Joshua Garrett

Q: Opening my library on another machine

Hi

 

Does photos give me the ability to switch between two machines with my photo library and use all the features like photo stream and iCloud photo library? Basically make my library the system library on both machines, not at the same time of course. I've got a new Macbook that photos runs great on but my main machine is a very old 2007 iMac that I love the screen on.

 

 

Thanks

Joshua

Posted on Feb 25, 2016 7:10 AM

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Q: Opening my library on another machine

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  • Helpful answers

  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie Feb 25, 2016 7:36 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Feb 25, 2016 7:36 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    photo stream and iCloud photo library?

    iCloud Photo Library is made for using your Photos Library from several devices,  Macs and mobile devices.If you upload your Photos Library to iCloud and enable iCloud Photo library on another Mac, you will see the same library structure.

     

    See this document:   Use Photos and iCloud Photo Library on multiple Mac computers - Apple Support

     

    Most of the library items will sync, the only things that do not sync are faces thumbnails, unused keywords, and print projects.

     

    I am using iCloud Photo Library successfully to keep the Photos Library in sync across four different Macs.

  • by Joshua Garrett,

    Joshua Garrett Joshua Garrett Feb 25, 2016 7:39 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (97 points)
    Apple Watch
    Feb 25, 2016 7:39 AM in response to léonie

    ok, so basically get it setup on my main Mac and then then open photos on the Macbook, enable iCloud photo library and photo stream and allow my photos to come down and sync, full or optimized?

  • by LarryHN,Helpful

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 25, 2016 10:32 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    Level 10 (84,585 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 25, 2016 10:32 AM in response to Joshua Garrett

    Yes

     

    And the library will be kept in sync on all devices - all changes (additions, deletions or edits) anypace will be made everyplace with ICPL

     

    LN

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Feb 25, 2016 10:28 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Feb 25, 2016 10:28 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    and allow my photos to come down and sync, full or optimized?

    That 's it. Yes.  It may take quite some time, if your library is large.  For my library with 40000 photos it took a full day to download again on a high speed Ethernet connection.  Be prepared to wait for a day or two.

     

    You need My Photo Stream only, if you want to import photos from devices that do not use iCloud Photo Library. I have My Photo Stream enabled to import the photos from my iPod Touch that cannot be updated beyond iOS6.

    But the iPhone and iPad can transfer the photos using iCloud Photo Library.

  • by Joshua Garrett,

    Joshua Garrett Joshua Garrett Feb 25, 2016 10:40 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (97 points)
    Apple Watch
    Feb 25, 2016 10:40 AM in response to léonie

    léonie wrote:

     

    and allow my photos to come down and sync, full or optimized?

    That 's it. Yes.  It may take quite some time, if your library is large.  For my library with 40000 photos it took a full day to download again on a high speed Ethernet connection.  Be prepared to wait for a day or two.

     

    You need My Photo Stream only, if you want to import photos from devices that do not use iCloud Photo Library. I have My Photo Stream enabled to import the photos from my iPod Touch that cannot be updated beyond iOS6.

    But the iPhone and iPad can transfer the photos using iCloud Photo Library.

    Thats good to know, I wasn't sure why Photo Stream was still around. I always just switched it on. You said Faces thumbnails won't sync? Does that mean nothing about the Faces feature will come over from Photos for Mac? When Faces first launched I held off on using it because it did not sync.

     

    Now if Apple would fix the timezone issue I'm having I would be loving Photos.

     

    Time zone change in photos not updating in iCloud photos

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Feb 25, 2016 11:17 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Feb 25, 2016 11:17 AM in response to Joshua Garrett
    Thats good to know, I wasn't sure why Photo Stream was still around. I always just switched it on. You said Faces thumbnails won't sync? Does that mean nothing about the Faces feature will come over from Photos for Mac? When Faces first launched I held off on using it because it did not sync.

    The faces thumbnails are not stored in iCloud.  If you name a face on one computer, a searchable faces tag with the name will upload.  You can search for the face on the other computers and will find the photo.  But you will not see the named thumbnail with the label overlayed on the photo. You will have to add these thumbnails again.  It will be much quicker, because Photos will automatically label many photos based on the faces tags, but initially the faces album will be empty.