I used the terminal to change the default location of the iPhoto Library to /Users/Shared so that my girlfriend and I share the same photo library, it worked just fine. You must finish your pathname with "iPhoto Library" or iPhoto will be lost.If you would rather stay away from the Terminal, this is a good alternative to the defaults command. In my case, I entered /Users/Shared/iPhoto Library. Finally make the value your desired pathname. Click any option to highlight it and click the "New Sibling" button. Now click on the pointer to the left of the word Root to drop down all the Root options. You can do this by double clicking your ~/Library/Preferences/ file. In my case, I wanted the iPhoto Library in my Users/Shared folder so other users (family members) on my computer can access the same photos. It is possible to put your iPhoto Library into a different directory without opening the Terminal. note that you'll need the Dev Tools installed to get PropertyList Editor. This is a lot to try, but it’s likely one of these solutions will move you along your way to success.An anonymous user submitted the following as a non-terminal method of changing iPhoto's path.
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On your startup volume, select an iPhoto or Photos Library and select Show Package Contents.Select everything in the revealed folder, move to the trash, and delete it.Control-click on that new library file on the external drive and choose Show Package Contents.Click Create New, and save the new files on the external drive.
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Launch Photos with the Option key down.Follow these steps: IDGĬreate a new Photos Library to use as a skeleton to copy over the contents of the old, potentially corrupted one. You can open the media library package and copy items in small groups to see if you can identify which file or folder is corrupt. In Martha Helena’s case, that may require freeing up more than 3GB on the startup volume for temporary storage while it rebuilds. Rebuild the Photos Library using Apple’s instructions here.Follow Apple’s instructions here, and then after restarting into macOS, try to copy the library. Apple lets you boot from a special partition on your startup drive into the Recovery mode. If that doesn’t solve the problem, I have two more suggestions: When the volume mounts on the Desktop, if you can copy the media library successfully now, hurray, that was the problem. This will delete everything on that partition.
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In the Format pop-up menu, change the item to “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.In Disk Utility with that partition selected, click Erase.Make a complete backup of the volume, because erasing and reformatting a partition deletes all the stored data on it. If the volume shows FAT32, you need to reformat the drive. In the main view, Disk Utility shows the volume’s name, and beneath it the capacity and then should read “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.The volume appears indented named something else and, if mounted, with an Eject button next to it. The drive will be named something like Seagate, WD, or the like, followed by a model number. Launch Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.You can check whether you have a FAT32 partition on the external drive as follows: Disk Utility reveals the format type for a partition, which you can then erase (after backing up) and reformat to the preferred macOS type.