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I exported my photo library into an external hard drive to save space on my Mac following the steps on article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517. But when I try to designate the library in the external hard drive as the System Photo Library, the Photos app freezes, the rainbow circle appears and when I right click the icon it says the app is not responding.
MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15
Hey there mauro2,
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. We understand you’re having issues using your Photo library from an external drive. We’ll be happy to help.
Make sure your Mac is up to date:
How to update the software on your Mac
Then boot into safe mode and see if you can set it up there:
Start up your Mac in safe mode
Try repairing the library using the steps here if the issue continues:
How to use the Photos library repair tool
We hope this helps.
Take care.
Hey there mauro2,
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. We understand you’re having issues using your Photo library from an external drive. We’ll be happy to help.
Make sure your Mac is up to date:
How to update the software on your Mac
Then boot into safe mode and see if you can set it up there:
Start up your Mac in safe mode
Try repairing the library using the steps here if the issue continues:
How to use the Photos library repair tool
We hope this helps.
Take care.
Did you make sure the external drive was correctly formatted as described in the article?
Photos freezes after trying to change System Photo Library
