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My External Drive Vault Is Full — What Should I Do?

If your external drive Vault is full, it means your Mylio Photos library has reached (or exceeded) the available storage space on that drive.

In most cases, the best solution is to replace the drive with a larger one. This gives you room to continue growing your library while keeping your originals protected.

Check Your Library Size and Drive Recommendation

Mylio Photos can show you the current size of your library and suggest an appropriate Vault size.

  1. Open Mylio Photos.
  2. Go to Dashboard > Devices.
  3. Click Add Vault, then select Continue.

You’ll see:

  • The total size of your current library.
  • A recommended Vault size.

How the recommendation works

The recommended size:

  • Rounds your library size up to the next terabyte (TB).
  • Doubles that number (to account for future growth).
  • Rounds up to the next commonly available drive size.

You don’t have to buy a drive exactly this size.

However, the new drive must be larger than your current library. The recommendation is designed to give you plenty of room to grow.

Choose a New External Drive

Before buying a new drive, review these resources:

Prepare the New Drive

Before using the new drive as a Vault, we recommend reformatting it. This ensures the drive is clean and properly configured before Mylio Photos begins syncing.

The instructions below include steps for both macOS and Windows:

https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/how-to-format-your-hard-drive-220151en/

Follow the steps for your operating system.

Recommended File System Formats

When formatting your new drive, choose a file system that matches how you use Mylio Photos:

  • APFS – Recommended for macOS-only setups. Best performance and reliability on modern Macs.
  • exFAT – Recommended if the drive needs to move between macOS and Windows computers.
  • NTFS – Recommended for Windows-only setups.

Choose the format that matches the computers you’ll connect this drive to. Using the correct file system helps ensure reliable syncing and long-term stability.

Add the New Drive as a Vault

  1. Connect the newly formatted drive to your computer.
  2. Launch Mylio Photos.
  3. Go to Dashboard > Devices.
  4. Click Add Vault and follow the on-screen instructions.

Syncing will start automatically.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

  • Keep both the old Vault and the new Vault connected at the same time.
    Mylio Photos needs access to the existing Vault to copy originals to the new one.
  • Do not remove or unregister the old Vault until the new Vault is fully synced.
    Removing it too early can interrupt the sync process.

Depending on your library size and the connection speed of the drives, syncing may take some time. This is normal—please allow the sync to complete before making any changes.

What to Do With the Old Drive

Once the new Vault is fully synced, you have two options for the old drive:

Option 1: Unregister the old drive

Unregistering a device removes it from your Mylio Photos account so you can repurpose or retire it.

OR

Option 2: Keep it for partial storage

Change the old drive’s Device Sync Policy using one of the following options:

  • Travel Backup – A simple option that keeps the most recent three months of photos in original quality on that device automatically.

OR