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Transferring photos to new iMac

I have recently bought a new 2019 iMac to replace one from 2011. All that I am really interested in transferring is a huge photo library (120gb 20,000 photos).


I have tried uploading to iCloud but after almost a week only 10gb has been uploaded.


How do I transfer all my old photos so that they seamlessly join my current collection in photos on my new Mac?


Thanks

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Mar 30, 2020 8:19 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 30, 2020 9:57 AM

You can either try target disk mode:

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support


Or get an external hard drive. I got one of these:

https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/sandisk-extreme-pro-usb-3-1-ssd#SDSSDE80-500G-A25


As a bonus, if you leave them on the EHD, you get an extra backup of your precious photos.

For files that big it might still take several hours to transfer the files.


Note too, that Catalina cannot run iPhoto, so your iPhoto Library might be of limited usefulness on the new computer until you convert it to a Photos Library.


Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 30, 2020 9:57 AM in response to owain18

You can either try target disk mode:

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support


Or get an external hard drive. I got one of these:

https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/sandisk-extreme-pro-usb-3-1-ssd#SDSSDE80-500G-A25


As a bonus, if you leave them on the EHD, you get an extra backup of your precious photos.

For files that big it might still take several hours to transfer the files.


Note too, that Catalina cannot run iPhoto, so your iPhoto Library might be of limited usefulness on the new computer until you convert it to a Photos Library.


Transferring photos to new iMac

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