use-external-and-referenced-libraries-photos-os-x

Dale
 
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It's not you. It's a pain.

To add to Dale's comment, if you use iCloud Photo Library you need a sort of default "system" Photos library. Although you can have more than one library, only one (and it must be managed, not referenced) syncs with iCloud. Which can be annoying if you are using say a laptop and want local pictures.

I'd suggest Mylio instead. It's a better way to organize and sync over devices (using basically watched folders), and it can sync NAS or external USB devices too.

Or, since you use Photoshop, try Lightroom. It references all photos, so you can store 'em anywhere you want, and even move them off your boot drive and onto externals from inside Lr. And that makes them easy to find in Bridge for use in Photoshop. And Lr does smart previews; it can store a preview you can work on and edit in Lr and on your laptop, then that smart preview will synch up with the original on your external when you reattach the external at home. Very handy. And it has tons more features than Photos, which as you can see can be quite frustrating, especially when used with Photoshop.
 
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