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Moving a Vault to a New Computer

If your Mylio Photos Vault is stored on an external drive, you can connect it to a new computer without losing your library or starting over. As long as the drive is set up as a Vault in Mylio, it's recognized as a device in your account and can move between machines.

Before You Begin

This article applies to external drives designated as Vaults in Mylio Photos. If your Vault is stored on an internal drive, this process does not apply.

Your drive's file format needs to be compatible with the operating system on the new computer:

  • NTFS – Windows only
  • APFS* – macOS only
  • exFAT – works on both Windows and macOS

If you're staying on the same operating system — for example, moving from one Windows PC to another, or one Mac to another — your existing drive format will work as-is.

If you're moving to a different operating system, see If Your Drive Isn't Compatible With the New Operating System below.

* Older external hard drives that were used with a Mac may be formatted as "macOS Extended Journaled." This is still an acceptable format to use with any Mac computer.

Steps

  1. On the new computer, download and install Mylio Photos from mylio.com/download.
  2. Sign in with your Mylio Account.
  3. Connect your external Vault drive to the new computer.
  4. Mylio Photos should automatically recognize the drive and begin syncing.

NOTE: The drive may not appear as connected immediately. It can take several minutes with both the drive and Mylio Photos running before the connection shows in Mylio.

If the Drive Isn't Recognized

If Mylio Photos doesn't detect the drive automatically, work through the following:

  1. Confirm the drive is visible to your operating system. Open Finder (Mac) or File Explorer (Windows) and verify the drive appears there. If it doesn't, Mylio won't be able to detect it either.
  2. Check file format compatibility. Make sure the drive is formatted correctly for your operating system. An NTFS drive will not work with Mylio on a Mac, and an APFS drive will not work with Mylio on Windows.
  3. Grant necessary permissions. When connecting an external drive, your operating system may prompt you for permission to allow access. Make sure any required permissions are granted.
  4. Allow time for the connection to appear. Once the drive is visible in Finder or File Explorer and permissions are set, give Mylio Photos several minutes to detect and display it as connected.

If Your Drive Isn't Compatible With the New Operating System

If your drive is formatted for a different operating system than the one on your new computer, you'll need to resolve the format mismatch before the drive will work with Mylio. There are two ways to do this.

Option 1: Get a new drive

  1. Get a new drive formatted correctly for your new operating system.
  2. Copy the Mylio System Folder from the old drive to the new drive.
  3. If you have any Linked Folders stored on the old drive, copy those to the new drive as well.
  4. Use ONLY the new drive going forward.

Option 2: Reformat the existing drive

  1. Copy all media off the drive to a temporary location — another drive or computer with enough free space.
  2. If you have any Linked Folders on the drive, copy those too.
  3. Reformat the drive for the new operating system.
  4. Move all media back to the reformatted drive.

Either way, plan for needing roughly twice the storage capacity to make the transition — you'll need space to hold everything while it's being moved.

If you're not comfortable with either of these options or have questions about your specific setup, contact Mylio Support through Help Menu > Contact Mylio Support inside the app.

Using the Vault With Multiple Computers

If you're using the Vault drive with more than one computer, each machine should be signed in to your Mylio Account and listed individually under Dashboard > Devices. You can connect the drive to either computer as needed.

Retiring the Old Computer

If the old computer is no longer in use, you can unregister it from your Mylio Account under Dashboard > Devices. Only do this when you're certain you won't need that machine again — unregistering permanently disconnects it from your account, and if you want to reconnect it later, it will need to sync from scratch as a new device.

Before you unregister, pay close attention to any warnings Mylio displays. If Mylio indicates that the device is the only one holding Originals for any of your photos, STOP. Sync those Originals to at least one other device first. Skipping past that warning and unregistering anyway is one of the most common ways people end up with thousands of Lost Originals.