Use Photos library on external SSD

[shefys]

Hi folks,

I have large external SSD which I use to import photos from my camera during the travel. I cannot find a way to open Photomator and use non system library - is there any solution for that? Current implementation feels very clunky

[JohneChambers]

Photomator for OS doesn’t support file access as yet when it was released it was on the roadmap with no release date. Photomator for iOS supports file access so to view an manipulate the images on the SSD you would need the iOS version (additional cost) and obvious an iOS device ((iPhone/iPad) that supports direct connection to the SSD. If you do edit that way the sidecar files are stored on the SSD.

[00Stake]

Commenting here to keep this fresh in the minds of the Pixelmator team. I only use Apple Photos for my iPhone "snapshots", essentially. The file size and number of photos I have in my professional archive is WAYYY too large for my internal drive, so they are stored and backed up on externals. Additionally, my style of shooting and culling is such that I don't mind doing most of my asset management myself. As soon as I have the ability to point Photomator on my desktop (Mac Studio) to those externals where I house my image catalogs, I can finally make the move to a Photomator/Pixelmator combo as my main photo editors.

As an aside, I've thought of moving my Apple Photos library to an external, but I'm pretty sure doing it this way and adding my archives to that library would exceed the options I have for iCloud storage. If anybody has thoughts on other potential workarounds, I'd love to hear them.

[Rainfall]

One thing I have been thinking of doing is creating a second Apple Photos library and using that for Photomator.

In my case, I currently use C1 for raw intake and processing, then export (to TIFF and convert to HEIF separately in another program... it's annoying I can't export directly to HEIF). I then import the HEIF images into Apple Photos. In this way, C1 is like my box of negatives, while Photos is like my photo album. I'd like Photomator to replace C1.

It's a bit of a pain to get Apple Photos to create a second library and switch between the two. I am not sure how Photomator operates if there are two libraries - does it default to the main system library, or if it opens one library once, will it stick with that one? The only reason I haven't tested it is because of the promise that Photomator will be able to work with files outside of an Apple Photos library soon enough, so I will wait for that instead of developing a workflow around a second Photos library.

[Swandy]

One thing I have been thinking of doing is creating a second Apple Photos library and using that for Photomator.

In my case, I currently use C1 for raw intake and processing, then export (to TIFF and convert to HEIF separately in another program... it's annoying I can't export directly to HEIF). I then import the HEIF images into Apple Photos. In this way, C1 is like my box of negatives, while Photos is like my photo album. I'd like Photomator to replace C1.

It's a bit of a pain to get Apple Photos to create a second library and switch between the two. I am not sure how Photomator operates if there are two libraries - does it default to the main system library, or if it opens one library once, will it stick with that one? The only reason I haven't tested it is because of the promise that Photomator will be able to work with files outside of an Apple Photos library soon enough, so I will wait for that instead of developing a workflow around a second Photos library.

As far as Apple Photos and multiple libraries (which I currently do) if you hold the OPTION key while clicking on a Mac on the Photos icon, you will be given the option to select which Photo Library you wish to use. I have my main library on one external hard drive and my backups on a second external hard drive. If I plug in the backup drive and then follow my instructions, I will see my original library and all the backups listed (and no I did not try to open one of them). So I would imagine if I still had a completely separate and different library, it would work accordingly.

[Swandy]

Commenting here to keep this fresh in the minds of the Pixelmator team. I only use Apple Photos for my iPhone "snapshots", essentially. The file size and number of photos I have in my professional archive is WAYYY too large for my internal drive, so they are stored and backed up on externals. Additionally, my style of shooting and culling is such that I don't mind doing most of my asset management myself. As soon as I have the ability to point Photomator on my desktop (Mac Studio) to those externals where I house my image catalogs, I can finally make the move to a Photomator/Pixelmator combo as my main photo editors.

As an aside, I've thought of moving my Apple Photos library to an external, but I'm pretty sure doing it this way and adding my archives to that library would exceed the options I have for iCloud storage. If anybody has thoughts on other potential workarounds, I'd love to hear them.

Don't know how large your library is (mine is around 95,000 photos) but you can purchase additional iCloud space. I did (albeit as part of the Apple One bundle) and I get 2TB of memory. Not sure what you would need.