Moving iPhoto library to iCloud

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Level 1

9 points

Moving iPhoto library to iCloud

I'm in the process of retiring a 2010 iMac and moving to a 2019 MacBook Air.

Since there is a disparity in hard disk size between the iMac (500GB) and the MacBook Air (128MB), I would like to move my photo library to iCloud. The photo library is the main thing on the iMac that I'm worried about storing - everything else I can work around.

My plan was to copy the iPhoto library (~135GB) from the iMac to an external hard drive and then open using Photos on the MacBook, to upgrade the library to Photos format and then sync the library into iCloud.

Moving the iPhoto library onto the external drive worked but when I open the library using Photos on the MacBook, it just says "Preparing Library 0%". It's stuck like this for >1 hour. I've tried this process several times with no progress. I've rebuilt the thumbnails and repaired the permissions on the iPhoto library on the external hard drive but this hasn't helped.

Does anyone have any advice on my general strategy for moving the library to iCloud? Am I missing something here? The external drive is also quite old ~2011, I think it's USB 2. Will this have an impact on the process (other than just transfer times)?

Thanks

MacBook Air

Posted on Sep 7, 2019 8:22 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,086 points

Sep 7, 2019 8:28 AM in response to fadsy79

What format is the external drive? In needs to me formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
You can't really *move* the library to the Cloud. iCloud is a syncing service, not a back up. You will still need to have some presence of the library on your Mac, tho this can be set to reduce space.

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,086 points

Sep 7, 2019 10:58 AM in response to fadsy79

Try repair the iPhoto Library:

Option 1

Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.

If that fails:

Option 2

Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)

This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.

Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

You'd be best asking about the features of Photos on the Photos Forum:

https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/photos_osx/

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Answer 3

fadsy79 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 7, 2019 8:41 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks Terence.

It is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
OK thanks for the clarification. In terms of the presence on the MacBook, how much space are we talking? A few GBs?

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Moving iPhoto library to iCloud

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