Thank you so much for the kind words @Kanwal Siddiqui! My whole goal for this channel is to help others! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
I don’t think this was explained very well. I think it needs to be redone or somebody new with a new way of explaining. Shame on Apple for not making it that user-friendly.
The fact I need to watch a 26 minute video to understand how to have all my photos in one place tells me Apple got this so terribly wrong (very rare that Apple gets this stuff wrong I have to admit). What an incredibly frustrating experience given I have two libraries well over 100gb big. Having said this I’m incredibly grateful that you took the time to make this in depth video - thank you, this was exactly what I was looking for!
I hear you @JDoerp! Apple sometimes does seem to overthink some things and make it more difficult than it needs to be. I'm really happy this was helpful for you though! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
I agree. I am furious. This has taken me since July and intensive research to figure out agonizingly about protecting my data and trying not to lose my photos. Trying to wrap my head around this foreign language that is tech. I have 2TB full on iCloud to transfer of personal vlogs and videos. I am trucking on.
Sometimes I don't understand why some people make videos on topics they don't know or understand. I found your video and I want to thank you because I had already done everything and couldn't import the photos to my library, until you showed something so simple that solved my problem, which was right click and show the package and drop the folder that says originals That's it, thank you very much and God bless you
This is going to be a God-send for me. .I will use the iCloud technique ... the last one you discussed. I have everything in the cloud and I have the data storage space with no problem. I will make this work. Or I will at least do the best I can. And sometimes that's all you can do. And I sent a note to a friend of mine who is very Apple savvy, while I was listening to you in the background and spoke to how succinct and clear you are. I think you saved the day. Just like Mighty Mouse used to do when I was a little kid... so we shall see. Again it is very clear and concise. It's all we ask for sometimes in life. Peace. Gail
Sounds like you're on the right track @Gail Remp! Thanks for the kind words and don't hesitate to reach out! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
LOL, well, welcome to the family @R Tolly! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Thank you soooo much. I had a new iMac last July and was trying to figure out how to import my backup photos in a hard drive to the new iMac. I tried many times and finally able to do it after watching your video. You are lovely. Thank you againnnnnnn.
You're very welcome @CMYW Wong! I'm happy to help! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
@Joel Feld - You are an absolute life saver! This helped me merge/organize over 120,000 photos for my father in law who is a photographer hobbyist. I merged his library from his old iMac 24" as well as his old iMac 27" onto his brand new Mac Mini M1. I ended up choosing the PowerPhotos paid option because of the hundreds of albums he has in each library. PowerPhotos did the vast majority of the work for me. Thanks again really appreciate the crisp delivery of information!
Hi @Steven Nekava! Looks like you've been busy! 120K photos is a task indeed and I'm so happy I was able to assist in some way shape and form! Thanks so much for watching and appreciate the support!
@@Learnwithjoel Gotta tell ya... That software saved me from having to re-create almost 1,000 albums for those 120,000 photos! It was almost magical. Thanks again!
Excellent video. Can’t understand why Apple doesn’t have how-to videos for the mess they created and charge retail for. I’m more confident and clearer now on how to do this. Thanks for making this!
Thanks again @Ashok P! Apple does have how-to videos, but they really just scratch the surface and don't go into all the odd ball things that can happen in a real life scenario. So that's why I started creating content to hopefully help others with what I have learned over my years of troubleshooting and using these products and services. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and the content I’m creating, please feel free to SUBSCRIBE and use SUPER THANKS on the video if you haven’t already! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
I'm happy this was helpful for you @Nik Comito! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
I appreciate the kind words @Peter Dingley! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
You're very welcome @Johannes and the Starworld! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
You do a superb job of explaining in this and all of your videos. I'm beginning a massive photo project and appreciate your photos videos so much! Thank you!
Thank you Joel. Great. All the time that I should have not wasted taking to Apple Support through 7 of their technicians in helping me out managing just one library that was growing exponentially multiplying files 14 to 24 times, and no one new how to stop it, exporting those files to an external HDD and restart the cloud library. Thank you so much for explaining it so clear and how to FEEL SAFE doing it when you are dealing with 1.9Tb of images and videos. KUDOS to you! I don't know if you are the best but you deserve the first place.
Hi @Ruben D! Wow, thank you so much for the kind words. It's appreciated more than you know. It's feedback like this that keeps me motivated to help others! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and so greatly appreciated! Also if you know someone who may learn something from this video, share it along!
You're very welcome @Cuteek! I'm glad you were able to free up some space! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
I appreciate you and your kind words @JoshuaFarrer! Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated! If this video has been helped you, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance. Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
Hi Joel. That was a very informative video - It worked!!! Having struggled for months with three libraries I have been able to consolidate to just one!! Many many thanks!!!
Hey @Dave Redknap! I'm so happy this was helpful and you're able to find answers from these videos! Thanks so much for the kind words and support! I appreciate you watching and sharing!
Looking forward tom trying this. I just purchased a new Mac Studio. Unlike my older computer I only have 512GB and cant have the Photos library taking up 50GB. I have a fast external drive and would like the option of segmenting the libary on 2 drives. Thanks for the informative video. I have not even installed Adobe Lightroom CC yet.
I hope it helps out @Howell Ls! Also very jealous on your new purchase! How's the Mac Studio been so far?! Thank you for the continued support! If you learned something new and want to support my channel, click THANKS! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
So far it’s awesome. It’s a game changer with Lightroom Classic 2022 update. I decided to use the primary SSD sparingly. I have a Thunderbolt enclosure with a Samsung 980 Pro housing the Lightroom Catalog/photos and the Apple Photos library and it’s nice and fast. Thanks
Maybe someday right?! @Mike Lozano! Thanks so much for watching and the continued support! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
I appreciate that so much @Nick Coleman! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Right on @Jeff Hirata! No wrong way to do it! I'm happy it was helpful for you! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Exactly what I needed today! Having 2 libraries has been so annoying! I wasn’t even sure they *could* be merged with the differences between 32 bit & 64 bit systems.
You should totally be able to merge different libraries from various versions @hennahannnah. Also keep in mind that in the macOS12 Monterey the added a new feature to have an option to import libraries into one another. I'll link a video below in reference to that: NEW PHOTO FEATURE in mac Monterey - MERGE & IMPORT PHOTO LIBRARIES TOGETHER! It's about time Apple! ruclips.net/video/q3-8URjBErc/видео.html The only downfall is that if you're looking to keep albums and folders intact, that may not be the way to go. Check out PowerPhotos for that! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
You're very welcome @Bruce Pailex! Happy to help! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
You're very welcome @Ju Lian! I appreciate your kind words and glad the software is working for you! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! Also if you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
@@Learnwithjoel Hi Joel. Just an update on my previous comment. I'd like to tell you about my experience with Power Photo. Your video was very clear in helping me solve the problem I had of merging my photo libraries. I thought Power Photos was the best option for me and it did actually work very well by putting all my photos together. I was under the impression that it would be a much better place to keep all my photos and manage them better individually as well as in albums. However, I didn't realise that "merging libraries" seems to be the only thing it can do with ease. Deleting a single photo in Power Photos takes five clicks, compared to only one click in Photos. In the Power Photos library, I am unable to edit any photos as I could in my original Photos Library. If I want to import new photos from a memory card, I still have to do that into Photos not Power Photos. Now my original Photos Library is empty, apart from 65 new photos I've just imported, which also now appear in PHOTOS MAIN LIBRARY which automatically appeared in Power Photos after my import. I think I will transfer all the photos in the new merged library back into my original Photos library as one single library, which was my aim from the beginning. I know you haven't used Power Photo yourself but I wonder if you have heard of anyone else who's has similar issues to me. Kind regards, Julian. PS I've subscribed to your channel :)
@@slipperman59 That is great insight for me and others! From my knowledge of Power Photos, it's a great utility tool to use to find duplicates/similar photos and to merge libraries, but it would not be the tool/software to use for your everyday organizing and management of photos. I see it as a tool to use every few years to help get duplicates under control or if you have multiple libraries to consolidate. I would for sure recommend to have one single library that is your main location for photos. Hope that clarifies and thanks so much for subscribing! So greatly appreciated !
AHAA "show package contents" is going to save my life! Thank you!!! For me, I believe the folder is "master" instead of "original" (working off older version of Photos).
Hey @Kristin O. Sorry for the late response! I've been playing catchup! Nice catch with the verbiage of the folders behind the scenes. I think Apple has changed it again last time I looked, but regardless, you should still be able to find a master or original folder depending on the version of the Photo App. Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate your support!
Hi Joel, thank you for this great video series! It helps a lot!! But what do I do, If my “masters” folder shows no content (on my very old apple Air that has a hard time even opening any program) is it just too slow to show me the content or do I find the original/master files in a different place? Thank you again for your videos 👍👍
This is a fantastic video, thank you :) I have quite the stressful project ahead of me. Had a library for many years, and today it's decided to no longer import images. I've tried all sorts of 'repairs' the the usual things, but any attempt to import images and it's telling me the file is unrecognisable. On another library, no such issue. Makes me feel I need to re-build my library. However, it's over 200gb in size and has images/videos, location tags, faces and loads of other things from the past 20+ years. It's going to be a BIG job! Your video has shown me a lot of my options. Not sure how I'll tackle it, but you've helped loads even in terms of just understanding my options.
Hi @Russ Glove! Thanks for the kind words and I wish you success with your library and trying to fix it! Have you tried using a different Mac to "repair" the library? Are you also on the latest Mac OSX and such? I would say that if you've done the repairs on the library, and it still doesn't repair, you final option may be just to recover actual photos through the package contents as you may lose some of album organization you've done, but it will still have location information and it will also have to re-build the faces database. Fingers crossed and best of luck! Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and if you'd like to support me by subscribing, I would greatly appreciate it!
Joel, I appreciate your video so much. I have been a mac guy for over 15 year and switched computers like six times and will you might imagen as I didn't know much about organizing photos. right now I have maybe four or five libraries and I believe many duplicate files. I think that I will most likely get the app and pay in order to make sure I can consolidate them all without the struggles and worries of having doubles. Thank you so much. I am wishing you and your family some amazing holidays as we are already so close by. -Jorge in Florida.
You're very welcome @locovidepro! Photo organization is always an ongoing project that seems to never end. Depending on what macOS you're on, Apple Photos now can import other libraries into one, but the 3rd party apps certainly have more control, especially if you have albums and such to worry about. I hope you have a wonderful holiday as well! Florida sounds a lot more fun that winter in Minnesota! Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated! If this video has been helped you, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance. Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
@@Learnwithjoel do you have a video on how to merge the librarys? I want to have one library for archiving everything (year 2013-2023) and one on the cloud for current year + only favorites from past years. I want to regularly bring the recent photos into the archive library and then export a new clean system library out of it (by making a copy, and keeping only favorites, so I can start with the fresh new system library for the new year). Still wondering what method would be best as per your recommendation? (important for me is not keep the date when photos were taken, they are not edited and if a few are, I don't care of loosing the edited version)
I couldn't agree more @Stephen Scott! Family is awesome and most important! You're very welcome! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Thanks for the video, not exactly what I’m looking to do, but very helpful to understand how Photos works. I’m trying to figure out how to move a large LightRoom library (many photos taken with an DLSR) to have it managed by Photos. And would that new library in photos all have to be iCloud backed up (using a lot of space). Again, great video, I like how you explained things clearly. Liked and subscribed! 😊
Hi @E Eng! Sounds like if you're looking to use both Light Room and Apple Photos to manage your pictures, Referenced Library may be the thing to look at. It allows you to store your pictures in a file structure and have Apple Photos have access it. I'll link a video below that talks about this concept: iCloud Apple Photo Library VS Referenced Apple Photo Library - the DIFFERENCE & WHY it MATTERS! ruclips.net/video/PzcnnD5fgow/видео.html I hope that helps! Thank you for your continued support! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please support my channel, by clicking THANKS below, or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
You're very welcome @Richard Fitz! I'm happy this was helpful for you! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Hello, congratulations for your video, you helped me a lot. I tried the second option, by moving the originals file to the new library, I thought that it would have brought me also the old albums created in the old library, but unfortunately not. Do you know if there is a way to have them too. Thank you very much. Bye.
Hi @Marco Ghezzo! Unfortunately not. That only brings over the RAW files. Good news though! In macOS 12 Monterey, Apple introduced an option to actually import libraries into one another and that is supposed to preserve the albums! I have a video talking about it that I will link below for your reference: NEW PHOTO FEATURE in mac Monterey - MERGE & IMPORT PHOTO LIBRARIES TOGETHER! It's about time Apple! ruclips.net/video/q3-8URjBErc/видео.html I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t subscribed already and would like to support me and my content, please SUBSCRIBE and click THANKS below on the video! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, please share it along!
Hi, (sorry for the translation) congratulations for your videos, they are very useful to me, thank you. Can you give advice or a preference for those who own a Synology NAS between the Photos program and the Synology Photos program? A thousand thanks.
Hi @01Conanino, I appreciate you and your kind words! I am not the most savvy with the Synology Photos app, I don't use it at all, but there is a channel that I would high recommend to watch that I'll link below for reference: Check out @SpaceRexWill www.youtube.com/@SpaceRexWill Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated! If this video has been helped you, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance. Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for the support @John Smetzer! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
This is my second video I've seen of yours and I must say you are quite the communicator. Your directions are easily digestible. So, my compliments there. One thing you didn't mention is what method was your favorite. I had a question though. I think I would use method one if I were to do what you did but if I wanted to do a reverse merge or combine as in adding an existing Photos library to a photos library living on an external hard drive, could I export using a method one approach? My thinking is I'd like to have a complete copy of my photos on an external hard drive as well as on Photos.
I appreciate you and the kind words @RunTFC! I'm not sure if I would say I have a favorite method as I think it would depend on the situation and main goal. Option 1 for importing and exporting can take a long time depending on the amount of files, plus it will also then eat up hard drive space initially as it's exporting the files that already exist. That's why I would probably go with option two and just grab all the original files and drag them into a new library. If you have $10 to spare, PowerPhotos is an excellent application for this purpose. I also have a whole other video that talks about moving Apple Photo libraries to external drives, so check that out if you haven't already. I'll link below for reference: How to MOVE your iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARIES and APPLE PHOTO LIBRARIES to an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE! ruclips.net/video/wArkMrYehR8/видео.html I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
@@Learnwithjoel I've actually moved an iPhoto library to an external drive before but it was so long ago I can't remember exactly how I did it. I'm pretty sure I just followed the instructions from somewhere. But about a month ago I tried updating my OS on my iMac and it didn't take. It would get stuck on the sign in to my profile section and wouldn't proceed to log in. It had that circle of death happening. I even tried leaving it overnight to see if it would complete but it didn't. So I took it into a Mac shop and the guy said he would see what he could do. He uploaded "all my data" to his server then reinstalled Big Sur (I had Catalina). That was successful but all my data wasn't saved. I lost about 80g of data. I had been using the Photos app but drawing photos from my external hard drive. I learned that a while back too. I saw a pictures folder on my desktop that contained my iPhotos library and when I double-clicked it thinking it was going to just open some photos there, it instead began populating in my Photos app. All well and good but now I'm wondering if I can move those photos to my photos library on my hard drive to basically merge all my photos together. Or merge them all to the Photos app. I'd actually like the total library in at least two places, one as a backup obviously. I'm sorry, I know you're not here to solve everyone's issues but when it comes to tech problems, I don't always know where to turn and I start venting to someone who I think is trustworthy. Still a geek wannabe here and just wish I knew more.
I appreciate you and your kind words @davidpruiksma8014! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!
Hey - what about LIVE PHOTOS using the first method (export) - i want to keep them going and use them. If I pick "unmodified original" on export - should i save and include the .xmp file too? Do you have a video about that too? Thanks for the great explanation though - just using the live function pretty much on each photo so I need that info please 😅 great video btw - thank you!
Great question @nuchoices! I did just recently post a video dedicated to exporting photos from Apple Photos and I do discuss Live Photos! Long story short, you most likely do not need the .xmp file. But watch the link below and it should help! Check it out already if you haven't and I'm hoping this will answer your question! EXPORTING your Apple Photo files on your MAC - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW! ruclips.net/video/aiIiFePcRy4/видео.html Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Hi @nuchoices! I'll copy my same response here incase you don't see the other comment! I did just recently post a video dedicated to exporting photos from Apple Photos and I do discuss Live Photos! Long story short, you most likely do not need the .xmp file. But watch the link below and it should help! Check it out already if you haven't and I'm hoping this will answer your question! EXPORTING your Apple Photo files on your MAC - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW! ruclips.net/video/aiIiFePcRy4/видео.html Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
I'm happy this was helpful @Felipe Pontin Novaes! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and the content I’m creating, please feel free to SUBSCRIBE and use SUPER THANKS on the video if you haven’t already! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Simple and clear, thanks for the video. I really like the method of using Show package contents, help me save a lot of times to merge my photo library.
Hi @PQ SAW! I'm so happy this was helpful! Lots of options and that is for sure an old school method! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
Thank you so much @Ricardo Lithgow Nanita! I'm so happy you were able to find this video and it was helpful! Thanks for watching and I appreciate the support!
I have several old iPhoto libraries from older laptops, etc. that I have managed to move over to my iMac. All of my libraries have been organized into folders and albums. I'd really like to keep them organized that way as I literally have thousands of photos and videos, including slideshows and cards. If I do the iCloud library merge, will those folders and albums remain intact? Will they in all of these examples for merging?
Great question @Fran Barth! Merging Apple Photo libraries with Apple built in way only combines photos. It will not bring over the hard work of the folders and albums you created! Your ticket to success is an App called PowerPhotos. It's about $30 and well worth it! PowerPhotos by Fat Cat Software www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/ I don't have a video on this yet, but I will eventually. Check out the software though, it works really well and is pretty intuitive. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
@@Learnwithjoel thanks so much for your quick response and for your detailed explanation. I’ll give the software a try. You’re a gifted teacher! Thanks for the great resources. Happy holidays to you and your family!
@@franbarth3289 I really appreciate that! I've always found it gratifying to help others with technology questions that I've previously struggled with. Might as well share the knowledge and hurdles to prevent others from headaches! I try to get to all comments, but it's hard sometimes! Happy Holidays to you and your family as well!
I appreciate the kind words @GOODTIMESSS! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
This is an excellent video. I have several libraries that I would like to combine. I'm going to give the Power Photos a try. My old Mac crashed but the photos live on my backup so I have a little cleanup to do before moving to Lightroom.
Lol. Omg. I wish I had thought about doing a merge a few thousand photos and a few months ago. I’ve been using a duplicate app to scanned and delete my duplicate folders in two separate Photo libraries. These steps are way easier and save much more time.
Better late than never @Ded-Ede! I'm happy this maybe could be helpful down the road?! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!
I appreciate you and your kind words @Im2qwik! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!
Thank you for this great video. Very helpful! I do have a question -- If I am merging two different photo libraries, when I export the first and then import it to the "combined" library, will the metadata for the imported photos keep the photos organized chronologically?
Great question @Cristin Strong! Are you on macOS 12 Monterey? If so, they added a new "import library" option for Apple Photos! I created a video that speaks to this that I'll link below for reference: NEW PHOTO FEATURE in mac Monterey - MERGE & IMPORT PHOTO LIBRARIES TOGETHER! It's about time Apple! ruclips.net/video/q3-8URjBErc/видео.html Either way, whenever you merge multiple libraries, the organization won't change. You will still have the ability to organize in chronological order by date. Thank you for your continued support! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please support my channel, by clicking THANKS below, or better yet, share it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Hi @Flora! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support! I'll add that to the list of topics! I haven't done a backup one yet! Thanks for watching!
Thank you so much @computers dot mom! The spotlight is actually a plugin from a company called @motionvfx! In my opinion they have the BEST plugins and templates for creators! It works with Final Cut Pro and Apple Motion! Check out their website: www.motionvfx.com/ I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Great to hear some options finally. Thank you! I got a library that was created since 2000, but haven't been able to merge with my new, then newer, then newer...to my now current computer. Before I make the move, which I think either export-import or the manual options, I want to ask you would these methods keep all my "albums" and "projects" that had been created? As that old library have more than 75,000 photos in there that were all organized in different albums that I won't be able to recreate otherwise.
Great videos! Informative, concise, keep it moving, provide facts keeping separate from opinion allowing user to choose which method best suits their needs. Excellent. Thanks! Lovely family pic.
Thanks so much @Jill-of- All-Trades! I really appreciate the kind words! I do my best just to share what i've learned over the years with hopes it will help and teach someone else! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
You're very welcome @zerovchile! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!
I want to watch all you videos over and over!!!! Where can I get a list? Also, When you use the import/export functions, what happens to photos that have the same name? What are HEIC files?
Thanks so much @Lillian Zelinski! I appreciate the kind words and support! Everything will be on my RUclips channel: ruclips.net/user/Learnwithjoel If photos have the same name, but everything else about the photo is different, it will still import the photo. I do find that Apple Photos can be terrible at recognizing duplicate photos. That's why I do have software that finds similar and duplicate photos for future use! HEIC is Apple's new file format for photos....It's like a newer version of JPEG or JPG if you recognize that. It's designed to keep the quality of a photo, but have the file size smaller. Hope that helps! Again, thank you so much for watching! I appreciate your support!
Thanks for this video, it answered many of my questions except one: do these techniques work when attempting to merge two libraries that are attached to two different Apple IDs?
Many thanks for the video @Joel!! Glad to have found an expert on this subject :-) Perhaps you also know if it's possible to merge "Projects" from different Photos libraries? Merging the actual photos seems quite straight forward with your suggestions in this video, but I have several Projects (e.g. Motif Calendars) that are unfortunately on different computers. Asked Apple the other day, and they don't know...
Great question @Björn Gent! From my experience, the projects don't merge or export well as the project themselves. They're kinda stuck in that Library. I didn't find any good reference of this being possible either. Maybe there's a hidden way within the package contents of the library, but when I looked, it did not seem like an easy way to migrate it out. My best advice would be to keep the main library and then merge photos from a different library into the one that has the most projects to keep. Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Great question @TheBigHub! I have not had a need to copy one Photo Library from one Apple ID to a completely different Apple ID. However if needed to, this is what I would do. You would for sure need a Mac to do this. I would copy the Photo Library from Mac 1 (using Apple ID 1) to an external hard drive. Then I would access that Photo Library either on a different Mac using Apple ID 2 or on the same Mac under a different user account that is also signed in with the Apple ID 2. From there you should be able to open the Photo Library (using Apple ID 2) and then make sure that the option for "Use as System Photo Library" is greyed out, meaning that it will sync then to that different iCloud Apple ID account. I hope that makes sense! I haven't actually tested this, but this is where I would start. I'm guessing it should work. Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Thanks for the support @WORLD PRODUCTION! That'll keep you busy with 3 libraries of 500GB! You must have some great photos! Would love to see some content!
Hi @Pep Reo! Thanks for the kind words! If you have a bunch of Photo Albums created in and Photo Library on your old Mac, and you want it on your new mac, you can do that. You would have to most likely use an external hard drive to copy the photos from one computer to the other. This could result in having multiple libraries on the new mac, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Now if you're looking to just bring the organization of the Photo Albums over to the new Mac, Apple Photos doesn't really export or save just albums. You would have to export the photos from each album to do that. Kind of a pain. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! Also if you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
@@Learnwithjoel thanks for the Info. Yes, it’s about bringing the organized photo Albums to the new Mac. Gonna have to recreate the manually. Too bad they can’t simply be copied 😖
I am inspired by your video & your way to explain the topics on ios 18 one thing I want to know by you I hope you help me out “in photos app how to move photos from camera roll to album & don’t want to show these photos in camera roll I mean permanent move to album thanks
Hi @MAK403, I appreciate you and your kind words. Even in iOS 18+, when you put a photo into an album, it's not moving it, it's just putting it there to help organize from the larger main Photo library. Everything will always be in the main photo library. If you delete something from there, it will delete from any album that photo is in too. The only way to not make a photo show up in the main library is to Hide it, and then it only goes into one main Hidden Album. I hope that helps! Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated! If this video has been helped you, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance. Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
I appreciate the kind words @Donald Lippert! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Thanks to you I have finally learnt how to make folders in IOS Photos. This has stopped me from buying an iPad for years. Not even the Apple store could show me that. I have liked and subbed as well 👍 Just one question concerning backups. I am using the cloud to sync my photos, but do you know if Time Machine will work for backing up photos if it also going to the cloud? Luv your work Mate, thank you so much. I hope all is well in your world 🌏
Ha, never mind, I just saw your video about backing up your photos. Thanks a lot Mate, Ive been waiting for your videos for years. I am so glad I finally found them.
You're so very welcome @Cian Pereira! I'm really glad my content has helped! I have a couple videos on Backups that may answer your question that I'll link below for reference: iCLOUD BACKUPS - WHAT you NEED TO KNOW when it comes to backing up PHOTOS, iPHONES and your devices! ruclips.net/video/7ep9pREplD8/видео.html BACKUP YOUR MAC! - IN-DEPTH look at Apple Time Machine and many ways to save and recover your files! ruclips.net/video/LXl4QkrsxHQ/видео.html How to BACKUP iCLOUD PHOTOS! Options for your Mac, iPhone and iPad! Cloud or No Cloud! ruclips.net/video/pWZZlYU62ts/видео.html How to BACKUP your iPHONE or iPAD using iTunes, Finder and iCloud! - STEP BY STEP GUIDE ruclips.net/video/Uz7zVGEkPmE/видео.html I hope that helps and all is well with you too! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
No worries at all! Thanks for watching @Cian Pereira! I'll link videos down again for reference! You're so very welcome @Cian Pereira! I'm really glad my content has helped! I have a couple videos on Backups that may answer your question that I'll link below for reference: iCLOUD BACKUPS - WHAT you NEED TO KNOW when it comes to backing up PHOTOS, iPHONES and your devices! ruclips.net/video/7ep9pREplD8/видео.html BACKUP YOUR MAC! - IN-DEPTH look at Apple Time Machine and many ways to save and recover your files! ruclips.net/video/LXl4QkrsxHQ/видео.html How to BACKUP iCLOUD PHOTOS! Options for your Mac, iPhone and iPad! Cloud or No Cloud! ruclips.net/video/pWZZlYU62ts/видео.html How to BACKUP your iPHONE or iPAD using iTunes, Finder and iCloud! - STEP BY STEP GUIDE ruclips.net/video/Uz7zVGEkPmE/видео.html
Hey @BogdanV! Sorry for the delayed response! So they albums should stick and sync and merge with the new library as they are already there. For a safety net however, here's what you could do just in case. Select all the photos in the album and assign a keyword to them. That way if for whatever reason something doesn't sync, you can easily find them and put them back into an album! Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and I greatly appreciate your support!
Hello Joel thank you for your helpful videos. I still have one question though regarding the last chapter of the video when your merge the libraries using icloud Photos: what happen to your phone when you chose this new library as the system library ? If i understand well it should be now synchronized with your iPhone through icloud! What happen to the pictures that you had on the phone before ? Are they still on the phone AND added to the library on the Mac ? I have on my mac right now a library with a lot of albums and pictures which are not synchronised with my phone and is not the system library for some reason. My icloud Photos is also empty. That being said I would like to synchronize my Mac and Iphone together but I so scared to mess everything up Thank you again :)
Excellent video!! One question. If I have iCloud storage active on my newer Photos library, do I HAVE TO use the iCloud option? Or can I do the import/export option to bring over the older iPhoto library photos, assuming they will upload to the iCloud after the fact? I have a large iPhoto library of around 5,000 photos and I don't want depend on iCloud at first.
Thanks so much for watching @Russell Gong! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Hi Joel, excellent video explanation. One question, I know I have duplicate photos in different libraries…when merging will it prompt me to ask if I want to avoid merging duplicate photos?
Great question @Linda Appleby! So you would think that Apple Photos would give you options to merge the duplicates, but honestly I've had mixed results with it being consistently successful! My best advice is to merge all libraries together and then use a tool to find duplicates/similar photos. I'll link another video I created for reference below: HOW TO DELETE DUPLICATE PHOTOS in Apple Photos - IN DEPTH review of software to FIX your Duplicates! ruclips.net/video/VpQ5kDc3BvQ/видео.html I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Joel, I am wondering if this will work with the old app "iPhoto" merging into newer photos app I didn't hear you mention iPhoto specifically and i'm nervous to lose all those photos
Never mind so sorry - I started your tutorial over again to listen to the 4 options very carefully and I saw that at 11:35 you did specifically mention using method 2 for really old iPhoto libraries!! Thank you!!
Hey @M Davis! So when Apple released the new Apple Photos and discontinued iPhoto, the libraries themselves should actually upgrade... So for example, if you have an older iPhoto Library on your computer and you upgrade the Operating System to something newer like Big Sur, when you open the iPhoto library, it will actually open in the newer Apple Photos and actually duplicate it after it upgrades. Most don't realize this happens and then they're taking up twice the storage on the computer. But regardless, with the older library you should always be able to access the original pictures by using the Show package Contents method. Hope that helps and answers your question! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!
Oh good @MD432! Happy you were able to find the answer in there! Yeah, also keep in mind that the older iPhoto Libraries will upgrade themselves when you open them in a newer operating system! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
I just discovered your RUclips channel, and you've been so helpful! I'm working on organizing my photos and have always been so confused by it! One question I have is: in my Finder window, it shows my Photo Library, and then below that, there are probably 100+ individual photos that I don't think are in my iCloud Photo Library. What do I do with those? Thank you!
HI Joel, great video thanks for sharing, I already use iCloud photos and have all my photos from 2009 to present day on there, I also have an old mac with older photos on dating back to 2001 - 2014 , I would really like to get these photos into iCloud too. Do i need to combine these two libraries first before I go and upload the complete new one? If so is it easy to create a new library from what i already have on icloud?
Hi @Leon Coppola! You wouldn't have to combine the first two first. It really wouldn't matter, the end goal is still the same. Now a few things to think about....After you combine all three, make sure you'll have enough storage for all three to accommodate all libraries with room to grow so you don't have to move it again! Also did you by chance upgrade to the latest Mac OSX Monterey? If you did, they finally added a feature where you can import another Photos Library directly into an existing one! Not sure why that was never possible before, but it's a feature now! Doing this would actually alleviate the need for all the other methods! FINALLY! So in the grand scheme, you really don't have to create a new library, you'll just need to combine them all together and make sure that it's set to be the System Library. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Thanks for the tutorial. I have 5 photo libraries- some of them say they are copies? (eg photo library 3 copy.photos library) some have corrupted files.? Do I merge them all?
Hi @Trish Flower, If you have that amount of photo libraries, and the goal is to condense and consolidate, I would for sure merge them all. You sometimes just have to jump in and do it. Along the way, depending on how old the libraries are, there is sometimes a file that can get corrupted, but if you want to start organizing, the best thing to do to stay sane is get them all in one place and then work from there. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
I have a new library with a small amount of photos in it and it’s already in the cloud. And I have an old library that is very large also in the cloud on a different Apple ID. I’m worried about doing the iCloud method because when you disconnect the current library which is my new one it makes me think it’s going to delete those from cloud and use the old library now instead. But it shouldn’t do this and it should just start uploading the old library then but also download the new library into the old library then? I’m very confused how switching the system library combines the two and which library in finder becomes the main one now. It would be the second library you chose as system library correct?
It can get a little confusing for sure @iTechEveryWeek! When you're on a Mac, you can only be signed into one Apple ID Account within the current user. So lets say this is the account that is syncing with the Apple Photo library that doesn't have many photos in it. If you copied the other library that has a lot of photos in it to that user account, opened it up and checked the option to make it as "System Photo Library", it would then start to upload all of those photos and merge them all together. It should not overwrite or delete anything. Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated! If this video has been helped you, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance. Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
So if I copied the old large library from another Mac and onto my current Mac with the small library that’s the new account. But I opened the old large one. Make it system folder. It would upload all those to my new id that I’m signed into and also download all my new photos into that old library. So that old library would become the combined main one in the end and I could delete the library that is currently the small new one?
When I open my iCloud preferences page I do not see a photos icon. How to I add that icon so its visible like mail and calendar are? Thanks for a great video
Hi @Neil Bickerton! So yes, the photos/files in the "originals" folder would have the metadata of the files themselves. It would not have info like keywords or ratings that were given to it within the Apple Photo software. I have another video where I discuss Metadata that is similar in topic: See MORE METADATA than what Apple Photos shows you with software you already have! ruclips.net/video/2wJXbDmlMtU/видео.html Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
Great video! I’m curious what happens to the albums that have been created in these iPhoto/Photos libraries? So many of my imported photos don’t have the correct creation date due to old digital cameras, etc. I have thousands in correctly labeled albums (because I know when they were taken) but if all those albums go away and the photos are simply lumped together in a merge, I will lose all that organization, yes? 😕
Great video. Learned a lot about organising photos in Mac. However, I can't create a new library holding down 'option' and clicking on 'Photos'. It just opens the photos whenever I click on it like this. I'm using MacOS Monterey. What seems to be the problem? Please advise. Thanks
You're very welcome @colourconscious! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Hi @Garr E. Fe Lix! That's a fantastic question that I will be soon making a video on! Short quick answer is this... I currently have a spare laptop that I have set to sync my primary iCloud Photos Library and it's downloading all the originals to it. I then have an external hard drive that i'm using TimeMachine with to back that up. For all of my other photo libraries and such, I have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) that I archive all of my other content on. So really I have a couple methods, but my plan is to explain this a little more in depth in an upcoming video. Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate your continued support!
Thanks! My one big concern whenI started using Mac and their Photos app and their Library method is potentially having a corrupt Library. I’m not familiar w the filing structure, but is it considered a single file? Meaning if that does get corrupted, is my entire Library of photos corrupted. Whereas when I was using Windows, I saved all my photos into folders and files. Now I know this can be done w Mac also, but I would lose out on the search capabilities of Photos app, and using Smart filters. Would it be advantageous to break down Libraries into years, and avoid having large single Library?
Thanks for the very helpful video! Question: So switching which photo library your "system library" is pointing to won't delete any photos already in iClould from old library right?
Hi @Hal McKinney! Great question! Well, kinda...if you're don't have the photos in the current "system library" set to "download the originals" they would be removed from the Mac if they weren't fully downloaded, and then in the new library that you've made into the "system library" would just start to download everything from iCloud. So let's say you have one Photo Library on your Mac that is your current System Library and there's 100 pictures in there. It also shows the identical 100 pictures on iCloud. If the Photos library on your Mac has been set to optimize, then it's going to removed all of those photos and only keep ones that have been downloaded in that library, and then when you create a new library, it's just going to download all 100 photos anyway. Does that make sense? So it kinda deletes photos, but really everything is in the cloud, so it's downloading a new fresh copy once you make a new library and deem it as the new system library. Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
Hey Mate A question if I could ask please. Apple support couldn’t answer. I’ve updated to a MacBook Pro 2tb ssd 24gb ram. I used migration assistant connected from old (2012) MacBook to new my (2022) Now the old MacBook in finder is says 440gb of photos. New MacBook is saying 300gb in Finder. I’ve been through ever file or folder, each and every one are identical, but overall size differs. Next try was, export whole 2012 library to external hard drive. And the same, 300gb. Last of all, I did export iPhoto library to finder too, with no difference. Any help from You or anyone else would be greatly appreciated.
Hi @TasTube! I've done many migrations from Mac to Mac, Time Machine to Mac and occasionally PC to Mac. I would not expect the sizes to be identical. There are hidden folders and files on every Mac in addition to preference files and files that can be cached down to older Macs. More times than not, this information could be hidden and would not be included within the migration from old Mac to new Mac. I would look at your core file locations, such as your Desktop, Documents, Movies, Pictures, Music and Downloads and make sure the content there has been transferred. That is the important stuff. My personal preferences over the years now is to not even do a migration. When I get a new Mac, I literally sign in with my iCloud account and and all my files from Desktop and Documents come over. As far as my photos, It syncs through Apple Photos. Anything else syncs through iCloud Drive or I manually copy via an external hard drive. I like this method because it's sometimes nice to get a fresh start and not bring over any temporary or cached files from older outdated software that could have been used. As far as exporting your photos out of iPhoto, I would bring over the whole library and it should update it to the new Apple Photo library format. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already! If you want to support my content click THANKS below or better yet, SHARE it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
@@Learnwithjoel Hi again Joel. Sorry for the late reply, (life's so busy) First of all many thanks for your detailed response and extremely rapid response, I really do appreciate your help. I went through every folder in "Pictures" in Finder, deleted each folder at a time, from my old MacBook after check "Get info". I'm left with just one file. Called, (Photos Library) It does differ in size from the new MacBook. I stopped using the MacBook iPhoto app years ago. And begun using "Image Capture" to transfer from my iPhone to MacBook. Is it safe to delete this file from both MacBooks ? or will I erase photo's that were transferred to old MacBook? Please. I don't use iCloud, other than the free 5GB for really small stuff. Thanks again for everything, Tas
5.52: if you "export photos" instead of exporting unmodified originals want to be exporting much lower quality images? Given that the unmodified original versions are always larger in file size than the export photos method
Hi @nounix! No, not necessarily. the unmodified original will not always be higher quality. Check out the video below. It goes through every export option in Apple Photos. EXPORTING your Apple Photo files on your MAC - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW! ruclips.net/video/aiIiFePcRy4/видео.html Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated! If this video has been beneficial, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance. Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
Joel, I love your videos - excellent work! Thanks so much! Question: I have old iPhotos libraries. Do these instructions work for iPhoto libraries? or do I need to export the images to Photos?
Hi @Myra Williams Ottewell! I really appreciate your kind words! So yes, these same instructions would work. However keep in mind that if you have older "iPhoto Libraries" (not newer "Photo Libraries"), when you open them on a Mac that is updated and has Apple Photos, it will attempt to upgrade that old iPhoto Library to a new Photo Library and you result in having it duplicate the whole library on your Mac. I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! Also if you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Hi Joel, sorry for the "stupid question"I have an old iMac 27 from 2015, and have 3-4 libraries, and wanted to merge them together with my new Mac mini, and looking to import them into my Mac mini and place them all in a new library so I review my old photos there, please help. thanks a lot.
Never a stupid question @DaniloDelCadia! Do you use iCloud Photos? Regardless if you do or not, I would move all the libraries to the new Mac mini. Then I would open up the largest library and then import each library into that main one to consolidate them all. At that point you can start organizing and managing duplicates and such. Import photos from another library in Photos on Mac support.apple.com/en-us/119920 Thank you for your continued support. Your appreciation is deeply valued! If this video has proven beneficial, I would be honored if you could share it on social media and express your gratitude for its assistance.
hey I'm wondering, can you upload a .mp4, .heic, .hevc files onto iphotos into album from a Mac? and will that file when you moved a specific file onto iPhotos, show up on my iPhone too?
Hi @itimdesigner! You should have no problem uploading those formats into an iCloud Photo Album on your Mac. If you have iCloud Photos syncing turned on, they should then also appear on your iPhone. Below are the file formats quoted from the Apple Support article also listed below: "This includes HEIF, JPEG, RAW, PNG, GIF, TIFF, HEVC, and MP4 as well as special formats you capture with your iPhone or iPad, like slo-mo, time-lapse, 4K videos, and Live Photos." Set up and use iCloud Photos support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264 I hope that helps! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know! If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you! Please SUBSCRIBE if you haven’t already, and if you have, THANK YOU for your continued support!
Hi Joel, you are the best, thank you for posting these videos , you really have talent for explaining things, however I REALLY messed up. I merged 2 libraries now have 15,470 images but now my Duplicates Detective 2 app cannot pick out the duplicated images the only difference being file size. One is 2.5 mg and next to it is same at 12.5 mg. I have been physically deleting, so slow really is torture, any ideas on how to fix? Thanks, Steve
Hi Joel, this is a great video. Very informative, you speak clearly and your voice is really great for this purpose. My question is the following: I'd like to transfer my entire Photos library to my wife's Apple ID. We used to share the same ID which really was fantastic, when wanting to share photos, but due to some disadvantages (receiving the same messages, my data came into her health-app etc., we decided to split, so now we have two separate ID's. But still we'd like to share photos and it would be great if it is possible to do the editing at one source only (editing means grouping into folders, making name-tags, changing titles etc.) Best regards from Denmark Niels
Hi @Niels Weber! Hope all is well in Denmark and thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the kind words! I often see many users sharing an Apple ID/iCloud account not fully realizing the syncing that takes place with all the other content. So this is one HUGH disadvantage to Apple Photos and the whole iCloud Photo family sharing. As of right now, there is no way to share a combined Photo Library among family users. I am so hoping that they do this in the future. Google does it! The best thing to do right now is take advantage of Shared Photo Albums, but that still isn't a perfect solution! Not the answer you're probably looking for, but hopefully in the future that comes! Cheers from the US and thanks for the support!
Does it matter when downloading what format the storage drive is formatted to? Access to PC and Mac? i.e. ExFAT or another mac only format? preference or necessity?
Thanks. Maybe u can help. My Library on Mac is to big, but i want to conect it with Icloud ( so i can have the new photos from the phone in the library). But i dont want the old pics from the mac to sync with the new ones. Should i move the library in an Album, and let the library free for the newer ones? Is there another way? Thanks
Hi @Sylvia Minter! There is no built in method technically to find duplicates in Photos, but there are still options! I just created a new video on this very topic! It's very in-depth and reviews a handful of options! Hope it helps! ruclips.net/video/VpQ5kDc3BvQ/видео.html
This has been such an amazing tutorial - thank you for this! I looked through the comments and didn't see one that addresses my question - but please let me know if I missed it - in doing the iCloud method - when I go to switch the system photo library, I get a pop up/banner that says "Switching the System Photo Library will turn off iCloud Photos. Any photos and videos that have not been fully downloaded will be removed from this Mac and Shared Albums will be disabled. Turn on iCloud Photos for this new System Photo Library in Preferences." What does this mean - I have my current photo library in iCloud, but when I go to add the older library from an external drive and do the step as you suggest - I get that message and I am terrified to screw it up - I know your video was made a few years ago, this banner didn't pop up in your video - so I am not sure what to do - the options it gives me are "cancel" and "ok".
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One of the best explanations I’ve seen. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this tutorial! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thank you so much for the kind words @Kanwal Siddiqui! My whole goal for this channel is to help others!
Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
I don’t think this was explained very well. I think it needs to be redone or somebody new with a new way of explaining. Shame on Apple for not making it that user-friendly.
The fact I need to watch a 26 minute video to understand how to have all my photos in one place tells me Apple got this so terribly wrong (very rare that Apple gets this stuff wrong I have to admit). What an incredibly frustrating experience given I have two libraries well over 100gb big. Having said this I’m incredibly grateful that you took the time to make this in depth video - thank you, this was exactly what I was looking for!
I hear you @JDoerp! Apple sometimes does seem to overthink some things and make it more difficult than it needs to be. I'm really happy this was helpful for you though!
Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Exactly!
I agree. I am furious. This has taken me since July and intensive research to figure out agonizingly about protecting my data and trying not to lose my photos. Trying to wrap my head around this foreign language that is tech. I have 2TB full on iCloud to transfer of personal vlogs and videos. I am trucking on.
@JDoerp
It's not rare that Apple gets something wrong, Lol
Super clear - one of the best Photos tutorial videos I've seen.
WOW, Thanks so much @melissayoutube! I really appreciate the kind words and feedback! Thanks so much for watching and supporting!
Sometimes I don't understand why some people make videos on topics they don't know or understand. I found your video and I want to thank you because I had already done everything and couldn't import the photos to my library, until you showed something so simple that solved my problem, which was right click and show the package and drop the folder that says originals That's it, thank you very much and God bless you
This is going to be a God-send for me. .I will use the iCloud technique ... the last one you discussed. I have everything in the cloud and I have the data storage space with no problem. I will make this work. Or I will at least do the best I can. And sometimes that's all you can do. And I sent a note to a friend of mine who is very Apple savvy, while I was listening to you in the background and spoke to how succinct and clear you are. I think you saved the day. Just like Mighty Mouse used to do when I was a little kid... so we shall see. Again it is very clear and concise. It's all we ask for sometimes in life. Peace. Gail
Sounds like you're on the right track @Gail Remp!
Thanks for the kind words and don't hesitate to reach out!
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After a week, watching . Rewinding ! i feel like part of your family? Thank you for not rambling it down!
LOL, well, welcome to the family @R Tolly!
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Thank you soooo much. I had a new iMac last July and was trying to figure out how to import my backup photos in a hard drive to the new iMac. I tried many times and finally able to do it after watching your video. You are lovely. Thank you againnnnnnn.
You're very welcome @CMYW Wong! I'm happy to help!
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@Joel Feld - You are an absolute life saver! This helped me merge/organize over 120,000 photos for my father in law who is a photographer hobbyist. I merged his library from his old iMac 24" as well as his old iMac 27" onto his brand new Mac Mini M1. I ended up choosing the PowerPhotos paid option because of the hundreds of albums he has in each library. PowerPhotos did the vast majority of the work for me. Thanks again really appreciate the crisp delivery of information!
Hi @Steven Nekava! Looks like you've been busy! 120K photos is a task indeed and I'm so happy I was able to assist in some way shape and form!
Thanks so much for watching and appreciate the support!
@@Learnwithjoel Gotta tell ya... That software saved me from having to re-create almost 1,000 albums for those 120,000 photos! It was almost magical. Thanks again!
Excellent video. Can’t understand why Apple doesn’t have how-to videos for the mess they created and charge retail for. I’m more confident and clearer now on how to do this. Thanks for making this!
Thanks again @Ashok P!
Apple does have how-to videos, but they really just scratch the surface and don't go into all the odd ball things that can happen in a real life scenario. So that's why I started creating content to hopefully help others with what I have learned over my years of troubleshooting and using these products and services.
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you would like to support me and the content I’m creating, please feel free to SUBSCRIBE and use SUPER THANKS on the video if you haven’t already! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Ive been trying to do this for years with no clear instructions out there. Thanks so much for the vid.
I'm happy this was helpful for you @Nik Comito!
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Crystal clear explanations of how to deal with our most precious files - thanks! Subscribed!
I appreciate the kind words @Peter Dingley!
Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Very clear and helpful tutorial, thank you!
You're very welcome @Johannes and the Starworld!
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You do a superb job of explaining in this and all of your videos. I'm beginning a massive photo project and appreciate your photos videos so much! Thank you!
You're very welcome @WhiTor1! I'm so happy this was helpful! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate your support!
Thank you Joel. Great. All the time that I should have not wasted taking to Apple Support through 7 of their technicians in helping me out managing just one library that was growing exponentially multiplying files 14 to 24 times, and no one new how to stop it, exporting those files to an external HDD and restart the cloud library. Thank you so much for explaining it so clear and how to FEEL SAFE doing it when you are dealing with 1.9Tb of images and videos. KUDOS to you! I don't know if you are the best but you deserve the first place.
Hi @Ruben D!
Wow, thank you so much for the kind words. It's appreciated more than you know. It's feedback like this that keeps me motivated to help others!
If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and so greatly appreciated!
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Thank you so much for this! Very clear steps and now I saved some space on my MacBook so I can actually updated the iOS. 😅
You're very welcome @Cuteek! I'm glad you were able to free up some space!
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This helped a lot!! Only video on RUclips that explained this in depth!
I appreciate you and your kind words @JoshuaFarrer!
Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated!
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YES!! Exactly what I needed. Thank you so so much. Liked and subbed!
Happy to hear @ozpain1! Thanks so much!
Hi Joel. That was a very informative video - It worked!!! Having struggled for months with three libraries I have been able to consolidate to just one!! Many many thanks!!!
Hey @Dave Redknap! I'm so happy this was helpful and you're able to find answers from these videos! Thanks so much for the kind words and support! I appreciate you watching and sharing!
Looking forward tom trying this. I just purchased a new Mac Studio. Unlike my older computer I only have 512GB and cant have the Photos library taking up 50GB. I have a fast external drive and would like the option of segmenting the libary on 2 drives. Thanks for the informative video. I have not even installed Adobe Lightroom CC yet.
I hope it helps out @Howell Ls!
Also very jealous on your new purchase! How's the Mac Studio been so far?!
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So far it’s awesome. It’s a game changer with Lightroom Classic 2022 update. I decided to use the primary SSD sparingly. I have a Thunderbolt enclosure with a Samsung 980 Pro housing the Lightroom Catalog/photos and the Apple Photos library and it’s nice and fast. Thanks
@@nyindallas1 Nice! I can only imagine the speed of it! I have a newer 16" M1 Pro, which is fast, but those Studio Macs are next level!
I don't understand how this video doesn't have 20 Million views
Maybe someday right?! @Mike Lozano!
Thanks so much for watching and the continued support! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
An absolutely marvelous tutorial! Highly recommended.
I appreciate that so much @Nick Coleman!
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Thanks. This was very helpful. I went with the apple recommended method since I had to merge 12k photos.
Right on @Jeff Hirata! No wrong way to do it! I'm happy it was helpful for you!
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Exactly what I needed today! Having 2 libraries has been so annoying! I wasn’t even sure they *could* be merged with the differences between 32 bit & 64 bit systems.
You should totally be able to merge different libraries from various versions @hennahannnah. Also keep in mind that in the macOS12 Monterey the added a new feature to have an option to import libraries into one another. I'll link a video below in reference to that:
NEW PHOTO FEATURE in mac Monterey - MERGE & IMPORT PHOTO LIBRARIES TOGETHER! It's about time Apple!
ruclips.net/video/q3-8URjBErc/видео.html
The only downfall is that if you're looking to keep albums and folders intact, that may not be the way to go.
Check out PowerPhotos for that!
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Thank you Joel!! This is the one comprehensive, detailed instructions I have been able to find.You made it easy to understand.
Really appreciate it!!🙂
You're very welcome @Bruce Pailex! Happy to help!
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Thank you very much, Joel. Your explanation of everything is so clear. I decided to purchase Power Photos and, so far, it's working really well.
You're very welcome @Ju Lian! I appreciate your kind words and glad the software is working for you!
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@@Learnwithjoel Hi Joel. Just an update on my previous comment. I'd like to tell you about my experience with Power Photo. Your video was very clear in helping me solve the problem I had of merging my photo libraries. I thought Power Photos was the best option for me and it did actually work very well by putting all my photos together. I was under the impression that it would be a much better place to keep all my photos and manage them better individually as well as in albums. However, I didn't realise that "merging libraries" seems to be the only thing it can do with ease. Deleting a single photo in Power Photos takes five clicks, compared to only one click in Photos. In the Power Photos library, I am unable to edit any photos as I could in my original Photos Library. If I want to import new photos from a memory card, I still have to do that into Photos not Power Photos. Now my original Photos Library is empty, apart from 65 new photos I've just imported, which also now appear in PHOTOS MAIN LIBRARY which automatically appeared in Power Photos after my import. I think I will transfer all the photos in the new merged library back into my original Photos library as one single library, which was my aim from the beginning. I know you haven't used Power Photo yourself but I wonder if you have heard of anyone else who's has similar issues to me. Kind regards, Julian. PS I've subscribed to your channel :)
@@slipperman59 That is great insight for me and others! From my knowledge of Power Photos, it's a great utility tool to use to find duplicates/similar photos and to merge libraries, but it would not be the tool/software to use for your everyday organizing and management of photos. I see it as a tool to use every few years to help get duplicates under control or if you have multiple libraries to consolidate.
I would for sure recommend to have one single library that is your main location for photos. Hope that clarifies and thanks so much for subscribing! So greatly appreciated !
Simply explained, clear diction and calmly conveyed. Thank you.
Thank you @David.4! I appreciate the support!
AHAA "show package contents" is going to save my life! Thank you!!! For me, I believe the folder is "master" instead of "original" (working off older version of Photos).
Hey @Kristin O.
Sorry for the late response! I've been playing catchup!
Nice catch with the verbiage of the folders behind the scenes. I think Apple has changed it again last time I looked, but regardless, you should still be able to find a master or original folder depending on the version of the Photo App.
Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate your support!
Hi Joel, thank you for this great video series! It helps a lot!! But what do I do,
If my “masters” folder shows no content (on my very old apple Air that has a hard time even opening any program) is it just too slow to show me the content or do I find the original/master files in a different place? Thank you again for your videos 👍👍
This is a fantastic video, thank you :) I have quite the stressful project ahead of me. Had a library for many years, and today it's decided to no longer import images. I've tried all sorts of 'repairs' the the usual things, but any attempt to import images and it's telling me the file is unrecognisable. On another library, no such issue.
Makes me feel I need to re-build my library. However, it's over 200gb in size and has images/videos, location tags, faces and loads of other things from the past 20+ years.
It's going to be a BIG job!
Your video has shown me a lot of my options. Not sure how I'll tackle it, but you've helped loads even in terms of just understanding my options.
Hi @Russ Glove! Thanks for the kind words and I wish you success with your library and trying to fix it! Have you tried using a different Mac to "repair" the library? Are you also on the latest Mac OSX and such?
I would say that if you've done the repairs on the library, and it still doesn't repair, you final option may be just to recover actual photos through the package contents as you may lose some of album organization you've done, but it will still have location information and it will also have to re-build the faces database.
Fingers crossed and best of luck!
Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and if you'd like to support me by subscribing, I would greatly appreciate it!
This video deserves more likes. Super clear!! Nice!
Thanks so much @Shamaoxuan! Thanks for your support and for the likes! It's greatly appreciated!
Joel, I appreciate your video so much. I have been a mac guy for over 15 year and switched computers like six times and will you might imagen as I didn't know much about organizing photos. right now I have maybe four or five libraries and I believe many duplicate files. I think that I will most likely get the app and pay in order to make sure I can consolidate them all without the struggles and worries of having doubles. Thank you so much. I am wishing you and your family some amazing holidays as we are already so close by. -Jorge in Florida.
You're very welcome @locovidepro!
Photo organization is always an ongoing project that seems to never end. Depending on what macOS you're on, Apple Photos now can import other libraries into one, but the 3rd party apps certainly have more control, especially if you have albums and such to worry about.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday as well! Florida sounds a lot more fun that winter in Minnesota!
Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated!
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@@Learnwithjoel do you have a video on how to merge the librarys? I want to have one library for archiving everything (year 2013-2023) and one on the cloud for current year + only favorites from past years. I want to regularly bring the recent photos into the archive library and then export a new clean system library out of it (by making a copy, and keeping only favorites, so I can start with the fresh new system library for the new year). Still wondering what method would be best as per your recommendation? (important for me is not keep the date when photos were taken, they are not edited and if a few are, I don't care of loosing the edited version)
Family IS awesome. Thank you my friend for the help.
I couldn't agree more @Stephen Scott! Family is awesome and most important! You're very welcome!
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Thanks for the video, not exactly what I’m looking to do, but very helpful to understand how Photos works. I’m trying to figure out how to move a large LightRoom library (many photos taken with an DLSR) to have it managed by Photos. And would that new library in photos all have to be iCloud backed up (using a lot of space).
Again, great video, I like how you explained things clearly. Liked and subscribed! 😊
Hi @E Eng!
Sounds like if you're looking to use both Light Room and Apple Photos to manage your pictures, Referenced Library may be the thing to look at.
It allows you to store your pictures in a file structure and have Apple Photos have access it.
I'll link a video below that talks about this concept:
iCloud Apple Photo Library VS Referenced Apple Photo Library - the DIFFERENCE & WHY it MATTERS!
ruclips.net/video/PzcnnD5fgow/видео.html
I hope that helps! Thank you for your continued support!
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This is a very helpful well explained video, thank you
You're very welcome @Richard Fitz! I'm happy this was helpful for you!
Thanks so much for watching!
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Hello, congratulations for your video, you helped me a lot. I tried the second option, by moving the originals file to the new library, I thought that it would have brought me also the old albums created in the old library, but unfortunately not. Do you know if there is a way to have them too. Thank you very much. Bye.
Hi @Marco Ghezzo!
Unfortunately not. That only brings over the RAW files. Good news though! In macOS 12 Monterey, Apple introduced an option to actually import libraries into one another and that is supposed to preserve the albums!
I have a video talking about it that I will link below for your reference:
NEW PHOTO FEATURE in mac Monterey - MERGE & IMPORT PHOTO LIBRARIES TOGETHER! It's about time Apple!
ruclips.net/video/q3-8URjBErc/видео.html
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching!
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Hi, (sorry for the translation) congratulations for your videos, they are very useful to me, thank you. Can you give advice or a preference for those who own a Synology NAS between the Photos program and the Synology Photos program?
A thousand thanks.
Hi @01Conanino,
I appreciate you and your kind words! I am not the most savvy with the Synology Photos app, I don't use it at all, but there is a channel that I would high recommend to watch that I'll link below for reference:
Check out @SpaceRexWill
www.youtube.com/@SpaceRexWill
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Another great tutorial video. Thanks so much for the education!
Thanks so much for the support @John Smetzer!
Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Thanks mate. That was a big help. Simplified the process dramatically.
You're very welcome @Dale McLachlan! I'm so happy it was helpful! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!
Love the pic of the wonderful family, I couldn't help but 'like' after that!
This is my second video I've seen of yours and I must say you are quite the communicator. Your directions are easily digestible. So, my compliments there. One thing you didn't mention is what method was your favorite. I had a question though. I think I would use method one if I were to do what you did but if I wanted to do a reverse merge or combine as in adding an existing Photos library to a photos library living on an external hard drive, could I export using a method one approach? My thinking is I'd like to have a complete copy of my photos on an external hard drive as well as on Photos.
I appreciate you and the kind words @RunTFC!
I'm not sure if I would say I have a favorite method as I think it would depend on the situation and main goal.
Option 1 for importing and exporting can take a long time depending on the amount of files, plus it will also then eat up hard drive space initially as it's exporting the files that already exist. That's why I would probably go with option two and just grab all the original files and drag them into a new library.
If you have $10 to spare, PowerPhotos is an excellent application for this purpose. I also have a whole other video that talks about moving Apple Photo libraries to external drives, so check that out if you haven't already. I'll link below for reference:
How to MOVE your iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARIES and APPLE PHOTO LIBRARIES to an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!
ruclips.net/video/wArkMrYehR8/видео.html
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching!
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@@Learnwithjoel I've actually moved an iPhoto library to an external drive before but it was so long ago I can't remember exactly how I did it. I'm pretty sure I just followed the instructions from somewhere. But about a month ago I tried updating my OS on my iMac and it didn't take. It would get stuck on the sign in to my profile section and wouldn't proceed to log in. It had that circle of death happening. I even tried leaving it overnight to see if it would complete but it didn't. So I took it into a Mac shop and the guy said he would see what he could do. He uploaded "all my data" to his server then reinstalled Big Sur (I had Catalina). That was successful but all my data wasn't saved. I lost about 80g of data. I had been using the Photos app but drawing photos from my external hard drive. I learned that a while back too. I saw a pictures folder on my desktop that contained my iPhotos library and when I double-clicked it thinking it was going to just open some photos there, it instead began populating in my Photos app. All well and good but now I'm wondering if I can move those photos to my photos library on my hard drive to basically merge all my photos together. Or merge them all to the Photos app. I'd actually like the total library in at least two places, one as a backup obviously.
I'm sorry, I know you're not here to solve everyone's issues but when it comes to tech problems, I don't always know where to turn and I start venting to someone who I think is trustworthy. Still a geek wannabe here and just wish I knew more.
He really explains this slow and simple
Thank you so much for the kind feedback! Thanks for watching and I appreciate the support!
This video is very clear and helpful.
I appreciate you and your kind words @davidpruiksma8014!
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Hey - what about LIVE PHOTOS using the first method (export) - i want to keep them going and use them. If I pick "unmodified original" on export - should i save and include the .xmp file too? Do you have a video about that too? Thanks for the great explanation though - just using the live function pretty much on each photo so I need that info please 😅 great video btw - thank you!
...or how am I doing it correctly? Not sure about the best way...with live photos
Great question @nuchoices!
I did just recently post a video dedicated to exporting photos from Apple Photos and I do discuss Live Photos! Long story short, you most likely do not need the .xmp file. But watch the link below and it should help!
Check it out already if you haven't and I'm hoping this will answer your question!
EXPORTING your Apple Photo files on your MAC - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW!
ruclips.net/video/aiIiFePcRy4/видео.html
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Hi @nuchoices! I'll copy my same response here incase you don't see the other comment!
I did just recently post a video dedicated to exporting photos from Apple Photos and I do discuss Live Photos! Long story short, you most likely do not need the .xmp file. But watch the link below and it should help!
Check it out already if you haven't and I'm hoping this will answer your question!
EXPORTING your Apple Photo files on your MAC - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW!
ruclips.net/video/aiIiFePcRy4/видео.html
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This was a great explanation of different methods, definitely a life safer and I already share with a friend. keep doing great videos 🙂.
I'm happy this was helpful @Felipe Pontin Novaes!
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Simple and clear, thanks for the video. I really like the method of using Show package contents, help me save a lot of times to merge my photo library.
Hi @PQ SAW! I'm so happy this was helpful! Lots of options and that is for sure an old school method! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
Great video. Looking for this info for months!!!
Thank you so much @Ricardo Lithgow Nanita! I'm so happy you were able to find this video and it was helpful!
Thanks for watching and I appreciate the support!
I have several old iPhoto libraries from older laptops, etc. that I have managed to move over to my iMac. All of my libraries have been organized into folders and albums. I'd really like to keep them organized that way as I literally have thousands of photos and videos, including slideshows and cards. If I do the iCloud library merge, will those folders and albums remain intact? Will they in all of these examples for merging?
Great question @Fran Barth!
Merging Apple Photo libraries with Apple built in way only combines photos. It will not bring over the hard work of the folders and albums you created!
Your ticket to success is an App called PowerPhotos. It's about $30 and well worth it!
PowerPhotos by Fat Cat Software
www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/
I don't have a video on this yet, but I will eventually. Check out the software though, it works really well and is pretty intuitive.
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching!
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@@Learnwithjoel thanks so much for your quick response and for your detailed explanation. I’ll give the software a try. You’re a gifted teacher! Thanks for the great resources. Happy holidays to you and your family!
@@franbarth3289 I really appreciate that! I've always found it gratifying to help others with technology questions that I've previously struggled with. Might as well share the knowledge and hurdles to prevent others from headaches! I try to get to all comments, but it's hard sometimes! Happy Holidays to you and your family as well!
Great Video and well Explained.. Thank you!
I appreciate the kind words @GOODTIMESSS!
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This is an excellent video. I have several libraries that I would like to combine. I'm going to give the Power Photos a try. My old Mac crashed but the photos live on my backup so I have a little cleanup to do before moving to Lightroom.
Lol. Omg. I wish I had thought about doing a merge a few thousand photos and a few months ago. I’ve been using a duplicate app to scanned and delete my duplicate folders in two separate Photo libraries. These steps are way easier and save much more time.
Better late than never @Ded-Ede! I'm happy this maybe could be helpful down the road?!
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superb...concise..great speaking mannerism
I appreciate you and your kind words @Im2qwik!
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Thank you for this great video. Very helpful! I do have a question -- If I am merging two different photo libraries, when I export the first and then import it to the "combined" library, will the metadata for the imported photos keep the photos organized chronologically?
Great question @Cristin Strong!
Are you on macOS 12 Monterey? If so, they added a new "import library" option for Apple Photos! I created a video that speaks to this that I'll link below for reference:
NEW PHOTO FEATURE in mac Monterey - MERGE & IMPORT PHOTO LIBRARIES TOGETHER! It's about time Apple!
ruclips.net/video/q3-8URjBErc/видео.html
Either way, whenever you merge multiple libraries, the organization won't change. You will still have the ability to organize in chronological order by date.
Thank you for your continued support!
If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please support my channel, by clicking THANKS below, or better yet, share it with a friend on social media and say how it helped you!
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Like your channel so much! Hope to learn some videos about how to backup and create photos library periodically.😊
Hi @Flora! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support! I'll add that to the list of topics! I haven't done a backup one yet!
Thanks for watching!
This was excellent. Question, though: how do you get that spotlight effect in your videos?
Thank you so much @computers dot mom!
The spotlight is actually a plugin from a company called @motionvfx! In my opinion they have the BEST plugins and templates for creators!
It works with Final Cut Pro and Apple Motion! Check out their website: www.motionvfx.com/
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Great to hear some options finally. Thank you! I got a library that was created since 2000, but haven't been able to merge with my new, then newer, then newer...to my now current computer. Before I make the move, which I think either export-import or the manual options, I want to ask you would these methods keep all my "albums" and "projects" that had been created? As that old library have more than 75,000 photos in there that were all organized in different albums that I won't be able to recreate otherwise.
This is what I have been looking for!
Thank you
Great videos! Informative, concise, keep it moving, provide facts keeping separate from opinion allowing user to choose which method best suits their needs. Excellent. Thanks! Lovely family pic.
Thanks so much @Jill-of- All-Trades! I really appreciate the kind words! I do my best just to share what i've learned over the years with hopes it will help and teach someone else!
Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
Great video! Thanks!!
You're very welcome @zerovchile!
THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know!
If this video was useful, I’d love for you to SHARE it with on social media and say how it helped you!
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I want to watch all you videos over and over!!!! Where can I get a list? Also, When you use the import/export functions, what happens to photos that have the same name? What are HEIC files?
Thanks so much @Lillian Zelinski! I appreciate the kind words and support! Everything will be on my RUclips channel: ruclips.net/user/Learnwithjoel
If photos have the same name, but everything else about the photo is different, it will still import the photo. I do find that Apple Photos can be terrible at recognizing duplicate photos. That's why I do have software that finds similar and duplicate photos for future use!
HEIC is Apple's new file format for photos....It's like a newer version of JPEG or JPG if you recognize that. It's designed to keep the quality of a photo, but have the file size smaller.
Hope that helps! Again, thank you so much for watching! I appreciate your support!
Thanks for this video, it answered many of my questions except one: do these techniques work when attempting to merge two libraries that are attached to two different Apple IDs?
Many thanks for the video @Joel!!
Glad to have found an expert on this subject :-)
Perhaps you also know if it's possible to merge "Projects" from different Photos libraries? Merging the actual photos seems quite straight forward with your suggestions in this video, but I have several Projects (e.g. Motif Calendars) that are unfortunately on different computers. Asked Apple the other day, and they don't know...
Great question @Björn Gent!
From my experience, the projects don't merge or export well as the project themselves. They're kinda stuck in that Library.
I didn't find any good reference of this being possible either. Maybe there's a hidden way within the package contents of the library, but when I looked, it did not seem like an easy way to migrate it out.
My best advice would be to keep the main library and then merge photos from a different library into the one that has the most projects to keep.
Thanks so much for watching!
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Joel - have you ever done something like this where you need to move a copy of your photos library to another Apple ID?
Great question @TheBigHub!
I have not had a need to copy one Photo Library from one Apple ID to a completely different Apple ID.
However if needed to, this is what I would do. You would for sure need a Mac to do this.
I would copy the Photo Library from Mac 1 (using Apple ID 1) to an external hard drive.
Then I would access that Photo Library either on a different Mac using Apple ID 2 or on the same Mac under a different user account that is also signed in with the Apple ID 2.
From there you should be able to open the Photo Library (using Apple ID 2) and then make sure that the option for "Use as System Photo Library" is greyed out, meaning that it will sync then to that different iCloud Apple ID account.
I hope that makes sense! I haven't actually tested this, but this is where I would start. I'm guessing it should work.
Thanks so much for watching!
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Nice ! I have 3 500Gb libraries that I’m gonna synchronize with my 2Tb iCloud later today ! Thx for the tutorial very well done 👍
Thanks for the support @WORLD PRODUCTION! That'll keep you busy with 3 libraries of 500GB! You must have some great photos! Would love to see some content!
Thank for this great Video. I wonder if the is a way to import my Photo Albums I created on my old Mac to my new one? I'm not using iCloud.
Hi @Pep Reo! Thanks for the kind words!
If you have a bunch of Photo Albums created in and Photo Library on your old Mac, and you want it on your new mac, you can do that. You would have to most likely use an external hard drive to copy the photos from one computer to the other.
This could result in having multiple libraries on the new mac, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Now if you're looking to just bring the organization of the Photo Albums over to the new Mac, Apple Photos doesn't really export or save just albums. You would have to export the photos from each album to do that. Kind of a pain.
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Also if you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
@@Learnwithjoel thanks for the Info. Yes, it’s about bringing the organized photo Albums to the new Mac. Gonna have to recreate the manually. Too bad they can’t simply be copied 😖
I am inspired by your video & your way to explain the topics on ios 18 one thing I want to know by you I hope you help me out “in photos app how to move photos from camera roll to album & don’t want to show these photos in camera roll I mean permanent move to album thanks
Hi @MAK403,
I appreciate you and your kind words.
Even in iOS 18+, when you put a photo into an album, it's not moving it, it's just putting it there to help organize from the larger main Photo library.
Everything will always be in the main photo library. If you delete something from there, it will delete from any album that photo is in too.
The only way to not make a photo show up in the main library is to Hide it, and then it only goes into one main Hidden Album.
I hope that helps!
Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated!
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Thank you for clarifying all this! however, I am still trying to figure out the oposite. How to split a library into 2 libraries?
Famly’s awesome! Love your videos… Thanks.
I appreciate the kind words @Donald Lippert!
Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Thank you Joel, this was very helpful and your instructions were clear and easy to follow:)
Thanks so much @Matthew Keyes! I really appreciate it! Thanks so much for watching!
Thanks to you I have finally learnt how to make folders in IOS Photos. This has stopped me from buying an iPad for years. Not even the Apple store could show me that. I have liked and subbed as well 👍
Just one question concerning backups. I am using the cloud to sync my photos, but do you know if Time Machine will work for backing up photos if it also going to the cloud?
Luv your work Mate, thank you so much. I hope all is well in your world 🌏
Ha, never mind, I just saw your video about backing up your photos. Thanks a lot Mate, Ive been waiting for your videos for years. I am so glad I finally found them.
You're so very welcome @Cian Pereira! I'm really glad my content has helped!
I have a couple videos on Backups that may answer your question that I'll link below for reference:
iCLOUD BACKUPS - WHAT you NEED TO KNOW when it comes to backing up PHOTOS, iPHONES and your devices!
ruclips.net/video/7ep9pREplD8/видео.html
BACKUP YOUR MAC! - IN-DEPTH look at Apple Time Machine and many ways to save and recover your files!
ruclips.net/video/LXl4QkrsxHQ/видео.html
How to BACKUP iCLOUD PHOTOS! Options for your Mac, iPhone and iPad! Cloud or No Cloud!
ruclips.net/video/pWZZlYU62ts/видео.html
How to BACKUP your iPHONE or iPAD using iTunes, Finder and iCloud! - STEP BY STEP GUIDE
ruclips.net/video/Uz7zVGEkPmE/видео.html
I hope that helps and all is well with you too! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
No worries at all! Thanks for watching @Cian Pereira!
I'll link videos down again for reference!
You're so very welcome @Cian Pereira! I'm really glad my content has helped!
I have a couple videos on Backups that may answer your question that I'll link below for reference:
iCLOUD BACKUPS - WHAT you NEED TO KNOW when it comes to backing up PHOTOS, iPHONES and your devices!
ruclips.net/video/7ep9pREplD8/видео.html
BACKUP YOUR MAC! - IN-DEPTH look at Apple Time Machine and many ways to save and recover your files!
ruclips.net/video/LXl4QkrsxHQ/видео.html
How to BACKUP iCLOUD PHOTOS! Options for your Mac, iPhone and iPad! Cloud or No Cloud!
ruclips.net/video/pWZZlYU62ts/видео.html
How to BACKUP your iPHONE or iPAD using iTunes, Finder and iCloud! - STEP BY STEP GUIDE
ruclips.net/video/Uz7zVGEkPmE/видео.html
Hi, thank you for the nice video.
If I use the iCloud method will the albums created in the old library also populate the new library?
Hey @BogdanV!
Sorry for the delayed response! So they albums should stick and sync and merge with the new library as they are already there.
For a safety net however, here's what you could do just in case. Select all the photos in the album and assign a keyword to them. That way if for whatever reason something doesn't sync, you can easily find them and put them back into an album!
Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and I greatly appreciate your support!
Hello Joel thank you for your helpful videos. I still have one question though regarding the last chapter of the video when your merge the libraries using icloud Photos: what happen to your phone when you chose this new library as the system library ? If i understand well it should be now synchronized with your iPhone through icloud! What happen to the pictures that you had on the phone before ? Are they still on the phone AND added to the library on the Mac ?
I have on my mac right now a library with a lot of albums and pictures which are not synchronised with my phone and is not the system library for some reason. My icloud Photos is also empty. That being said I would like to synchronize my Mac and Iphone together but I so scared to mess everything up
Thank you again :)
Excellent video!! One question. If I have iCloud storage active on my newer Photos library, do I HAVE TO use the iCloud option? Or can I do the import/export option to bring over the older iPhoto library photos, assuming they will upload to the iCloud after the fact? I have a large iPhoto library of around 5,000 photos and I don't want depend on iCloud at first.
Very helpful. Thanks!
Thanks so much for watching @Russell Gong! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
This is the best video I have seen on this topic! Thank you.
Thanks for watching @IsaÍ Jiménez! I really appreciate the kind words. Thanks for watching and the support!
Hi Joel, excellent video explanation. One question, I know I have duplicate photos in different libraries…when merging will it prompt me to ask if I want to avoid merging duplicate photos?
Great question @Linda Appleby!
So you would think that Apple Photos would give you options to merge the duplicates, but honestly I've had mixed results with it being consistently successful!
My best advice is to merge all libraries together and then use a tool to find duplicates/similar photos. I'll link another video I created for reference below:
HOW TO DELETE DUPLICATE PHOTOS in Apple Photos - IN DEPTH review of software to FIX your Duplicates!
ruclips.net/video/VpQ5kDc3BvQ/видео.html
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated! If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Joel, I am wondering if this will work with the old app "iPhoto" merging into newer photos app I didn't hear you mention iPhoto specifically and i'm nervous to lose all those photos
Never mind so sorry - I started your tutorial over again to listen to the 4 options very carefully and I saw that at 11:35 you did specifically mention using method 2 for really old iPhoto libraries!! Thank you!!
Hey @M Davis! So when Apple released the new Apple Photos and discontinued iPhoto, the libraries themselves should actually upgrade...
So for example, if you have an older iPhoto Library on your computer and you upgrade the Operating System to something newer like Big Sur, when you open the iPhoto library, it will actually open in the newer Apple Photos and actually duplicate it after it upgrades.
Most don't realize this happens and then they're taking up twice the storage on the computer.
But regardless, with the older library you should always be able to access the original pictures by using the Show package Contents method.
Hope that helps and answers your question! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate the support!
Oh good @MD432! Happy you were able to find the answer in there! Yeah, also keep in mind that the older iPhoto Libraries will upgrade themselves when you open them in a newer operating system!
Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
I just discovered your RUclips channel, and you've been so helpful! I'm working on organizing my photos and have always been so confused by it! One question I have is: in my Finder window, it shows my Photo Library, and then below that, there are probably 100+ individual photos that I don't think are in my iCloud Photo Library. What do I do with those? Thank you!
HI Joel, great video thanks for sharing, I already use iCloud photos and have all my photos from 2009 to present day on there, I also have an old mac with older photos on dating back to 2001 - 2014 , I would really like to get these photos into iCloud too. Do i need to combine these two libraries first before I go and upload the complete new one? If so is it easy to create a new library from what i already have on icloud?
Hi @Leon Coppola!
You wouldn't have to combine the first two first. It really wouldn't matter, the end goal is still the same.
Now a few things to think about....After you combine all three, make sure you'll have enough storage for all three to accommodate all libraries with room to grow so you don't have to move it again!
Also did you by chance upgrade to the latest Mac OSX Monterey? If you did, they finally added a feature where you can import another Photos Library directly into an existing one! Not sure why that was never possible before, but it's a feature now! Doing this would actually alleviate the need for all the other methods! FINALLY!
So in the grand scheme, you really don't have to create a new library, you'll just need to combine them all together and make sure that it's set to be the System Library.
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
If you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Thanks for the tutorial. I have 5 photo libraries- some of them say they are copies? (eg photo library 3 copy.photos library) some have corrupted files.? Do I merge them all?
Hi @Trish Flower,
If you have that amount of photo libraries, and the goal is to condense and consolidate, I would for sure merge them all. You sometimes just have to jump in and do it.
Along the way, depending on how old the libraries are, there is sometimes a file that can get corrupted, but if you want to start organizing, the best thing to do to stay sane is get them all in one place and then work from there.
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching!
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@@Learnwithjoel many thanks
Thank you very much! This is exactly what I need.
I have a new library with a small amount of photos in it and it’s already in the cloud. And I have an old library that is very large also in the cloud on a different Apple ID. I’m worried about doing the iCloud method because when you disconnect the current library which is my new one it makes me think it’s going to delete those from cloud and use the old library now instead. But it shouldn’t do this and it should just start uploading the old library then but also download the new library into the old library then? I’m very confused how switching the system library combines the two and which library in finder becomes the main one now. It would be the second library you chose as system library correct?
It can get a little confusing for sure @iTechEveryWeek!
When you're on a Mac, you can only be signed into one Apple ID Account within the current user. So lets say this is the account that is syncing with the Apple Photo library that doesn't have many photos in it.
If you copied the other library that has a lot of photos in it to that user account, opened it up and checked the option to make it as "System Photo Library", it would then start to upload all of those photos and merge them all together. It should not overwrite or delete anything.
Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated!
If this video has been helped you, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance.
Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
So if I copied the old large library from another Mac and onto my current Mac with the small library that’s the new account. But I opened the old large one. Make it system folder. It would upload all those to my new id that I’m signed into and also download all my new photos into that old library. So that old library would become the combined main one in the end and I could delete the library that is currently the small new one?
When I open my iCloud preferences page I do not see a photos icon. How to I add that icon so its visible like mail and calendar are? Thanks for a great video
Great video thank you. Can I ask, does the 'originals' folder method preserve metadata?
Hi @Neil Bickerton! So yes, the photos/files in the "originals" folder would have the metadata of the files themselves. It would not have info like keywords or ratings that were given to it within the Apple Photo software.
I have another video where I discuss Metadata that is similar in topic:
See MORE METADATA than what Apple Photos shows you with software you already have!
ruclips.net/video/2wJXbDmlMtU/видео.html
Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
@@Learnwithjoel Thank you very much Joel.
Great video! I’m curious what happens to the albums that have been created in these iPhoto/Photos libraries? So many of my imported photos don’t have the correct creation date due to old digital cameras, etc. I have thousands in correctly labeled albums (because I know when they were taken) but if all those albums go away and the photos are simply lumped together in a merge, I will lose all that organization, yes? 😕
Did you solve the issue? It is happening the same to me...
@@joanabc2912 I did not. I decided not to try merging until I have an answer on this.
Great video. Learned a lot about organising photos in Mac. However, I can't create a new library holding down 'option' and clicking on 'Photos'. It just opens the photos whenever I click on it like this. I'm using MacOS Monterey. What seems to be the problem? Please advise. Thanks
Thank you very much. Very clear
You're very welcome @colourconscious!
Thanks so much for watching!
If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already!
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Thank you this is a super helpful video, you rock!
You're very welcome @Teri Weronko! Thanks for watching and I appreciate the continued support!
Thanks for this video!
You're so very welcome @Ana Osorio! Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
Good tutorial. How do you maintain a backup of your libraries? Do you just download to another external drive. And how often do you do it?
Hi @Garr E. Fe Lix! That's a fantastic question that I will be soon making a video on!
Short quick answer is this...
I currently have a spare laptop that I have set to sync my primary iCloud Photos Library and it's downloading all the originals to it. I then have an external hard drive that i'm using TimeMachine with to back that up.
For all of my other photo libraries and such, I have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) that I archive all of my other content on.
So really I have a couple methods, but my plan is to explain this a little more in depth in an upcoming video.
Hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate your continued support!
Thanks! My one big concern whenI started using Mac and their Photos app and their Library method is potentially having a corrupt Library. I’m not familiar w the filing structure, but is it considered a single file? Meaning if that does get corrupted, is my entire Library of photos corrupted. Whereas when I was using Windows, I saved all my photos into folders and files. Now I know this can be done w Mac also, but I would lose out on the search capabilities of Photos app, and using Smart filters. Would it be advantageous to break down Libraries into years, and avoid having large single Library?
Thanks for the very helpful video! Question: So switching which photo library your "system library" is pointing to won't delete any photos already in iClould from old library right?
Hi @Hal McKinney! Great question!
Well, kinda...if you're don't have the photos in the current "system library" set to "download the originals" they would be removed from the Mac if they weren't fully downloaded, and then in the new library that you've made into the "system library" would just start to download everything from iCloud.
So let's say you have one Photo Library on your Mac that is your current System Library and there's 100 pictures in there. It also shows the identical 100 pictures on iCloud. If the Photos library on your Mac has been set to optimize, then it's going to removed all of those photos and only keep ones that have been downloaded in that library, and then when you create a new library, it's just going to download all 100 photos anyway.
Does that make sense? So it kinda deletes photos, but really everything is in the cloud, so it's downloading a new fresh copy once you make a new library and deem it as the new system library.
Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support!
Hey Mate
A question if I could ask please.
Apple support couldn’t answer.
I’ve updated to a MacBook Pro 2tb ssd 24gb ram.
I used migration assistant connected from old (2012) MacBook to new my (2022)
Now the old MacBook in finder is says 440gb of photos. New MacBook is saying 300gb in Finder.
I’ve been through ever file or folder, each and every one are identical, but overall size differs.
Next try was, export whole 2012 library to external hard drive. And the same, 300gb.
Last of all, I did export iPhoto library to finder too, with no difference.
Any help from You or anyone else would be greatly appreciated.
Hi @TasTube!
I've done many migrations from Mac to Mac, Time Machine to Mac and occasionally PC to Mac.
I would not expect the sizes to be identical. There are hidden folders and files on every Mac in addition to preference files and files that can be cached down to older Macs. More times than not, this information could be hidden and would not be included within the migration from old Mac to new Mac.
I would look at your core file locations, such as your Desktop, Documents, Movies, Pictures, Music and Downloads and make sure the content there has been transferred. That is the important stuff.
My personal preferences over the years now is to not even do a migration. When I get a new Mac, I literally sign in with my iCloud account and and all my files from Desktop and Documents come over. As far as my photos, It syncs through Apple Photos.
Anything else syncs through iCloud Drive or I manually copy via an external hard drive. I like this method because it's sometimes nice to get a fresh start and not bring over any temporary or cached files from older outdated software that could have been used.
As far as exporting your photos out of iPhoto, I would bring over the whole library and it should update it to the new Apple Photo library format.
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching!
If this video was helpful and you learned something new, please SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t already!
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@@Learnwithjoel Hi again Joel.
Sorry for the late reply, (life's so busy)
First of all many thanks for your detailed response and extremely rapid response, I really do appreciate your help.
I went through every folder in "Pictures" in Finder, deleted each folder at a time, from my old MacBook after check "Get info".
I'm left with just one file. Called,
(Photos Library) It does differ in size from the new MacBook.
I stopped using the MacBook iPhoto app years ago. And begun using "Image Capture" to transfer from my iPhone to MacBook.
Is it safe to delete this file from both MacBooks ? or will I erase photo's that were transferred to old MacBook? Please.
I don't use iCloud, other than the free 5GB for really small stuff.
Thanks again for everything,
Tas
5.52: if you "export photos" instead of exporting unmodified originals want to be exporting much lower quality images? Given that the unmodified original versions are always larger in file size than the export photos method
Hi @nounix!
No, not necessarily. the unmodified original will not always be higher quality. Check out the video below. It goes through every export option in Apple Photos.
EXPORTING your Apple Photo files on your MAC - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW!
ruclips.net/video/aiIiFePcRy4/видео.html
Thank you so much for taking your time to watch this video. It is greatly appreciated!
If this video has been beneficial, I would be honored if you would consider sharing it with your social media network and expressing your gratitude for its assistance.
Kindly subscribe if you have not already done so. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
Joel, I love your videos - excellent work! Thanks so much! Question: I have old iPhotos libraries. Do these instructions work for iPhoto libraries? or do I need to export the images to Photos?
Hi @Myra Williams Ottewell! I really appreciate your kind words!
So yes, these same instructions would work. However keep in mind that if you have older "iPhoto Libraries" (not newer "Photo Libraries"), when you open them on a Mac that is updated and has Apple Photos, it will attempt to upgrade that old iPhoto Library to a new Photo Library and you result in having it duplicate the whole library on your Mac.
I hope that helps! Thanks so much for watching! If you haven’t already, please support me by subscribing! It helps more than you know and is greatly appreciated!
Also if you know someone who may benefit from this video, feel free to share it along!
Hi Joel, sorry for the "stupid question"I have an old iMac 27 from 2015, and have 3-4 libraries, and wanted to merge them together with my new Mac mini, and looking to import them into my Mac mini and place them all in a new library so I review my old photos there, please help. thanks a lot.
Never a stupid question @DaniloDelCadia!
Do you use iCloud Photos?
Regardless if you do or not, I would move all the libraries to the new Mac mini.
Then I would open up the largest library and then import each library into that main one to consolidate them all.
At that point you can start organizing and managing duplicates and such.
Import photos from another library in Photos on Mac
support.apple.com/en-us/119920
Thank you for your continued support. Your appreciation is deeply valued!
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hey I'm wondering, can you upload a .mp4, .heic, .hevc files onto iphotos into album from a Mac? and will that file when you moved a specific file onto iPhotos, show up on my iPhone too?
Hi @itimdesigner!
You should have no problem uploading those formats into an iCloud Photo Album on your Mac. If you have iCloud Photos syncing turned on, they should then also appear on your iPhone.
Below are the file formats quoted from the Apple Support article also listed below:
"This includes HEIF, JPEG, RAW, PNG, GIF, TIFF, HEVC, and MP4 as well as special formats you capture with your iPhone or iPad, like slo-mo, time-lapse, 4K videos, and Live Photos."
Set up and use iCloud Photos
support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264
I hope that helps! THANK YOU so much for watching! It is appreciated more than you know!
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Hi Joel, you are the best, thank you for posting these videos , you really have talent for explaining things, however I REALLY messed up. I merged 2 libraries now have 15,470 images but now my Duplicates Detective 2 app cannot pick out the duplicated images the only difference being file size. One is 2.5 mg and next to it is same at 12.5 mg. I have been physically deleting, so slow really is torture, any ideas on how to fix? Thanks, Steve
Hi Joel, this is a great video. Very informative, you speak clearly and your voice is really great for this purpose.
My question is the following: I'd like to transfer my entire Photos library to my wife's Apple ID. We used to share the same ID which really was fantastic, when wanting to share photos, but due to some disadvantages (receiving the same messages, my data came into her health-app etc., we decided to split, so now we have two separate ID's. But still we'd like to share photos and it would be great if it is possible to do the editing at one source only (editing means grouping into folders, making name-tags, changing titles etc.)
Best regards from Denmark
Niels
Hi @Niels Weber! Hope all is well in Denmark and thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the kind words!
I often see many users sharing an Apple ID/iCloud account not fully realizing the syncing that takes place with all the other content.
So this is one HUGH disadvantage to Apple Photos and the whole iCloud Photo family sharing. As of right now, there is no way to share a combined Photo Library among family users. I am so hoping that they do this in the future. Google does it!
The best thing to do right now is take advantage of Shared Photo Albums, but that still isn't a perfect solution!
Not the answer you're probably looking for, but hopefully in the future that comes!
Cheers from the US and thanks for the support!
Does it matter when downloading what format the storage drive is formatted to? Access to PC and Mac? i.e. ExFAT or another mac only format? preference or necessity?
Thanks. Maybe u can help.
My Library on Mac is to big, but i want to conect it with Icloud ( so i can have the new photos from the phone in the library). But i dont want the old pics from the mac to sync with the new ones. Should i move the library in an Album, and let the library free for the newer ones? Is there another way? Thanks
Thank you a really informative video. I have a question for you please, is there a quick way to find duplicate photos?
Hi @Sylvia Minter!
There is no built in method technically to find duplicates in Photos, but there are still options! I just created a new video on this very topic! It's very in-depth and reviews a handful of options! Hope it helps!
ruclips.net/video/VpQ5kDc3BvQ/видео.html
@@Learnwithjoel thank you
This has been such an amazing tutorial - thank you for this! I looked through the comments and didn't see one that addresses my question - but please let me know if I missed it - in doing the iCloud method - when I go to switch the system photo library, I get a pop up/banner that says "Switching the System Photo Library will turn off iCloud Photos. Any photos and videos that have not been fully downloaded will be removed from this Mac and Shared Albums will be disabled. Turn on iCloud Photos for this new System Photo Library in Preferences." What does this mean - I have my current photo library in iCloud, but when I go to add the older library from an external drive and do the step as you suggest - I get that message and I am terrified to screw it up - I know your video was made a few years ago, this banner didn't pop up in your video - so I am not sure what to do - the options it gives me are "cancel" and "ok".
I get this too. I don't think the iCloud method works anymore. You have to choose one album or the other as the iCloud library. They don't merge.