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.

tdecks Author

Level 1

9 points

Transfering Photos Library to new Mac

So I know this should be a straightforward situation, but there is one wrinkle that I want to verify. I know that I could use the migration assistant to migrate to the new mac, but I have done this so many times (since my first mac in 2006) that I really want to start fresh and not bring over anything unneeded. So I am manually transferring files from my old mac.

I understand that I can simple copy my photos library to the new mac, but what I'm not sure about is what that will do to my icloud photo library. I have it set up so that it downloads the full file onto the mac from icloud photo library. If I manually copy the photo library what will that do?

I understand I could just redownload the entire library the new mac but I'm guessing that will take days if not a full week as we have over 30,000 photos.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Dec 2, 2019 12:31 PM

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

210,615 points

Posted on Dec 2, 2019 1:25 PM

The quickest method would be to create a new, empty library on your new Mac, set it to the System Photo Library and wait for it to download all of the photos to the new library.

If you copy the existing library to the new Mac it will also start communicating with the iCloud Library and upload for comparison all photos in the library. That is much, much longer than just downloading.

Be sure to set the "Optimize Mac Storage" to what you want. If you don't have the room for all of the full sized files select the optimized storage. If you do have sufficient storage then don't.

View in context

Transfering Photos Library to new Mac

Similar questions