One of our community members wanted to export his/her (25k+) photos from the library but somehow Photos limited the selection to a few hundred. Apart from the -I must say very - clever solution Old Toad offered, I was wondering if this limit still exists. I am exporting my Photos Library now and the process is still counting beyond 600 photos. I will kill the export when half of the amont is exported.
Hans
I haven’t had to export a large quantity of photos from the app recently, but I know how slow and frustrating it can be. As far as I know, Photos still won’t be too happy about exporting that many items. This might be similar to the solution you’ve already heard, but here goes:
Please note that the following method does not work if iCloud Photo Library is enabled and Download Originals is disabled.
Open Finder and navigate to the user’s “Pictures” folder. Find “Photos Library.photoslibrary” and right-click (Control + Click) it. Select “Show package contents.” Find the “masters” folder. Inside it should be a lot folders containing pictures, organized by date.
The drawback of this is that your photos are still scattered in different folders. While in the masters folder, click on the Finder search bar (not spotlight) and type in “kind:image”. This may take a while, especially if you have an HDD. Wait for the number at the bottom of the Finder window (e.g. 20,000 items) to stop counting. Then select all items with Command + A, and move them to a desired folder. Repeat for “kind:movies”. Finally, check to make sure that the destination folder contains the same amount of pictures and videos as your library does. The library total can be found by opening Photos and scrolling to the bottom of “All Photos”.
Hope this helps,
Fin
I haven’t had to export a large quantity of photos from the app recently, but I know how slow and frustrating it can be. As far as I know, Photos still won’t be too happy about exporting that many items. This might be similar to the solution you’ve already heard, but here goes:
Please note that the following method does not work if iCloud Photo Library is enabled and Download Originals is disabled.
Open Finder and navigate to the user’s “Pictures” folder. Find “Photos Library.photoslibrary” and right-click (Control + Click) it. Select “Show package contents.” Find the “masters” folder. Inside it should be a lot folders containing pictures, organized by date.
The drawback of this is that your photos are still scattered in different folders. While in the masters folder, click on the Finder search bar (not spotlight) and type in “kind:image”. This may take a while, especially if you have an HDD. Wait for the number at the bottom of the Finder window (e.g. 20,000 items) to stop counting. Then select all items with Command + A, and move them to a desired folder. Repeat for “kind:movies”. Finally, check to make sure that the destination folder contains the same amount of pictures and videos as your library does. The library total can be found by opening Photos and scrolling to the bottom of “All Photos”.
Hope this helps,
Fin
There's no "best". There is exactly one way to export, and that's using the File -> Export command. Using that you get to control all the variables (size, quality and metadata) that Photos supports. Drag and drop just gets the Preview, and, as you've seen, going into the library package isn't exporting.
Rather than trying to export an entire library at once - something that could overwhelm the Ram or the Machine - what happens if you export in batches?
That's telling you that Photos can't find the original to build the export with. Where are they? Have you used any apps to "clean" or "tune up" your Mac or photo library?
BUT! Were are the tags and keywords? Is there a method to export them too, and are they still linked to the picture then?
This, unfortunately, is the issue with the suggestion of Fin N. You have accessed the Master or original files, exactly as downloaded from your camera. Added data, for instance, keywords and so on, is stored in the database, and only written to the files on export, using the File -> Export command. That makes searching the db much faster, and also works with the core philosophy of the app, which is to treat your original images as sacrosanct, and not change them in any way.
There is no difference between the Masters and Originals, I suspect the that folder was a left over when the library was converted from iPhoto.
Also, if anyone is thinking of using Fin N's suggestion, there is a much faster way to access images scattered across lots of folders. Using the inestimable Graphic Converter you can select the enclosing folder and then right click on it and choose 'Open Folder in Flat View'. There are all the images enclosed and a simple command -a selects them all and you can then effortlessly send them wherever you choose. Graphic Converter is available here:
https://www.lemkesoft.de/en/products/graphicconverter/
BTW: no connection with the company, just a long standing and satisfied customer.
Thanks for this reaction.
I suppose the "best" method to export including the exif data is the one Old Toad Posted on Oct 7, 2018 11:35 AM to netforest.
Hans
Thanks, Fin, for your reply.
Unfortunately I had to leave my computer digging through my library, but when I came back, after several hours, I saw the proces had stopped at 8682 photos so not all of the items were exported. Obviously Photos still has difficulties to export a library which has gained some "weight". I try your method and when all pictures are exported I will stop using Photos, because it costs me too much time and energy to get used to it. It just isn't intuitive enough, for me anyway.
Thanks for your suggestion, Fin
Hans
Just an update on my reply yesterday.
I used your method, and indeed all the pictures were found. BUT! Were are the tags and keywords? Is there a method to export them too, and are they still linked to the picture then?
In the Photos Library.photoslibrary folder I also found a folder named "Originals". What is the difference with the "Masters" folder?
Hans
Obviously I was too fast with my reaction, because the first results I made were really hopefull. Then I stumbled into a selection where Photos found a certain number of Photos, but the export ended up with a different number of photos. I searches for the missing files with Finder, but didn't succeed. Either Finder couldn't find them, or they were not there really. So, why does Photos come up with a different number before the export but can't find them after the export.
I have 32 GB RAM installed, so there is hardly any shortage at hand.
To be sure this was not an incident, I made some more exports, some came out with failors, some were good. Can't find a common cause for this behaviour, so I would be glad if you could have a thought about this.
sorry for the delay because of the different timezones.
Somehow Photos "knows" the pictures had to be there so I tried to find them with the Finder search bar
It didn't work. My last resort was the Terminal and with the "locate" command I found the missing files (I tried three):
They were somewhere stuck in the iPhotolibrary. For now I am not interested why they were not migrated at the time, but how can I immerse all of them in the Photoslibrary?
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance
Hans
Thanks for explaining the differences. I'll stick to this method because it is straight forward and as such relatively convenient.
Hans
How to export all photos from Photos Library II
