transfer iphoto's from old mac to icloud

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transfer iphoto's from old mac to icloud

Hi - have just realised that we have 5000+ family photos on old 2x old macs stored on iphotos and not icloud. They are old computers and won't update to new versions of anything.

The latest is Mac OS X 10.7.5, iphotos '11. The oldest one I haven't booted up yet so it will be even worse.

None of the icloud tabs are coming up in iphoto preferences and none of the tips I can find online seem fit my situation. I am desperate to get them onto icloud.

Any ideas/help ? I am bit of a hack.

Thanks in advance..

Posted on Jun 27, 2020 1:35 AM

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Answer 1

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Yer_Man

Level 10

165,870 points

Jun 27, 2020 1:46 AM in response to sammas101

The simple formula is:

Copy the libraries to a machine running Photos.app instead of iPhoto

Open the libraries with Photos. This will create a Photos library for each one

Merge those libraries with your main one using an app like PowerPhotos: https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/

The catches may occur in several places. The libraries may be so old that Photos cannot convert them. You won't know until you try. If all else fails you can at least recover the original files from the Library package.

iPhoto never had any connection with iCloud. It predates it. That's why there's nothing there about iCloud.

Also, I note you're determined to get them to iCloud. Remember iCloud is a sharing service, not an alternative storage.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

215,328 points

Jun 29, 2020 10:27 AM in response to sammas101

You should be able to connect the older Macs to your MB via Target Disk Mode

If you don't have enough free space on the MB you may need to get an external HD, formatted as OS X Extended (journaled) with Ownership set to be ignored. Connect it to your MB, copy the iPhoto libraries to it and merge and run from the EHD.

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Answer 3

sammas101 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 27, 2020 7:34 PM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks. Yep, can handle that. My biggest fear is losing the hard drives and the photos. I'd be a dead man.

I'm giving the above a crack later today. The only other device I have that can use to access Photos app is a macbook.. got to work out a way of connecting it to the Mac.

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Answer 4

sammas101 Author

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8 points

Jul 6, 2020 7:19 PM in response to Old Toad

Hi - apologies for slow reply.. been offline. I did all the above on newer Mac and all good. For some reason, the older Mac is stopping at a certain (differing) number of photos transfer and won't go past it. External drive is massive so no issues on size. It's a bit random where the number stops each time and getting the spinning wheel of death a lot. Not quite there yet but will keep plugging away. Thanks again

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Answer 5

sammas101 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 27, 2020 2:29 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks very much. That'll be a stretch for me but giving it a go.

I did not know that icloud was not storage for photos..

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Answer 6

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,870 points

Jun 27, 2020 2:37 AM in response to sammas101

It's closely linked with the libraries on your devices. If, for instance, you delete a shot from your Mac or whatever, it will also be deleted from iCloud. So beware of that.

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transfer iphoto's from old mac to icloud

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