Can't seem to get all my space back

[itssme]

I always do a time machine back up before backing up my photos to an external drive moving them within Lightroom.  I did this again today, having gained 241GB of space remaining last  time and my time machine told me that more than 200GB had been backed up to the time machine.  So i move the files to date to my external hard drive expecting to have at least 230GB of space remaining following it, yet I have only 110GB.  I don't know what has happened to the other 120GB.  I use high resolution cameras so back up regularly, though perhaps not regularly enough.  I just run out of space regularly...

Thanks for your help...

[dj_paige]

I don't know what happened to your disk space, but since you are sitting at your computer and we are not, perhaps you can investigate this by going into your file browser and seeing what is taking up the space.

If you run out of space regularly, don't put your photos on the internal HD in the first place. Import the photos on the external HD straight out of the camera, and you won't have this problem of running out of space on the internal drive. Second benefit is you don't have to do the work to move the photos to the external drive.

[itssme]

Sorry to sound like a numbskull - I have been using Lightroom for years, but not necessarily expertly.  How do I import directly to an external drive?  I know that some have just been released with a card slot in them, but I don't have these.  Do I have to change the destination folder for it?

[JP Hess]

Yes, you choose the external drive as the destination and create a folder on the external hard drive. Just pay attention to your import options in the import dialog and configure them properly and you can import directly to any hard drive connected to your computer, internal or external. You're in control, just take charge and configure it the way you want it. Lightroom will do exactly what you configure it to do.

[itssme]

@ John It's a little too technical for me!

[itssme]

choosing the external drive is like pulling teeth.  It has taken 15 minutes to download 8 photos.  There are 90 more to download...

[JP Hess]

Really? That doesn't sound right. Is it a USB3 hard drive? It shouldn't take that long to import images directly to the external.

[itssme]

Yep USB3 hard drive and connector too...

[dj_paige]

When you Import, you change the settings under Destination to select a folder on the external drive.

[cmgap]

In addition to the benefits that dj_paige mentions, you may get better performance with more free space on your internal drive.

[itssme]

I just don't understand how when I last backed up less than 2 weeks ago I had 231GB of free space and this time I have 110 (133GB after restarting0

[cmgap]

How to transfer photos from a hard drive folder to Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC

The link has step-by-step details for importing images and storing them on an external drive.

To find out what it taking up space on your drive, go to About this Mac > Storage > Mac HD > Manage. You may want to search on 'find out what's taking up space on my mac'

[itssme]

have done this, there appears to be 249gb of photos and 300gb of videos, but i can't find that amount of them...

[johnrellis]

If you're on Macos 10.13 (High Sierra), you may be tripping over a Time Machine "issue" that uses up too much disk space and doesn't free it up.  This problem happened to me the other week, and this thread, while a little technical, solved the problem:

How to thin your local Time Machine Snapshots on macOS High Sierra - Ask Different

[cmgap]

Thanks @johnrellis for the link. This is useful information.