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User profile for user: Jamie Cox1
Jamie Cox1 Author
User level: Level 1
42 points

Photos missing from Photos.app export

Photos.app is silently failing to export all the photos. I have been doing drag-and-drop exports from photos to a folder in the Finder. It usually works great, but I have seen that sometimes all the photos are not transferred.


There is no error message, and no way to know exactly which photos didn't get exported. I just dragged a selection of 602 photos from Photos to the Finder. Only 385 photos actually appeared in the destination. It usually works for smaller numbers of photos, but sometimes just a handful of photos are missing. This would be easy to miss, and could be crucial.


When dragging, I see the red number indicating the correct number of files. The destination disk has plenty of space.


Photos Version 4.0 (3441.7.100)

MacOS Mojave 10.14.4


Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on May 5, 2019 3:05 PM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,309 points

Posted on May 6, 2019 7:58 AM

I strongly second Jamie Cox's advice to use "File > Export". Drag&Drop is giving you no control at all about the size and the quality and the filenames of the saved photos. With File > export you have two options:

  • File > Export > Export unmodified original: This will save the photos in exactly the quality you originally imported them. I would use this option to archive your photos or move them elsewhere.
  • File > Export > Export ... photos: This will render the edited versions. Use this option, if you want to save or publish the edited versions of your photos. When exporting edited versions you need to click the "v" to the right of "Photo Kind: JPEG" to select the original size and a high quality. Otherwise you will get only downsized versions.
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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,309 points

May 6, 2019 7:58 AM in response to Jamie Cox1

I strongly second Jamie Cox's advice to use "File > Export". Drag&Drop is giving you no control at all about the size and the quality and the filenames of the saved photos. With File > export you have two options:

  • File > Export > Export unmodified original: This will save the photos in exactly the quality you originally imported them. I would use this option to archive your photos or move them elsewhere.
  • File > Export > Export ... photos: This will render the edited versions. Use this option, if you want to save or publish the edited versions of your photos. When exporting edited versions you need to click the "v" to the right of "Photo Kind: JPEG" to select the original size and a high quality. Otherwise you will get only downsized versions.
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User profile for user: Jamie Cox1
Jamie Cox1 Author
User level: Level 1
42 points

May 6, 2019 7:11 AM in response to Jamie Cox1

I have been using the Export feature from the file menu as a workaround. So far, no photos have been missing when exporting using the menu option. I believe that dragging and dropping uses the same export settings as you last selected from "File/Export/Export n photos" menu option. Is that right?


If you want to export the unmodified originals, you must use the menu option for that (not drag and drop).

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Photos missing from Photos.app export

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