Here’s an upcoming option from Fledgling.
I did this for my 2104 MBP. Worked great. I had a 128 GB card that was there basically permanently. I only took it out when I had to download pictures from my camera, which wasn’t that often.
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Neat! This should mean, when I eventually do purchase a new MBP, I can install back the original SSD in my old MBP and carry the Feather SSD directly over.
Thanks for the link!
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JJW
It doesn’t work with Apple-format SSDs though. The Feather might be a standard SSD with an attached adapter (e.g.), but I’m not sure.
It is only possible to sync one photo library with iCloud PER USER. This means that you can create a second user account on your Mac and sign into the same iCloud account with both users. You can then set one photo library to “optimize storage” and set the other library to “download originals”. You can then move the “originals” library to an external drive. This will allow you to sync all your iCloud photos to an external drive while still keeping your most recent and most used iCloud photos locally. I did this for a while and never had any issues. I used “optimize storage” on my main user account and simply signed into my other user account about once a week, attached my external drive, and let iCloud download all the photos I took that week.
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@JohnBeales I would note that if you back up to a connected external drive, then BackBlaze will back up that volume. I specifically have a Drobo drive bay for that purpose: to insure that my photos and other media get backed up. I mirror my Photos album to the Drobo via a ChronoSync sync schedule. That way I know all the things I really care about are backed up in the cloud. And I have a NAS because I’m really paranoid. It’s the 3-2-1 rule: 3 backups, 2 different locations, 1 in the cloud. Cheers, David
John, I have a MBP with the exact same specs as yours. I also looked to OWC and came up with this solution - a 1 TB SSD for ~ $320 (https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/S3DAPT4MB10K/). They have an installation video and it appears very straight forward (I have not yet upgraded). Replacing the battery on the other hand, not so simple…
I installed an external SSD harddisk, copied my Movies folder to it (in your case you would use the Pictures folder presumably), and then erased the movies folder, and auto mount the harddisk at /Users/me/Movies.
This is for a desktop, but I imagine there are lots of times you use a laptop and have no need for the Pictures folder anyway.
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That’s true, but just a precaution…
I have an APFS volume for my Pictures as was discussed around the web a few weeks ago. The volume has a quota on it to keep it from growing unchecked.
The problem is that if you use iCloud Photo Library, once photolibraryd starts and attaches itself to the photo library, you might not be able to get the OS to unmount the volume. I assume it would be the same with an external drive.
Trying to find a way around this, I killed photolibraryd and tried “Force Unmount”… and my photo library soon got corrupted. I had to delete it and re-download the entire thing again.
Now I have /etc/fstab setup to prevent /Volumes/Photos from mounting at login, and once I mount it manually, I don’t even try unmounting it. I just reboot.
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Update:
I went ahead and ordered a Terabyte SSD from OWC, installed it, installed a fresh OS, and used Migration Assistant to move everything from my old SSD. It worked seamlessly and now I have enough space to last me for a while. For Canadians wondering how this works out after shipping, duties, and exchange, I paid CA$512.13, (for the “kit” with screwdrivers and an enclosure, and for the faster SSD). Compared to CA$3,499 + tax, (so, over CA$4k after tax + AppleCare), for the cheapest 16" Macbook Pro that comes with a terabyte of storage this is decent value even if I replace my computer in less than a year.
The new SSD seems to have resolved some problems I was having where the computer would lock up from for a few seconds a few times a day.
This is why I was looking for some sort of external storage option, or a Full Library / Walking Around Library option, but it seems like the software isn’t set up for that, especially after seeing @tjluoma’s experience. If this was a desktop I would absolutely have just shifted a bunch to an external SSD.
As a side note: Those OWC screwdrivers are great. They don’t feel like they’re going to strip, or strip the screws, like my T# head screwdriver kit from Princess Auto.
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