Q: Folder structure imorting into Photos

I first copied my camera uploads folder from Dropbox to the Pictures>Saved Pictures folder. Then I dragged that folder to the sidebar of Photos dropping it on the top entry "Photos". All the photographs then copied to Photos. Perhaps the first step here is not needed though. IOW, just dragging from anywhere and dropping on the Photos sidebar may be sufficient.

That looks excellent. I have two questions:

When this is run will Photos essentially create a duplicate of every photo?

My photo workflow will create new dated folders in my old Dropbox structure, can these be subsequently imported using this tool?

(I'm a Picasa users, but only contemplating Photos as Picasa is not Retina display ready )

I don't know if this will work with Dropbox.  Give it a try.  But don't enable the import to Photos feature of Dropbox. 

When the image files are imported into Photos a copy is created inside the library. Once the the photos are confirmed to be safely in the library the outside source files can be deleted.  This is only if you're running a "managed" library:

Hi,

Thank you for that script, it worked perfectly! Why apple don't offer this as a standard function is beyond me! I have folders with in folders within folders and without this script i couldn't use the photos app!

Anyway bringing me to the next tedious part I now want to move said albums onto my iPad - using the photo stream only moves the photos, not albums whatsoever. I found a new technique by turning off iCloud photo and connecting with a USB i am able to sync the photos manually but the sub folders still disapper? i'm just left with the the final folder that has the pictures which is a mess!!!

Just wondered if anyone had any experience or solutions???

Many thanks

Jack

Hi,

Thank you for that script, it worked perfectly! Why apple don't offer this as a standard function is beyond me! I have folders with in folders within folders and without this script i couldn't use the photos app!

Anyway bringing me to the next tedious part I now want to move said albums onto my iPad - using the photo stream only moves the photos, not albums whatsoever. I found a new technique by turning off iCloud photo and connecting with a USB i am able to sync the photos manually but the sub folders still disapper? i'm just left with the the final folder that has the pictures which is a mess!!!

Just wondered if anyone had any experience or solutions???

Many thanks

Jack

hank you for that script, it worked perfectly! Why apple don't offer this as a standard function is beyond me!

Be sure to tell Apple what missing features you'd like restored or new features added in Photos via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html.

Thank you so much for making this Apple Script! I've been looking for something like this for a couple of years.  It works great.

I just purchased my first MAC last week (actually my wife's machine) after being a PC guy for well over 20 years. Like others on this post, I am trying to import/transfer over 20,000 pictures that my wife has scanned from old family albums dating back 50 years or more from my external hard drive backup. They are all stored in a fairly elaborate folder structure for easy access.

I have been struggling with the Mac Photos app and have come to the realization there is no way to maintain that folder structure. It's just like throwing 20,000 photos into a big room, stirring them around, and then trying to find a select group.

I don't have a clue how to even start to run the script provided in the post even though you gave directions. If I understand correctly, you have converted the script into an App. If that is correct, how can I go about getting the App. Please know that I am a Mac newbie, and while I understand the Windows world fairly well, I am finding the terminology here is very different.

Thanks,

Milton

You can import each folder of photos into the Photos library and automatically create an album with the same name as the folder which contains those photos.  You'll need to use this Applescript from the Photos for Mac User Tips page: Import Folders of Image Files into Library as Albums

You can download a compiled version of the script as an application from this tutorial site: P01 - Applescripts from Photos’ User Tips Compiled as Applications

Is there an easy way to get the script to watch a folder then to take the folder name of anything that "appears" and then run? I'm thinking of using Lightroom to export to a folder, then for this script to automatically add anything that hits that folder to photos (along with the correct album name) and then to delete the Lightroom added folder.

Thanks...

Super script! Will save massive amount of time bringing images into Photos! Thanks.

Thank you Old Toad for making  code!z script available in compiled form, it is just what I have been looking for. Code!z has updated his script to include additional extensions  including video that did not transfer in the folders to Photos. Would you be kind enough to compile, and make available, his  updated script that includes video extensions?

You can do it yourself.  Launch Script Editor and drag Code!z's applescript file onto its icon in the dock.

In the Scrip Editor window click on the compile button to compile it and verify the code is good::

Now hold down the Option button, click on the File menu and select Save As:

Lastly select Application in the File Format menu:

and save to the Desktop.

Still looking for help on this one, I'm trying to learn AppleScript but I'm not getting there vey quickly...

I'm surprised that this isn't more popular, but basically my workflow is to use lightroom for all "serious" editing / cataloguing and Apple photos for displaying / sharing, due to the way Photos integrates into everything so well (assuming you have an Apple household as we do.)

So I edit etc in Lightroom, then rate them with stars / colours, this then auto-populates a Lightroom publish service, this then builds a totally separate folder structure just for Apple Photos, containing just JPG files of a reasonable resolution and only the starred items. What I am trying to do is to get Hazel (or folder actions) to monitor the folder and run a modified version of this script. So instead of the user selecting the folders, it will pick up every new folder and import it along with the new pics, then Hazel can delete the contents and watch for the next change.

I guess it really just needs a couple of lines to replace "set folderList to (choose folder with multiple selections allowed)", to set folderList to Listofallfolders, but for the life me I cannot get the syntax right...

Please help...