Does Photos on an external drive with iCloud turned on use boot drive storage?

[thecounthahaha]

Hi all,

I think my 2012 mini is on its last legs, (currently won't get past the boot screen), and I’m wondering how I'm going to transition from its 4tb ssd internal boot drive to the options available now from Apple.

I use the mini as a photos backup point (amongst other things), with iCloud on and all photos available at all times on the boot drive. My iCloud photos total is currently in the region of 800gb+. That way I can do a clone of the entire library to a synology server as backup in case of an iCloud fault or something.

If I was to use an external ssd for the photos library on a new m1 mini, would all of the data be kept on the external drive or would there be gigabytes of data in a preferences folder somewhere? I have a feeling that the icloud synching is kept within the boot drive but can't find anything to back up my hunch.

If I went for a 512gb drive for example, I’d be screwed if iCloud stores even a few hundred gig in the preferences, but I’m also worried that +£600 for 2tb isn’t quite the leeway I’d like for the next however many years of photo and video taking, especially when I have a 4tb SSD available to be put in an external bay. I'm also concerned that moving a large library to an external drive will cause synching issues too, where as on the boot drive it *should* be fine...?

The other option is I don’t worry about it and don’t have a complete backup of anything with ‘optimise storage’ on, but that seems a bit worrying for decades of family photos and videos and I imagine if it's anything like my ios devices will be full of 'low storage' warnings..!

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[OldMacs4Me]

Sorry I can't answer your main question as I do not use iCloud as either main storage or main back-up. I want local drives for both.

However there are lots of possible reasons a 10 year old mini will not get past the boot screen, but a failed SSD has to be near the top of the list. Might be worth looking into replacing the SSD if that is the issue.

 

[velocityg4]

I know if you optimize photo storage. It'll build a cache in your ~/Library folder. Not sure about downloading the full copy instead. I'd assume there's some caching in ~/Library. Although you can change the location of your Home directory too.

 

[Fishrrman]

Just wondering...
Can the OP's Mini boot to INTERNET recovery?

Command-OPTION-R
at boot
????

 

[Jumpthesnark]

If I was to use an external ssd for the photos library on a new m1 mini, would all of the data be kept on the external drive or would there be gigabytes of data in a preferences folder somewhere?

Are you using the Photos app? Or are these image files you manage yourself by storing them in folders? You didn't say.

Because there is a difference, and the Photos app does have its own organizational structure that manages metadata and storage through the app itself, whereas simply storing image files in folders does not offload the metadata that way.

So I'm sure that, like you mention, there is a folder that stores the database information to your images if you use the Photos app.

 

[lkalliance]

For both users of our M1 iMac, I keep both the Photos and Music libraries on an external SSD. It does not APPEAR to store anything on the boot drive, though I haven't done a deep dive. At a glance it doesn't look like it. The total storage in use on my external is larger than the size of the internal, and the internal is not even close to full, so I'm assuming not.

 

[thecounthahaha]

Sorry for the very slow reply, life etc. I've been coping with a 2012 laptop until now but thought I'd reply to questions!

Sorry I can't answer your main question as I do not use iCloud as either main storage or main back-up. I want local drives for both.

However there are lots of possible reasons a 10 year old mini will not get past the boot screen, but a failed SSD has to be near the top of the list. Might be worth looking into replacing the SSD if that is the issue.

Just wondering...
Can the OP's Mini boot to INTERNET recovery?

Command-OPTION-R
at boot
????

Thanks both for the thoughts. It's had 2 brand new SSDs in the year before it wouldn't get any further through the process. Repeated panics and reboots on its own, slow everything. I might well give it another go to see if I can get any more life out of it as the current prices are somewhat double what I was hoping to pay for a mac mini. 2012 prices on my mind! Regardless, it would be a good way to confirm the original question and test having photos on an external drive.

Are you using the Photos app? Or are these image files you manage yourself by storing them in folders? You didn't say.

Because there is a difference, and the Photos app does have its own organizational structure that manages metadata and storage through the app itself, whereas simply storing image files in folders does not offload the metadata that way.

So I'm sure that, like you mention, there is a folder that stores the database information to your images if you use the Photos app.

Yes, sorry, Apple Photos app on whatever the latest OSX for a 2012 mac mini is.

For both users of our M1 iMac, I keep both the Photos and Music libraries on an external SSD. It does not APPEAR to store anything on the boot drive, though I haven't done a deep dive. At a glance it doesn't look like it. The total storage in use on my external is larger than the size of the internal, and the internal is not even close to full, so I'm assuming not.

That's very promising, thanks for the reply!

 

[OldMacs4Me]

Not 100% you can completely ignore the possibility of a failed SSD.. That said here are some other areas to explore. Keyboard and Mouse; If you are using wireless you should definitely switch to wired while you trouble shoot. If you are using wired, bad cables or bad keyboard could possibly be the cause. All other peripherals should be disconnected.

Much more likely to be a bad memory chip or slot. Way back when this pretty easy to trouble shoot, not sure how easy it is on a 2012 mini. EDIT: See this has two slots so trouble shooting RAM should be relatively easy.

Another possibility is a bad PRAM battery. Not at all sure if the 2012s still have one, but if it has one and it is completely dead it could be the cause of your trouble.

Beyond that the cost of repairs would probably be better spent on a newer machine.

 

[thecounthahaha]

Not 100% you can completely ignore the possibility of a failed SSD.. That said here are some other areas to explore. Keyboard and Mouse; If you are using wireless you should definitely switch to wired while you trouble shoot. If you are using wired, bad cables or bad keyboard could possibly be the cause. All other peripherals should be disconnected.

Much more likely to be a bad memory chip or slot. Way back when this pretty easy to trouble shoot, not sure how easy it is on a 2012 mini. EDIT: See this has two slots so trouble shooting RAM should be relatively easy.

Another possibility is a bad PRAM battery. Not at all sure if the 2012s still have one, but if it has one and it is completely dead it could be the cause of your trouble.

Beyond that the cost of repairs would probably be better spent on a newer machine.

Thanks for the prompt!

So I gutted the mini again last night, 5th time lucky. I wiped both internal SSDs (data doubler) as I have all data needed elsewhere and the boot drive was originally booted in 2012 and has had update after update and been moved via CCC or Time Machine to other drives but never started from scratch. At least I can rule out software clashes this way.

It has now booted and is running the latest catalina but no newer OSX is available. But it has booted!

I’ve set up photos to be on the internal 4tb (but not boot) ssd and it’s chugging away but hasn’t downloaded much yet. Still under 10gb worth over gigabit Ethernet which seems concerning but I’ll give it some time. There doesn’t appear to be any unexpected usage on the boot drive yet.

I have nothing plugged in otherwise, but at this point I wonder if something usb related is the issue. I have 2 terramaster D5 units which used to be plugged in which I wonder may be the issue, but they never used to be and one of which is currently plugged into my MacBook Pro 2012 as the temporary Plex server.

Plan is to let it settle as is over Christmas before I start to plug more in, but this is a much better result than having to spend £1k+ to be in the same position!

Thanks!