Merging two Photo libraries in the Cloud

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Level 2

150 points

Merging two Photo libraries in the Cloud

Right now, I have two different Photo libraries: one is in the Cloud (all pics in the library of my MacBook Air are automatically uploaded to the Cloud), and one still resides on my iMac. Now, I am planning to upload all pics from my iMac to the Cloud as well. But a number of the iMac-pictures are the same as the ones that are already in the Cloud.

Will this be discovered during, or right after, the upload process? Iow, will I not run out of space in the Cloud because of a number of duplicates?

Thanks for helping me out!

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on May 26, 2019 9:17 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,151 points

May 26, 2019 11:05 PM in response to Mr Moto

When you upload photos to iCloud Photos, Photos will check for duplicates and resolve conflicts.

It will only store one original image files, if the originals are exactly duplicate files. You may still be seeing two different versions of this image, if the image has been edited differently, but there will be only one original.

But the originals have to be exact duplicates. I could not find any document describing how duplicates are handled, when Photos is merging libraries, but I have seen messages in the Console about the duplicate detection, when I first merged my libraries. This has been on an earlier version of Photos, however: (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7424481?answerId=29639076022#29639076022)

com.apple.photomodel: Duplicate detection .....

I am still occasionally seeing the the filename of the original for an image version change in my iCloud Photos Library, if the duplicate on the other Mac has a different filename.

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Answer 2

Mr Moto Author

Level 2

150 points

May 27, 2019 2:17 AM in response to léonie

By the way - Since, from my MacBook, all pictures in Photos are uploaded automatically to the Cloud -- can I remove the Photos library from the Pictures folder (it takes some 6Gb on my not too large SSD drive)? (this is a bit off topic, I know…)

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