Force Photos To Make Library Smaller

[Red_Tiger]

Hi All,

I hope this questions finds you well

I have a MacBook Pro 15” late 2011, with the optical drive bay replaced with a HDD. The main drive bay has an SSD.

Currently my photos library is on the HDD in the optical bay. I would like to move this to the main SSD drive.

I am doing this as I would like to consolidate my data before a new MacBook Pro purchase.

As it stands my current photos library has been been exported to iCloud. I have also selected the option to optimise the photos library but this hasn’t reduced the size of the library. I understand this will only kick in if the disk is running out of space and it isn't.

The photos library doesn’t fit on the SSD.

How do I get photos to shrink it’s own library before moving it to a smaller drive?

I was thinking that with my pictures in the cloud, I could try set up a new photos library on the SSD then link to my iCloud photos?

Any help on this is most appreciated.

Thank

 

[Red_Tiger]

UPDATE: I have just created a new Photos Library on the SSD and have designated it a system library.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204414

It is just downloading images now from iCloud...fingers crossed