You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Apple Photos and Time Machine question

I have sold my MacBook Pro 2015 512gb and have a MacBook Pro 2019 256GB on the way.


I have a large Time Machine backup (on an external hard drive) as I was using around 300gb of the 512gb hard drive (I couldn’t afford to buy a larger hard drive MacBook this time around)

What matters the most to me is my photos which are all stored in the Apple Photos app. I think my photos and videos take up about 230gb so I’m not expecting them to all go on the new MacBook (and wouldn’t want to fill it completely anyway as I would like to install other things)


However, I’ve now started panicking that it will be an all or nothing type scenario and I won’t be able to access my photos and videos at all as I don’t have the hard drive capacity on my new MacBook to support the whole library.


I’m basically asking... will I be able to at least go into Time Machine... into the Photos folder... and select some pictures and videos that are important to me and transfer them over to the new Mac?


I really hope someone can put my mind at rest.


Thank you in advance for any help.

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Oct 23, 2019 8:50 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 24, 2019 11:45 AM

step 1. I recommend another hard drive. 1. This will let you continue to fully use the photos library, just on an external instead of the computer’s drive. 2. I don’t like to manipulate things on a TM drive except with TM itself


step 2. once you’ve moved into the new computer, enter time machine and navigate to the picture folder and find the photos library. Select it to restore...you’ll be asked where to put it. Point to the external hard drive.


step 3. Now double click on the photos library on the external drive to open Photos with the library on the external.


step 4. Select the photos you want on the internal. Export them. Either to a temp folder on the computer or external. Quit photos. Now find the photos library on the computer and double click to open photos with the internal photos library. Import the photos in the temp folder. Remove the temp folder.

Similar questions

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 24, 2019 11:45 AM in response to stoomc

step 1. I recommend another hard drive. 1. This will let you continue to fully use the photos library, just on an external instead of the computer’s drive. 2. I don’t like to manipulate things on a TM drive except with TM itself


step 2. once you’ve moved into the new computer, enter time machine and navigate to the picture folder and find the photos library. Select it to restore...you’ll be asked where to put it. Point to the external hard drive.


step 3. Now double click on the photos library on the external drive to open Photos with the library on the external.


step 4. Select the photos you want on the internal. Export them. Either to a temp folder on the computer or external. Quit photos. Now find the photos library on the computer and double click to open photos with the internal photos library. Import the photos in the temp folder. Remove the temp folder.

Oct 24, 2019 7:31 AM in response to stoomc

I'll answer this two ways:

  1. Unless you configured TimeMachine to ignore your Pictures folder, your TM backup will contain your Photos library and you'll be able to copy it to another external drive and continue to add pictures to it. And yes, you can keep a small selection of photos on your MBP.
  2. If you are willing to spend a few dollars on a monthly iCloud subscription you can put all your photos on iCloud. Photos has a nice feature found in Photos Preferences called Optimize Mac Storage. If you select this, your photos will be synced to your iCloud account in full size. Once synced, your MBP will retain just a thumbnail of the photo. As long as you are connected via WiFi you can pull any photo back into the computer to be edited or otherwise used. And when done it will be resynced if need be, and replaced with a thumbnail. This was my chosen route and it lets me take my thousands of photos everywhere without taking up huge amounts of drive space.

Oct 24, 2019 10:44 AM in response to dwb

Thank you.


yes I have everything backed up on the Time Machine, including the photos folder.


Good to know that I will just be able to go into Time Machine and pick photos and videos to move over to the new MacBook.

So I guess my next question is, how do I do that? Will I have to open the package and drill in that way or is there an easier way?


Thanks again.

Oct 24, 2019 11:57 AM in response to dwb

Ah, putting the entire library onto another hard drive didn’t occur to me.

Great idea and that will save me from having to mess around in the master, originals etc which I hate doing!


My western Digital external hard drive where the Time Machine backup is is large and has a blank separate partition so I guess I could point it there in the meantime!


Thank you so much for your help

Apple Photos and Time Machine question

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.