Export/Copy Photo Library to NTFS External Drive

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Hi All,

So i make my position clear i am a relatively new Mac user and love the OS but am still learning (from my mistakes) as i go along. I have a MBP running 10.11.6 El Capitan OS. I imported all my pictures into Photo and its great. The issue i have now is i am running low on space. I have Paragon software and run Mac OS Extended Journaled Filesystem. My 2TB External drive has 3 partitions and are all NTFS (hence Paragon) and all partitions have existing data on them. I copied the library to the external drive but when i tried to open it i got an error I would like to put my library onto the external drive but i get an error when trying to open it which i believe is due to the file system.

Looking for some advice on the simplest solution to this issue. If i have missed out any info let me know


Cheers

Franco
 
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I don't believe the Mac OS system can utilize NTFS drives for system files, or libraries, but I'm not positive.

You will need to either get another external drive and format it for Mac, or move the files off the 2TB drive you have and format that drive for Mac.
 

Slydude

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Do you recall what the error said?

I've never tried putting those types of library files onNTFS drives. I'll try to test it tomorrow and see if it will work. I doubt it will though.
 
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You may be able to store the photos on the external, if you did not "copy files to library" when adding them.

I just redid my Photos, and iTunes doing it the same way. The files are on my drive, but they are not in Photos or iTunes, only linked to them. The difference, is the files are on my Mac formatted internal drive. So, in my Music folder, I have all my music, cd's, and downloads, and in my Pictures folder, I have all my images, but the application libraries are empty.
 

Slydude

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The part that I am not sure about here is that the OP wants to store the library on an NTFS drive. I may not be able to test this at the moment. I'm not sure my Paragon NTFS software is current.
 

chscag

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The part that I am not sure about here is that the OP wants to store the library on an NTFS drive. I may not be able to test this at the moment. I'm not sure my Paragon NTFS software is current.

My understanding of how Paragon NTFS works, it should be possible for the OP to store his library on an external drive formatted to NTFS. What he needs to check is what permissions are showing for that drive. Even though the Paragon driver can read write to NTFS, if the drive ownership is locked, it won't matter. What he needs to do is right click on the drive, get info, and at the bottom select ignore ownership. He might have to do that for all the drive's partitions.
 
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My understanding of how Paragon NTFS works, it should be possible for the OP to store his library on an external drive formatted to NTFS. What he needs to check is what permissions are showing for that drive. Even though the Paragon driver can read write to NTFS, if the drive ownership is locked, it won't matter. What he needs to do is right click on the drive, get info, and at the bottom select ignore ownership. He might have to do that for all the drive's partitions.
Are you sure this will work with system files? I find it hard to believe Apple will let macOS use another file system for system fils required to operate their system.
 

Slydude

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I don't think the iTunes andPhoto libraries are "system' files in the strictest sense of the word. They only get created if/when the programs are run so they are probably not critical to the OS operation. Having said that, this Apple Discussion thread suggest that it may have worked at one time but doesn't work with recent versions.
 
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All,

Thanks for all the responses and apologies for the delay in replying. I did import the photos ferrarr so won't be possible but i do have an untouched backup of the photos.

Slydude i can't remember the exact error but it was along the lines of unable to read library.

chscag - Under Sharing & permissions it just says "You can read and write". No check box when i get info on the partition.

Thanks

Franco
 

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