Mac laptop questions
July 2, 2019 9:13 PM Subscribe
Is it a pain to use an external, occasionally connected drive for Mac photo storage? Or does it Just Work?
My wife is going to move from our 2012 Mac Mini to a laptop -- almost certainly an Air. She'd still want to "dock" the laptop at a desk so she can use a monitor, keyboard, etc. Currently all our photos live on the Mini's 1 TB hard drive. I'm wondering if there's a good way to move the bulk of the photos to an external drive so we can spend a bit less on the laptop -- the 1.5 TB SSD is nearly as much as the laptop itself. But I fear that it'll be complicated and fiddly, which would make it unusable. We aren't considering using Apple Cloud (or other clouds) at this time. She is (somewhat proudly, fwiw) not the most tech savvy. Is this tricky? Is there a hybrid approach, where some photos still live on the laptop? How do we reduce the number of cords so the whole process is seamless?
My wife is going to move from our 2012 Mac Mini to a laptop -- almost certainly an Air. She'd still want to "dock" the laptop at a desk so she can use a monitor, keyboard, etc. Currently all our photos live on the Mini's 1 TB hard drive. I'm wondering if there's a good way to move the bulk of the photos to an external drive so we can spend a bit less on the laptop -- the 1.5 TB SSD is nearly as much as the laptop itself. But I fear that it'll be complicated and fiddly, which would make it unusable. We aren't considering using Apple Cloud (or other clouds) at this time. She is (somewhat proudly, fwiw) not the most tech savvy. Is this tricky? Is there a hybrid approach, where some photos still live on the laptop? How do we reduce the number of cords so the whole process is seamless?
Not a mac user, but ... key question is what you/wife doing with the photos? Are we talking storage only, or do you do a lot of post-processing of the photos using things like Lightroom?
If storage only, any old (reliable) external drive will suffice. It will be plugged into your dock, and the PC will see it as another drive when connected to the dock. The drive will initially be plugged into your Mini, and the files transferred (this may take a while, depending on transfer rates, but is a once-only), then plugged into the dock ready for the connection with the new PC.
I am guessing that neither of you do a lot of photo processing or you would have mentioned it. However if photo processing, this requires lots of RAM and/or fast access to a HDD, an SSD is good. But it does then require a (possibly manual) transfer from the SSD (working space) to the external drive (storage space). On my old Win7 PC using Lightroom, I run 16gb RAM and an external 2tb HDD (1tb of photos, nothing else on this drive) and a separate 5tb external drive for backup, I don't use my internal drive for any temporary or permanent photo storage, and I regularly process full 32gb SD cards (25mb/photo) with no major lag using a USB 3 cable to the external drive.
posted by GeeEmm at 10:42 PM on July 2, 2019
If storage only, any old (reliable) external drive will suffice. It will be plugged into your dock, and the PC will see it as another drive when connected to the dock. The drive will initially be plugged into your Mini, and the files transferred (this may take a while, depending on transfer rates, but is a once-only), then plugged into the dock ready for the connection with the new PC.
I am guessing that neither of you do a lot of photo processing or you would have mentioned it. However if photo processing, this requires lots of RAM and/or fast access to a HDD, an SSD is good. But it does then require a (possibly manual) transfer from the SSD (working space) to the external drive (storage space). On my old Win7 PC using Lightroom, I run 16gb RAM and an external 2tb HDD (1tb of photos, nothing else on this drive) and a separate 5tb external drive for backup, I don't use my internal drive for any temporary or permanent photo storage, and I regularly process full 32gb SD cards (25mb/photo) with no major lag using a USB 3 cable to the external drive.
posted by GeeEmm at 10:42 PM on July 2, 2019
If you use the macOS Photos app, you can do one of two things.
- If you're using iCloud Photo Library, you can put your library on the local SSD and set your library to Optimize Storage. Your entire library will be on iCloud and accessible through your laptop/whatever other Apple device. As you import new pictures, your computer will upload them to iCloud and take them off your local hard drive if you're running out of space. If you need a copy of an old picture, it will download relatively quickly to your computer.
Advantages: It really does run seamlessly. If your wife is proudly non-techie, this is probably the better way to go. You'll have instant access to your pics using any device even if you don't have your external drive on you.
Disadvantages: You've got to pay for iCloud (if you have more than 200GB of pics, then that'll bump your into the $10 for 2TB/month tier.) Also, I'd personally feel a little leery of having the only copy of my pics on the cloud, but I'm the sort of person who pretty rigorously follows a 3-2-1 backup plan. While using solely iCloud for backups is not as safe as having your files on three different drives in two different locations as well as an online backup, it's still WAY safer than no backups at all, which is what I guess your wife has now.
- You can keep your Photos library on the external drive and set it to Download Originals to this Mac. (You can still turn on iCloud Photos Library so you can see your pics on other Apple devices, but you don't have to.)
Advantages: You don't have to pay for iCloud if you don't want it. Editing old pictures would be slightly faster since the files are already stored locally. It's easier to make local backups.
Disadvantages: You won't be able to access your pics if you don't have your external drive on you. Also, I would strongly recommend a SECOND external hard drive (preferably larger than the first) to use as a Time Machine backup of both your laptop and the first external drive.
If you don't use macOS Photos, but some other program, yeah, it's pretty easy to keep all of your pics on an external drive. If you use Lightroom Classic, you can keep your original RAW files on the external drive and the Smart Previews on the internal drive. I edit 24MP RAW files stored on an external USB3 drive connected to my 2012 Mac Mini and the hard drive isn't the bottleneck on my system. Just make sure that you back those pics up on another hard drive.
Short answer: If you ask your wife, "Do you have a Time Machine backup of our pics?" and she doesn't know what you're nattering about, go with the iCloud Photo Library.
posted by alidarbac at 11:56 PM on July 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
- If you're using iCloud Photo Library, you can put your library on the local SSD and set your library to Optimize Storage. Your entire library will be on iCloud and accessible through your laptop/whatever other Apple device. As you import new pictures, your computer will upload them to iCloud and take them off your local hard drive if you're running out of space. If you need a copy of an old picture, it will download relatively quickly to your computer.
Advantages: It really does run seamlessly. If your wife is proudly non-techie, this is probably the better way to go. You'll have instant access to your pics using any device even if you don't have your external drive on you.
Disadvantages: You've got to pay for iCloud (if you have more than 200GB of pics, then that'll bump your into the $10 for 2TB/month tier.) Also, I'd personally feel a little leery of having the only copy of my pics on the cloud, but I'm the sort of person who pretty rigorously follows a 3-2-1 backup plan. While using solely iCloud for backups is not as safe as having your files on three different drives in two different locations as well as an online backup, it's still WAY safer than no backups at all, which is what I guess your wife has now.
- You can keep your Photos library on the external drive and set it to Download Originals to this Mac. (You can still turn on iCloud Photos Library so you can see your pics on other Apple devices, but you don't have to.)
Advantages: You don't have to pay for iCloud if you don't want it. Editing old pictures would be slightly faster since the files are already stored locally. It's easier to make local backups.
Disadvantages: You won't be able to access your pics if you don't have your external drive on you. Also, I would strongly recommend a SECOND external hard drive (preferably larger than the first) to use as a Time Machine backup of both your laptop and the first external drive.
If you don't use macOS Photos, but some other program, yeah, it's pretty easy to keep all of your pics on an external drive. If you use Lightroom Classic, you can keep your original RAW files on the external drive and the Smart Previews on the internal drive. I edit 24MP RAW files stored on an external USB3 drive connected to my 2012 Mac Mini and the hard drive isn't the bottleneck on my system. Just make sure that you back those pics up on another hard drive.
Short answer: If you ask your wife, "Do you have a Time Machine backup of our pics?" and she doesn't know what you're nattering about, go with the iCloud Photo Library.
posted by alidarbac at 11:56 PM on July 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
Just here to plus up iCloud Photo Library, whether or not you do the external drive. It Just Works and is totally worth it.
posted by rdn at 4:40 AM on July 3, 2019
posted by rdn at 4:40 AM on July 3, 2019
OP does say We aren't considering using Apple Cloud (or other clouds) at this time.
Without going into why that might be the case - a non-cloud solution:
One of the main use-cases for the mini is as a simple fileserver with a small footprint. Set up a share on the mini and continue backing up the photos to that machine. If you use an external drive, use it to back up the mini.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:20 AM on July 3, 2019
Without going into why that might be the case - a non-cloud solution:
One of the main use-cases for the mini is as a simple fileserver with a small footprint. Set up a share on the mini and continue backing up the photos to that machine. If you use an external drive, use it to back up the mini.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:20 AM on July 3, 2019
I have not done this, but I know it is possible.
If you use Apple Photos here's the official Apple description on how to do this while also setting the new Photos library as the System Photos Library, and how to make it work with iCloud:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517
Here is a more detailed version with step-by-step instructions
https://www.imore.com/how-use-photos-mac-external-hard-drive
I do not use iCloud photo sync.
My concern is - it would be easy to use the laptop mainly unplugged and then close it for the night, and the drive with photos is never connected long enough with laptop powered on and connected to internet to do a proper backup. If something like iCloud sync silently fails, months could go by and photos aren't getting synced. Laptops are more prone to loss and damage.
So I'd recommend having a solution where - if you come home one day after the laptop was stolen and that external drive has disappeared, you still have your photos.
Also, when buying pricy mac laptops, I recommend skimping on RAM and processor speed and getting more storage space. If you need serious compute power or run RAM-intensive apps like photo or video editing, you probably know this and can ignore my advice. But with a slower computer you can always just wait a little longer to complete your task. When your internal drive is full, you can't wait a few minutes and get more storage space. My past two mac laptops have lasted me for 10 and 8 years, so it's a long term investment. Modern macs do have more delicate keyboards that are prone to breaking though...
I use Photos and I love it. But I also have another backup - Backblaze - that automatically backs up my files including the Photos library. I have all the photos on a mac mini in the kitchen - it stays on all the time connected to the internet so it's always backing up.
If the drive on the new laptop is big enough, and the photos library stays locally on the drive - then you should be fine as during normal usage there's plenty of time to sync/backup the library.
I also make a backup of my 2,500 or so "favorite" photos to a completely different online service - and I don't delete those ever, so I have about 8 versions. That prevents loss of a photo because it is accidentally deleted, and then you don't realize, and after a month the automatic backup deletes it from the backup server.
A simpler way to do this would be to put the favorites on a flash drive and send it to my parents... but I have the electronic equivalent of doing that.
posted by sol at 6:20 AM on July 3, 2019
If you use Apple Photos here's the official Apple description on how to do this while also setting the new Photos library as the System Photos Library, and how to make it work with iCloud:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517
Here is a more detailed version with step-by-step instructions
https://www.imore.com/how-use-photos-mac-external-hard-drive
I do not use iCloud photo sync.
My concern is - it would be easy to use the laptop mainly unplugged and then close it for the night, and the drive with photos is never connected long enough with laptop powered on and connected to internet to do a proper backup. If something like iCloud sync silently fails, months could go by and photos aren't getting synced. Laptops are more prone to loss and damage.
So I'd recommend having a solution where - if you come home one day after the laptop was stolen and that external drive has disappeared, you still have your photos.
Also, when buying pricy mac laptops, I recommend skimping on RAM and processor speed and getting more storage space. If you need serious compute power or run RAM-intensive apps like photo or video editing, you probably know this and can ignore my advice. But with a slower computer you can always just wait a little longer to complete your task. When your internal drive is full, you can't wait a few minutes and get more storage space. My past two mac laptops have lasted me for 10 and 8 years, so it's a long term investment. Modern macs do have more delicate keyboards that are prone to breaking though...
I use Photos and I love it. But I also have another backup - Backblaze - that automatically backs up my files including the Photos library. I have all the photos on a mac mini in the kitchen - it stays on all the time connected to the internet so it's always backing up.
If the drive on the new laptop is big enough, and the photos library stays locally on the drive - then you should be fine as during normal usage there's plenty of time to sync/backup the library.
I also make a backup of my 2,500 or so "favorite" photos to a completely different online service - and I don't delete those ever, so I have about 8 versions. That prevents loss of a photo because it is accidentally deleted, and then you don't realize, and after a month the automatic backup deletes it from the backup server.
A simpler way to do this would be to put the favorites on a flash drive and send it to my parents... but I have the electronic equivalent of doing that.
posted by sol at 6:20 AM on July 3, 2019
I do this with Lightroom, which handles it fine, but as others have noted the approach varies by tool.
posted by uberchet at 7:04 AM on July 3, 2019
posted by uberchet at 7:04 AM on July 3, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
Your answers will determine how fiddly it'll be to transfer the photos to an external drive, but generally there is very little difficulty using an external drive as a central photo repository and it won't be tricky to move them. Yes, you can have some photos on the laptop and some on the external drive (I have done this in the past), but unless you really stay on top of things this could lead to disaster if you forget where everything is.
Also, allow me the obligatory, "Make sure you have everything backed-up!" admonishment. Whatever lives on that Mini should also live on a 2nd drive (and ideally in a 3rd location as well, whether it's another external drive or the cloud or another computer). This also goes for that external drive after you put all your photos on it !!
posted by theory at 9:58 PM on July 2, 2019