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Photos will not import any new items to system library on external drive

I got a new imac, which has ridiculously low storage, so I migrated my photos library to an external drive. I can see all of the photos, and it seems to work in all respects, but I am completely unable to import any new photos into the library. Any suggestions?

iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021, 2 ports)

Posted on Jan 26, 2023 11:35 AM

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Posted on Jan 26, 2023 1:13 PM

As Yer_Man says, the format of your external drive may be the problem, so you may find this useful:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support


It says that to get full functionality (and to avoid damaging the Photos Library) an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted.


And you may need to check the "Ignore Ownership" box in the Info Window for the drive





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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 26, 2023 1:13 PM in response to tmann2023

As Yer_Man says, the format of your external drive may be the problem, so you may find this useful:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support


It says that to get full functionality (and to avoid damaging the Photos Library) an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted.


And you may need to check the "Ignore Ownership" box in the Info Window for the drive





Jan 26, 2023 11:39 AM in response to tmann2023

We see reports of this since Ventura was launched and it usually comes down to the format of the external. It needs to be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or apfs. None of the FAT formats will suffice.


You can reformat a disk with Disk Utility, in your Applications/Utilities folder. Remember that reformatting erases the disk so back up your data first.

Photos will not import any new items to system library on external drive

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