merging photos library and iphotos library

Hi,

You have a few options depending on how many of the photos you have applied edits to and whether you want to retain the ability to revert to the original photo.

One option is to simply export all 16,000 photos from your iPhoto library (assuming you are still able to run iPhoto) and then import them into your existing Photos library. Photos should identify all duplicates so only the missing photos would be imported. When you export you'll need to decide if you want to export the original photo or the edited photo. If you export the edited photo then you will not have the ability to revert to the original photo.

Another option is to re-convert the iPhotos library into a new Photos library. Then you can use a great program like PowerPhotos from Fat Cat software which will merge the existing and newly created Photos library. Again any duplicates can be excluded. If you are running Catalina then PowerPhotos will now retain all of your edits as well.

It is not possible to directly merge an iPhotos library and a Photos library, so I think the above 2 options are your only choices.

If you are using iCloud Photos, you can upload both libraries to iCloud, one after the other. The libraries will be merged in iCloud. It is the only lossless method to merge the libraries and keep the original images and the edited versions paired, the albums and folders in sync, the faces named. Exporting and reimporting will separate the originals and the edited versions, and the albums and folders will be missing.

Even PowerPhotos cannot transfer the photos between the libraries without separating the originals and the edited versions, but PowerPhotos will at least transfer the albums.

See: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000662

Leonie,

That is a good point about losing the album structure, I forgot to mention that.

Re separating the edited and original versions, under Catalina, Power Photos can now transfer both the original and edited versions together, which I only found out about recently (https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/Docs/copying_limitations.html) following a recent problem I had where I lost the edits on around 3,000 photos (I've no idea how this happened as it affected numerous albums and across all time periods - any ideas how this could have happened are grateful received as I've no idea and Apple couldn't help) and had to merge an old version of the library.

Hi,

In addition to Leonie's excellent article, the only product I have used is Power Photos (https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/). This will analyse your library based on the criteria you set (size, date last modified, etc) and will identify one copy to keep and one copy to delete. (Sometimes you may want to keep both, eg if you have a black and white version of a photo, this potentially could be identified as a duplicate but you simply click on it to tell Power Photos to keep both versions - therefore I recommend you review the results so you know which photos are being kept and which are being deleted). If you are happy with the analysis then one click will delete all the duplicates - very easy to use.

The best way is probably to create a new library - hold down alt when you start Photos and it will ask if you want to create a new library. Within preferences select this library as the new System library and it will download all of the photos from iCloud into your new clean library. This should also copy the album structure, but I think you will lose any face recognition and smart albums (which are not supported in iCloud).

Thks

Russ New Boy wrote:

but I think you will lose any face recognition and smart albums (which are not supported in iCloud).

That is no problem. The smart albums will sync with iCloud as well - as long as you are syncing between the same system versions. My Catalina Macs are syncing the smart albums between other Catalina Macs, the Mojave Macs are syncing the smart albums between Mojave Macs, they are just not syncing between the different system versions. Named faces are syncing even between iPhone, iPad, Macs since High Sierra.

Only the projects do not sync with iCloud.

Yes, its a very useful piece of software. Its just a one man software company I believe, but the developer is very helpful and quick to respond to queries that I have sent him in the past so am happy to champion his product where I can!

Thank you for the heads up on the new Power Photos ability to move the originals and edited versions together, so we can reverse the edits. That is perfect!

I like PowerPhotos more and more.