Comparison of PowerPhotos vs Photos re Importing Metadata from OneLibrary into Another Library

Last modified: Mar 25, 2025 3:17 PM
0 1565 Last modified Mar 25, 2025 3:17 PM

I ran a number of tests with a 3119 photo, 72 video and 97 keyword Photos library with keywords, captions, keywords and locations.  I merged it into an empty library using Photos and PowerPhotos.  This is what I found was imported by each;


PowerPhotos:           Photos:


Albums***                                          -----------

Smart Albums (as regular albums)** -----------

Folders Containing Albums -----------

Captions                                             Captions

Titles                                                   Titles

Keywords* Keywords (some but not all: …

…see Note *)

Original images                                  Original images

Edited images                                     Edited images

---------------                                        Locations

Favorites                                             Favorites

Can detect and exclude                      Duplicates

duplicates upon import or not


Neither method could import/merge projects. 


Both methods could import older iPhoto libraries into a Photos library when the iPhoto library couldn't be migrated into a Photos library. 


Notes:

*The Photos app only imported 84 keywords our of 97. PowerPhotos merged 147 keywords. Photos only imported keywords that were embedded in the original file and not those added by Photos. PowerPhotos imported all of them.


**The original library had 90 Smart Albums. All were merged by PowerPhotos but, as indicated above, the Smart albums were brought over as regular albums. No album of any kind were imported by Photos. Also only PowerPhotos imported folders.


The original library had 34 regular albums and 1 folder with some nested albums. PowerPhotos merger all of them successfully.


The original library had 72 videos. Photos imported only 57. PowerPhoto got all 72 in its merge.



Thanks to user léonie for her help in the tests and comparisons

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