How Do You Transfer Photos from Mac to External Hard Disk

Download 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery to retrieve your accidentally deleted and lost files during the transfer process of photos from Mac to external HDD with just a one-click.

5 mins read

Updated on 2024-12-28 16:49:09 to Mac Recovery Solutions

It’s common for many of us to store our entire photos library on our Macs, and continuously add new without deleting the old photos. This allows us to free up space on our cameras or smartphones while keeping our photo library organized and accessible in one place. However, you may eventually find that your Mac is running low on storage space, demanding you to delete some stuff. Since deleting isn’t an option, transferring them to an external hard disk or SSD is a great solution. In this guide, we'll show you how to transfer photos from Mac to external hard disk.

Part 1: Why Do You Transfer Photos from Mac to External Hard Disk?

There are endless possibilities that might make you transfer photos from Mac to external hard disk and read about how to transfer photos from Mac to external hard disk. However, we’ve come across the common ones, and have listed them below:

  • Free up storage space on your Mac to install more apps.

  • Improve your Mac’s performance and system stability.

  • Reduce the risk of losing your photos due to computer problems.

  • Organize your photo collection more effectively.

  • Greater flexibility for storage expansion in future.

  • External hard disk provides increased portability - easily share photos with friends & family.

  • Easy data recovery, as there are less chances of overwriting data on external hard drives.

Note:

If you’re facing a data loss situation on your external hard disk, it’s recommended to stop using it immediately until you retrieve it. Use a powerful data recovery tool to initiate a recovery process, and avoid conventional methods such as CMD, or other tricks YouTubers provide.

Part 2: How to Recover Data from External Hard Disk

If you’re facing a data loss situation on an external hard disk, due to systematic error or a Mac crashed while transferring the photos, don’t panic!. You can easily recover the lost photos, videos and other important files using a powerful tool - 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery.

The tool offers exceptional data recovery capabilities, allowing you to recover your accidentally deleted, lost files during transferring process, or system errors with just one-click. Best of all, the tool can recover the files in original form, especially the photos in HD quality.

  • Recover accidentally deleted photos while transferring from Mac to external HDD within less than 5 minutes.
  • Recover 2000+ file types including photos & videos in original quality from 2000+ storage devices (external/internal HDDs, and SSDs).
  • Recovers Mac lost files with 99% success rate.
  • Preview option that lets you view the files even before you recover them.
  • Recover files directly to local or cloud services like Google Drive.
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  • Install the latest 4DDiG version on your Mac, and launch it. Select the external hard disk and click Start.

  • 4DDiG will instantly start the scanning process, digging deep to find the lost files. You can use the filter option to narrow your search to targeted files only.

  • Once the scanning is completed, you can double-click files to preview them. Once you’re ready to retrieve, select the files, and click on the Recover button.

Part 3: How to Transfer Photos from Mac to the External Hard Drive?

One of the fastest ways to transfer photos from Mac to the External Hard Drive isn’t via using any smart tool. You can simply move them to any external drive or SSD by directly using the Drag and Drop feature.

However, if you’ve photos scattered in Mac, such as some of them are in Photos app, and Finder. For that, we would recommend you to export all of your photos that you want to transfer, and move them to a folder in the Finder app.

Once you’re done doing it, here’s how to transfer photos from Mac to External Hard Drive:

  • Connect your external hard disk to your Mac.

  • Navigate to the photos folder that you want to move. Press Command key and select the photos that you want to move.

  • Double-click the External Hard Drive icon to launch it, and drag the select photos to the external drive.

  • Once you’ve dragged, and dropped the photos, it’ll start moving to the external hard drive, taking time depending on the size and number of the photos.

    photo size

That was all about how to transfer photos from Mac to External Hard Disk.

Part 4: FAQs

Q 1: How to connect an iPhone to external hard drive?

You can’t connect the iPhone to an external hard drive, unless it has its own power supply. So the only way you can connect your iPhone to an external hard drive is using a computer. Connect the both to a computer, and move the data between them.

Q 2: How to Transfer Photos from iPhone to External Hard Drive Using Mac

Connect both to the Mac, and select the photos. Drag selected photos to the external hard drive window.

Q 3: Can I organize Mac photos on an external hard drive?

Yes, you can manage, and organize the Mac photos on an external hard drive. To do so, simply connect it with a Mac, and move them to an external hard drive.

Final Words

Transferring photos from Mac to an external hard disk might seem like a daunting task due to macOS’s robust security measures that can sometimes appear to restrict it. However, in this guide we showed you a simple way about how to transfer photos from Mac to external hard disk with simple steps. If you’re worried about your lost/deleted photos on external hard drives or other devices, 4DDiG Mac Data Recovery is ready to rescue your data, and lets you recover it with just a one-click process.

William Bollson (senior editor)

William Bollson, the editor-in-chief of 4DDiG, devotes to providing the best solutions for Windows and Mac related issues, including data recovery, repair, error fixes.

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