Photo Management/Storage

How are you copying the photos to the external hard drive? Are you dragging the "Photos Library" in the User>Pictures folder over to the external? The library is a single document that contains all the photos. Or are you dragging mass photos from within the application, i.e. while you have the Photos application open? Or another way?

For what purpose do you use the external HD? Just for a backup copy of all your photos? Do you take the external to someone else's computer to show them photos? Or something else?

For backup purposes, of course the photos should not be edited on the external...else they won't be an exact copy should you need to restore in the event of a crashed computer. To view or search for photos on the external, you should copy the "Photos Library" to the external HD. Then any computer with the Photos application should be able to open up that library. You can also try to copy the actual Photos application onto the external (I've never tried that). If that works, then any Mac that can run Photos will be able to view the pics.

If you are connecting the external HD to a PC or a much older Mac...well, they won't run the Photos program. Then, I suppose you'll have to use one of the other suggestions and copy the individual photos en mass (i.e. not the "Library"). I believe the Photos program is the only application that can view the Photos Library.

Or maybe you're just copying a bunch of photos, but not the whole library, onto the external. And not for backup purposes. Then I would refer to the other posts.

Sorry for the lengthy post. Just trying to cover everything.

Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate all of them.
Janss, as in my original post, we use "photos" on our Mac also and it works great, but when they get transferred to the external hard drive "passbook" it just shows up as folders and files, kind of awkward to keep things organized

Tvov wrote:
I separate photos by year and then subject in "folders" in the Photos folder of my computer.

I backup the pictures using the online backup service Mozy.

And... if I remember... during the winter I copy all the pictures onto a DVD.

Also, we do a yearly family photo album with highlight pictures of the past year using Shutterfly's photo album service. Actual, physical photo book. This is huge - actual "hard copies" of pictures.

I always wonder if all the "digital" pictures will be able to be "seen" 50 years in the future. Who knows how the "storage media" will change? Heck, what about 10 years from now?

They will be if you are willing to become an active archivist. When I discuss storage during a photo class, I hold up an 8" floppy disk and ask how many have even seen one.

While the basic file formats haven't changed, portable storage has. My solution for indexing images is Adobe's Lightroom. I have Apple's Time Machine as a backup for all my data (and applications), as well as a pair of portable drives that are mirrored with my images.

When the portable drives are full, I purchase larger replacements, move all the old images to the new drive & use the remaining space until they fill. As long as drive capacity increases at the rate it has been doing for the last 10 years or so, the system works.

By the way, my first portable drive was a 20MB; even one image from my current camera wouldn't fit. It was a SCSI drive which I doubt you could connect to most modern computers...

"Who knows how the "storage media" will change? Heck, what about 10 years from now?"

Well, look at 10 years ago, or even 20 years ago. File formats are the same, with few exceptions. Storage media is a little different, not a lot. "The more things change, the more they stay the same." I can see storage media changing more, but actual file formats will likely stay the same with only incremental changes.

I separate photos by year and then subject in "folders" in the Photos folder of my computer.

I backup the pictures using the online backup service Mozy.

And... if I remember... during the winter I copy all the pictures onto a DVD.

Also, we do a yearly family photo album with highlight pictures of the past year using Shutterfly's photo album service. Actual, physical photo book. This is huge - actual "hard copies" of pictures.

I always wonder if all the "digital" pictures will be able to be "seen" 50 years in the future. Who knows how the "storage media" will change? Heck, what about 10 years from now?

I use Adobe Lightroom CC. It has many advanced editing and organizational features It does require a $10 per month subscription but you get Photoshop and Lightroom and 20gb of online storage. It also comes with a companion app for iPhone/iPad that allows you to begin edits on your phone and then finish up on your Mac after it syncs with your desktop/laptop. May be more than what you are seeking but for those seeking advanced functionality it is a good value.

Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Bundle

I use Photos on my Mac and find it great for organizing. I make a separate album for each event, and label them so I can search for them later...like Susan's Birthday, 2014 Yellowstone Trip, Home Sewer Installation, etc. If you just search for one word of the album name, you can find it.

You can also associate a keyword to each photo for later searching. And more features I haven't even explored yet.

When you load a bunch of photos from your camera onto the computer in Photos, you can split them up into different albums, or consolidate with an existing album.

Do you need more features than that for organizing?

I don't know anything about iCloud, but I suppose that is what you need to see the photos across all devices.

I use a tiered folder approach that sounds similar to yours accept I file by topics, location, etc and add dates to file/folder names. I don't trust any of the management systems that want to move your photos into their own proprietary filing and naming system that can't easily be used without their software. To many of those system have went away or changed over the years. If I want to browse because I can't find something or don't know for sure what I'm looking for I use the browser that comes with GraphicConverter. Besides being easy to dive down on directory trees it has a built in editor for EXIF data if you want to fix or edit that data. You can do rotates and other simple manipulation on the images from the browser. When you need more, the main editor is very good and can read and write most any image format, Fairly reasonably priced at $40. Works with your filing method.

The other thing you need to do is be sure you have all your photos backed up. I do daily backups and keep a second backup in a fireproof safe in a different location that I update a few times a year. The Cloud is another option but if you have a lot of images be prepared to pay and don't make that your only backup those systems seem to go away on a regular bases.

I use Flickr. Easy to use and upload photos and videos.

We don’t do a lot of pictures compared to some so I’ve been happy with storing pictures in iCloud and making them available on all my devices including my PC which actually doesn’t get used much. I can create folders and allow anyone I want to access it for view.

You can set it up so that whenever you take a picture it automatically goes to the cloud and available on other devices. No action needed.