Windows 10: Windows Photos permanently tied to the photos in my external hard drive. How do I separate...

First, I do not want my photos shared with anyone. ... I want to utilize Windows 11 Photos to create a one-time slideshow. I researched how to do this. As directed, I clicked the source, and Windows Photos started downloading photos from my external hard drive. I cancelled it, after 8183 photos had been loaded. I wondered if Windows Photos would be permanently linked to my external hard drive, so I selected one photo to delete. The following is from the dialog box that popped up. "Permanently delete this item? Are you sure you want to delete this item? This action might permanently

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Windows Photos permanently tied to the photos in my external hard drive. How do I separate the two? I want to delete the photos from Windows 11 Photos.

First, I do not want my photos shared with anyone. ... I want to utilize Windows 11 Photos to create a (one-time) slideshow. I researched how to do this. As directed, I clicked the source, and Windows Photos started downloading photos from my external hard drive. I cancelled it, after 8183 photos had been loaded. I wondered if Windows Photos would be permanently linked to my external hard drive, so I selected one photo to delete. The following is from the dialog box that popped up. "Permanently delete this item? Are you sure you want to delete this item? This action might permanently delete the item from "My Book (G" and the item deleted is not recoverable." ... How are you - a major corporation - going to affix yourself to a consumer's external hard drive, essentially holding my photos hostage? Now I feel that I am unable to do anything until I find a way to extricate Microsoft Windows from my external hard drive.

 

Photos and external hard drive problem

Hello,

I have an external hard drive full of photos. I am hoping to link these photos to the Windows 10 Photos app without moving them to the laptop's internal hard drive. I want them to stay on the external drive and, furthermore, want any new photos added (from
my phone, for example) to go to this external hard drive as well.

I have already changed the pathways of where Pictures will be saved to this hard drive.

Anyway, plugged in the external hard drive full of photos and overnight the Photos app pulled found them, organized them by date, etc. All seemed well. Later that day, however, I closed Photos and then removed the hard drive. Later reconnected the hard
drive and started Photos but there was nothing on Photos! The program apparently needs to re-find the photos and rebuild the library every time I plug in the hard drive...this takes hours. Am I missing a process that would allow the Photos app to remember
the library whenever I plug in the hard drive?

Thanks!

 

Windows Photos permanently tied to the photos in my external hard drive. How do I separate the two? I want to delete the photos from Windows 11 Photos.

Hello, my name is Emmanuel and I am an Independent Advisor. I'll be more than happy to assist you today!

I understand how you feel but don't worry; you can easily unlink that folder containing your photos from your external hard drive so it will no longer show up in the Microsoft Photos app. To do that, please open the Microsoft Photos app and then click FOLDERS on the side menu. Now, right-click the folder from your external hard drive, then select remove folder and you will see a pop-up window that says, "Removing [your folder name] removes the contents from Microsoft Photos. It won't be removed from your device." Then click REMOVE to confirm.

Please see the screenshot below for your guide.

I hope this information can help you.

Let me know if this fixes your issue.