very slow from MINI to photos on external

[ellis984]

Very recently I was forced to buy a new desktop. I settled on a Mac Mini. I have two externals, one for backups and one for pics/videos/movies, etc. The first one had Bluetooth issues, so I now have a replacement. I've put everything I needed into the external storage units.
My problem comes when I want to open Photos. It seems to take forever to open, and it's very slow at editing, and every other action I ask of it.

Any suggestions on how to speed this up?

DEB

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

-What brand/model/capacity is the external drive with the Photos Library on it?
-What connection is the external drive using - USB 2.0/USB 3.x/Thunderbolt/etc.?
-How many photos/how large is the Photos Library?
-Has the Mac mini finished the initial Spotlight index of the external drive?

C

 

[ellis984]

I'll do my best to answer.
-My Book Desktop Storage 6 TB
-USB 3 cable
-381.39 GB of photos, etc
-83,325 photos, 3,280 videos
-I'm not sure about the Spotlight indexing. I'm not familiar with it. However, the external and the Mini have been connected for about three weeks now.

Thanks for taking an interest.
DEB

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks.

That external drive should be perfectly compatible with the Mac mini, and USB 3 should have enough speed.

Your Photos Library is quite large I must say. Spotlight indexing should definitely be complete after that amount of time.

Because of the size of your library, Photos definitely could be slow in opening. Once it is, editing should be normal.

-Is the new Mac mini an Intel or Apple Silicon version?

C

 

[ellis984]

I'm hoping I'm giving you the correct info.
Chip - Apple M1
I do have a lot of pictures, but I'm hoping to cut the size in half. Sometime in the last year, at least 50% of them duplicated. I have no idea how. I'm looking into programs that will search for duplicates and help me eliminate them.
DEB