How do I know which referenced files in my library will not upload to my iCloud photo library?

[iMore Question]

referenced files in your library will not upload to icloud photo library

I"m wanting to upload my photos to iCloud Photo Library but I get this message. How do I know which of my photos are referenced files? There are 1313! They are all on my iMac hard drive.

 

[Bigeric23]

Re: referenced files in your library will not upload to icloud photo library

This might answer your question:

How to use external and referenced libraries with Photos for OS X | iMore

 

[leoeddy]

Re: referenced files in your library will not upload to icloud photo library

I had read that. It doesn't help with my problem.

 

[Mark Whiting]

I had this problem and have managed to fix it (I wanted to make them all fully imported to the Photos library).

1. Make a smart album (by clicking on the plus sign at the top of the Photos window) with one rule: 'Photo is referenced'
2. Depending on the number of referenced photos it may take a moment (I had 20K so it took about 30 seconds). Then, select all in that smart album
3. Select 'Consolidate...' from the file menu (this will take some time and consolidate all the images into the library).

When you do this, the selected files will disappear from the smart album (because they're no longer referenced), and they will appear in iCloud Photos once it has had a chance to update (depends on the size and number of files).