iCloud Question regarding Photos, iCloud Photos, external drive, and new system

[FaasNat]

Hey all. Okay, here's my current setup. I have a Mac with my photos library stored on an external drive. Recently I picked up the storage plan to start having my photos in iCloud Photos.

My question is, if I get a new system, connect the external drive to that and then run Photos with iCloud Photos, will it re-upload everything all over again? Or will iCloud Photos recognize them as the same images and not have to go through the whole re-upload process. I'm guessing it's the latter, but I wanted to check to verify because I'm not a fan of Comcast's monthly bandwidth caps.

Thanks!

 

[oakrrl]

Before doing anything, check your current system's settings in the Photo Preferences>iCloud pane. Assuming that's been set up correctly, if you keep your same Apple ID (you should), when you set up your new system, sign into that for cloud services. Then when you run Photos use Preferences to set your library location as the library on the external hard drive you're continuing to use. That shouldn't lead to any repeat uploading.

 

[FaasNat]

Cool, good to know. Thank you very much for the info!