Your Photos library holds all your photos, albums, slideshows, and print projects. If your library is large, and you want to free up storage space on your Mac, turn on iCloud Photo Library and use Optimize Mac Storage, or move your library to an external drive.
Before you start, be sure to back up your library.
I’m new to mac, and I’ve put a huge number of pictures into iPhoto. Now all of my old and new jpeg files exist in the iPhoto Library in Finder. If a few years down the road I get a Windows laptop, will I be able to transfer my iPhoto Library to my Windows “My Pictures” and still be able to access the files? 2020-3-31 How to use multiple photo libraries with Photos for Mac. Photos for Mac lets you work with multiple libraries. Learn how to choose a default library, open another library, and merge multiple.
You can store your library on an external storage device, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).1 Find out how to check the format of your 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.
After you open your library from its new location and make sure that it works as expected, you can delete the library from its original location.
In a Finder window, go back to your Pictures folder (or whichever folder you copied your library from) and move Photos Library to the trash. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash to delete the library and reclaim disk space.
If you have multiple libraries, here's how to open a different one:
Photos uses this library until you open a different one.
If you have a permissions issue with your library, you might be able to resolve the issue by using the Photos library repair tool.
1. You can't move your library to a disk that's used for Time Machine backups.
Sep 27, 2016 A lot of Mac tutorials mention the Library folder, which is where your macOS applications store things like settings and caches. Some settings can only be changed by editing files in the Library. But the Library is hidden by default. Apr 18, 2017 How to Clean All Caches and Temporary Files from Mac. Quit out of any actively open Mac apps. Go to the Finder in Mac OS. Hold down the SHIFT key (in Sierra) or OPTION / ALT key (Earlier) and pull down the “Go” menu in the Finder. Choose “Library” from the Go menu options. In the terminal run du -s /Library/Caches/. sort -n and you will get a good idea of which are the larger caches. Of course the best way to clear the caches is to install AppleJack and do it with that in single user mode. Doing it with the System fully up can be a little dangerous. Access Library Folder On Mac. The Library Folder on your Mac contains Preference Files, Caches, and Application Support Data. While regular Mac users may not find the need to access the Hidden Library Folder, advanced Mac users will at times come across the need to access files inside the Library Folder for troubleshooting and other purposes. What are library caches on mac.
2. If the volume isn't formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or has been used for Time Machine backups but hasn't been erased, this checkbox will either not be present, or won't be selectable after unlocking. Erase and reformat the drive for this option to be available.