mbacharach

Q: I only have one iPhoto Library but Photos app didn't auto import it

Just upgraded to Yosemite (yes I'm behind the times). iPhoto is grayed out as incompatible with Yosemite, which is fine, I'll just use Photos. Opened Photos and it didn't import my iPhoto photos, but rather synced with my phone's photos. The only way I could get my iPhoto photos in was to hold down option while opening Photos and choose my iPhoto library (the other choice was "System") However, Photos should have automatically imported my iPhoto photos on first opening it, because I only have one library for iPhoto (see Get started with Photos for OS X - Apple Support) I dont have Apeture either. Is Photos counting my icloud photos as another library and therfore making me keep them separate? I want to have all my photos in one place and have them all synced to iCloud - the photos from my iPhoto and the photos from my phone. How do I do this?

MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 30, 2015 7:32 PM

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Q: I only have one iPhoto Library but Photos app didn't auto import it

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  • by Glenn Leblanc,Helpful

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc May 30, 2015 7:53 PM in response to mbacharach
    Level 6 (11,021 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 30, 2015 7:53 PM in response to mbacharach

    I can't explain why it didn't migrate the iPhoto library in the beginning. Perhaps it was some step you took before hand, or maybe because you already started using the iCloud photo library with the iPhone. The fact is you now have a System Library created with the iCloud Photos library synced with the iPhone.

     

    Only the System Library will sync to iCloud.

    To migrate the other library from the iPhoto merge into iCloud, open Photos preferences. In the general tab, select to Use as System Photo Library. Under the iCloud tab, enable the iCloud Photo Library. Your iPhoto migrated library should start uploading to iCloud.

     

    Also, if you were using a referenced library with iPhoto, a referenced library with Photos will not work with the iCloud Photo Library. You will have to consolidate the library first.

  • by mbacharach,

    mbacharach mbacharach May 31, 2015 10:24 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2015 10:24 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    Thank you Glenn. I will set the iPhoto library as the system library in order to get it into iCloud, but just to confirm, this won't affect my photos on my iPhone backing up to iCloud, will it? I want to make sure that those still continue to get backed up to iCloud.

     

    Thanks again!

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc May 31, 2015 4:12 PM in response to mbacharach
    Level 6 (11,021 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 31, 2015 4:12 PM in response to mbacharach

    In order to use the iPhoto library, you must first select it in Photos and migrate it to a Photos library. Then make that new Photos library the System Library and enable the iCloud Photo Library settings to merge it into iCloud.What you add from your computer will merge into iCloud and get synced to the phone also. Remember to always have a backup in case something goes wrong.

     

    Check out this site. Some good info on using the iCloud photo library.

    http://www.imore.com/how-use-icloud-photo-library-ultimate-guide