A Frame

I have been importing onto external hard drives instead of using the desk top internal hard drive. The issue is simply that the external drive is nearly full. What are my options?

steve_stoneblossom Loc: Rhode Island, USA

Connect a new external hard drive and redirect LR to it.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Copy all of the files from the external to a new larger external. If you plug it in and it has the same drive letter, you are good to go. If for some reason the drive letter changes, then redirect to the new drive in LR. The directories will be the same, so LR will understand.
Note: it is a good idea to keep your working catalogue on the internal drive with backups of the catalogue directed to your external. In operation LR does most of its work using the catalogue and rarely needs to re-access the original files once imported.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Copy the files to a larger external drive. Unplug both drives and reboot. Plug in the new drive again. If it has the same letter (Windows) or the same name (Mac) you're done.

If it does not have the same name, rename it (Mac) Not being a Mac guy, I don't know if that's enough. If you're on Windows you should force the new drive to have the old letter. You do that with with the disk management utility. Once the drive has the same letter, Lightroom will see your files as if you had done nothing.

It will be MUCH easier to rename the new drive than it could be to redirect LR to all your files.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-open-disk-management-2626080

steve_stoneblossom Loc: Rhode Island, USA

Just an additional thought: if you replace your XHD with a larger one and move all your images there, eventually you will find yourself in the same situation. It seems a perfect time to buy a 2nd XHD to use for images from 2021 forward, and keep those from 2020 and earlier on the first drive.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

DirtFarmer has it right. He wrote that you "copy the files to the larger external drive". I might emphasis to use the Explorer to do the copy and to do it so that the folder structure on the new drive is EXACTLY the same as the old.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

This is not a problem if you understand how the application works. The left side panel simply mirrors whatever you have on an external drive or on your computer hard drive. You can work from multiple external drives or you can choose to buy a larger hard drive and move all images to it. I just went through this with my images: I work on a Mac. I bought a larger hard drive, a mirrored RAID 1. Then I transferred images to where I wanted them from within LrC. I am currently working off of two external drives. I can still see all of my images from within the application at one time, even though they are on two drives. If you find that you need to rename your drives you can do that and then redirect the images from within LrC to link up again. This all works easier and best when you have a well-defined organization. Keeping all of your image folders in one main folder makes it very easy to link up again if that need arises.

steve_stoneblossom Loc: Rhode Island, USA

Exactly. I am currently running 4 external drives on both my iMac at home and my PC at our studio. All of them are available to LR. For that matter, LR finds my portable flash drives when they are plugged in and LR is opened.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Read this: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom/catalogs/moving/

A Frame

Thanks for all the help. I should be good to go.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Get a substantially larger drive. I don't like mine getting more than 80% full. I like the HGST Ulstrastar 4 TB. I've been using them for years. Put that drive into an external enclosure. Of course, you need two more drives for backups.

https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=HGST+Ulstrastar+4+TB&ref=nb_sb_noss

Bayou

Bogin Bob Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

This guided me
https://lightroomkillertips.com/pointing-lightroom-classic-new-drive/

JOHNERIKSSON Loc: CENTRAL WISCONSIN

BUY 8 TERRABITES I HAVE MANY

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Many folks have given answers without knowing the facts. To be most helpful, we need to know what size your external storage drive is and how long it took to fill it. I would be handy to know what platform (windows or IOS) you're using and what ports are available on you machine. Personally, I use a combination of TB3 (Thunderbolt 3) attached systems (not single drives) and NAS (Network Attached Storage) systems. In total, I have over 100TB of local storage. Just a few years ago I was producing 125,000 images per year as a professional sports shooter so my storage requirements are huge. As you upload your precious images to your system, it is vital that you have AT LEAST 2 copies stored. With RAID 1, I actually have 4. You will most likely not have the storage demands that I do, yet the decisions you make should be based upon the same concepts. First, figure out what you need, then figure out how to accommodate that. Also pre-plan for future expansion. When you go to buy, buy quality not junk, and buy from a reliable source like B&H or Newegg. Contact me by PM if you have any questionns. Best of luck.