Copy Photos Library From One Mac To Another

06.04.2020
66 Comments

I've had a multi-Mac household pretty much since college, rocking a laptop and desktop in addition to miscellaneous iOS devices throughout the years. Dropbox and iCloud sync made most of the pains of using several Macs disappear, but iPhoto was always a problem. My laptop is tiny! My iPhoto library, not so much.

How to Combine Multiple Photos Libraries Into a Single Library Saturday, July 1st, 2017 Author: Tom Nelson. If you’ve been working with the Mac’s Photos app (or even the older iPhoto or Aperture apps) for any length of time, there’s a good chance you have multiple image libraries to. Mar 18, 2020  Your Photos library holds all your photos, albums, slideshows, and print projects. If your library is large, and you want to free up storage space on your Mac, turn on iCloud Photo Library and use Optimize Mac Storage, or move your library to an external drive. Before you start, be sure to. Dec 31, 2016  How to transfer full iTunes music library without losing playlists, play counts, likes or ratings! I transferred my entire library from a 2011 MacBook Pro to. Photo Library is a special folder which is the database used for the Photos App. You can just find the photos you want in the Photos app and then drag them out to.

Thankfully, Photos for Mac — paired with iCloud Photo Library's Optimize Storage feature — makes working with and syncing multiple Macs a breeze. Here's how you can do it.

How to use Photos and iCloud Photo Library with multiple Macs

Here's a quick, simple breakdown on setting up your Macs to support Photos and iCloud Photo Library.

I recommend starting with your biggest iPhoto library; it'll usually be on your desktop Mac. When you open Photos for the first time, your library should import automatically; if it prompts you to create a new library, your Photos library may be stored in another location on your Mac, and you may need to manually open it.

Once you've imported your biggest library on your Mac, make sure iCloud Photo Library is turned on and syncing. You can do this by following these steps:

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
  2. Click Photos in the menu bar.

  3. Select Preferences (or do this quicker by pressing ⌘,).

    Source: iMore

  4. Click on the iCloud tab.

    Source: iMore

  5. Check off the box for iCloud Photos.

    • You can also check off the box for Download Originals to this Mac if you have the space.
    • You can check off Optimize Mac Storage to save space on your Mac by only saving a percentage of images and video locally — the rest will be thumbnails that you can click on to download when you want to.

    Source: iMore

Now, open your other Mac, and launch Photos. If you have an iPhoto library on that secondary Mac, follow the same steps as above — import your library, then turn on iCloud Photo Library. If you have duplicates of the same photo on each computer, iCloud should automatically resolve those conflicts when it syncs, providing you with just one version of your photos when the sync process finishes.

If you don't have an iPhoto library on your secondary Mac, create a new library in Photos and turn on iCloud Photo Library. If you want to save storage space on this secondary Mac, make sure Optimize Mac Storage is selected: This will save a certain percentage of images and video locally to your device, while providing thumbnails of all the others for you to download at your leisure.

After you've set up all your Macs with Photos and the sync process has finished, you're now good to go. From here on out, any time you add photos, they'll sync to every computer you've set up with Photos.

What syncs, what doesn't sync

Photos for Mac syncs a lot more than just your original photos and videos. According to a support document on Apple.com, here's what else you should expect to see sync:

  • All folders and albums
  • Smart Albums
  • Keywords
  • Memories
  • Searchable keywords
  • Key photo selections

There are a few things iCloud Photo Library won't sync, however. Here's Apple's list:

  • Books, cards, calendars, and slideshows
  • Keyword shortcuts
  • Unused keywords
  • Last imported album on the Mac in question
  • Names and faces in the People album

For those not using iCloud Photo Library

If you've chosen not to enable iCloud Photo Library, Apple still offers you free syncing of your last 1000 photos via My Photo Stream, which doesn't count toward your iCloud disk space.

This will sync and download images you've imported or taken on other devices, but you won't have the option to optimize your storage or sync your albums.

Octoober 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.

macOS Catalina

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I am trying to move my photos from my 4 year old Macbook to my Mac, both of which have iPhoto 11. I was going to do it via firewire, but my laptop doesn’t have a connection. Is there a way I can use an adapter and go through a usb port? If not, what is the easiest way to complete the transfer? I am not a very technology-savvy guy…

Thanks!

Copy Photos Library From One Mac To Another One

  1. To move an iPhoto Library to a new machine you will have to link the two Macs together either by a Wireless Network, Firewire Target Disk Mode, Ethernet, or even just copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder to an external HD and then on to your new Mac… Then launch iPhoto. That’s it.

    Connect your external hard drive. In the window that appears, select the library you want, and then click Choose.For copying iPhoto library to a new Mac:. When it can't find the library, it will ask you the location. Where is iphoto library.

    but if u have a fast enough internet connection then ill suggest i cloud..

  2. Copy the file named iPhoto library in the photos folder on one mac and and paste it on the other one in the same location. (use a usb stick)

  3. Sync your iPhoto libraries -

    Also,if you like to have a online backup too,then -

    How to have the same photo library on two macs

  4. The iPhoto library is actually a folder which your Mac shows as a file.

    It's located in the /Users/username/Pictures folder and it's called iPhoto Library.

    You can just copy the whole folder onto a hard drive or move it via Ethernet/Wi-Fi and put it in the same folder on your new Mac and it will be there.

  5. To move an iPhoto Library to a new machine you will have to link the two Macs together either by a Wireless Network, Firewire Target Disk Mode, Ethernet, or even just copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder to an external HD and then on to your new Mac.. Then launch iPhoto. That's it.

    You will see all your photos, events, albums, books, keywords, slideshows and everything else in your new Mac. But if you already have an iPhoto Library in your new Mac and want to merge it with your old library, the only way to do it is with the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager costing $20.

    You can download it at this link: http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/. Good luck

  6. how about to transfer to external hard drive and then to copy to new mac.

    if you can buy a firewire card?
    How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661

    Ethernet Cable
    How to Transfer From a PowerBook G4 to a MacBook Pro 13
    http://www.ehow.com/how_8370279_transfer-g4-macbook-pro-13.html#ixzz2ACUV5bWD

    via dropbox
    https://www.dropbox.com/