Transferring photos from iPhoto to Photos (10.7.5 to Catalina)

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Level 1

8 points

Transferring photos from iPhoto to Photos (10.7.5 to Catalina)

I have an old 2011 Macbook Pro running 10.7.5, which uses iPhoto and Photo Stream. My newer Macbook is a 2015 Pro, running Catalina. I had signed into iCloud on both devices, enabled My Photo Stream on my 2011 and iCloud storage on my 2015 and was able to transfer photos to iCloud. I want to wipe the hard drive on my 2011 computer, but i don't want to do it until I am sure the photos are safely stored in iCloud. The My Photo Stream vs. iCloud Storage page was not particularly helpful in explaining to me how it functions. Basically, if I sign out of iCloud on my 2011, will my photos still save to my 2015's storage/iCloud? Thank you

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 28, 2020 6:58 PM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

195,169 points

Jun 28, 2020 11:54 PM in response to bigeasy23

My hesitation arises because my external hard drive is not with me, so I am unable to perform a back-up.

It is wise to hesitate. You simply must not make any system upgrade (not even an update ) without making a full backup of your computer. it is extremely risky. Even if nothing goes wrong during the upgrade you will not be able to revert to the previous system, if you should notice major problems after the upgrade, like incompatible applications, device drivers, or data formats. If you only can get to High Sierra, you may not be able to upgrade all applications to High Sierra compatible versions. The AppStore has moved on to Mojave and Catalina versions.

I can indeed view my photos in iCloud and on my newer machine. Now that I recall, I think I have had My Photo Stream on since December 2019. I just turned it off to see if the photos will remain in iCloud and Photos (2015 mach) after 30 days.

The photos you are seeing in Photos on www.icloud.com are safely stored in your iCloud Photos Library.

ut there may be many gaps, if you only transferred photos using My Photo Stream. My Photo Stream is only ta temporary buffer. It is transferring recently added photos to iCloud - a different section from iCloud Photos - and other devices need to have My Photo Stream enabled to download download them during the month the photos are there and import them.

There are many possible complications making this setup messy, if you mix it with iCloud Photos:

The videos are not transferred. Live Photos will be turned into still frames.
The adjustments are not transferred - only the originals.
You may have duplicates in several sizes, if you have been using My Photos Stream on Macs and iPhones, iPads, iPods. The problem is, that each device is downloading and saving My Photo Stream items in a size optimised for the device. When you enable iCloud Photos you may be seeing the smaller My Photo Stream versions from the iPhone or iPad in addition to the original high resolution version. You may also be seeing duplicates of edited versions and originals, broken Live Photos.

I would not rely on the My Photo Stream transfer. Once you upgrade to the newest version your system can manage, you can convert the iPhoto Library to a Photos Library and let iCloud merge the libraries properly. Photos 3 on GG´High Sierra is the first version that can sync named faces with iCloud.

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Answer 2

markwmsn

Level 6

15,035 points

Jun 28, 2020 9:24 PM in response to bigeasy23

That's a pretty huge leap you are making (eight major releases, across transfer methods, and across applications). I'm not at all sure that what you describe will work properly.

Have you verified that you can see all of your photos in the Photos section of iCloud.com? (That's iCloud Photos. In more recent releases, My Photo Stream doesn't go there.)

Have you verified that you can see all of your photos in the Photos app on your newer MacBook Pro? (It will be pulling from iCloud Photos.)

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Answer 3

bigeasy23 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 28, 2020 10:41 PM in response to markwmsn

I can indeed view my photos in iCloud and on my newer machine. Now that I recall, I think I have had My Photo Stream on since December 2019. I just turned it off to see if the photos will remain in iCloud and Photos (2015 mach) after 30 days.

I would consider upgrading to Yosemite, and then up to High Sierra (or whatever is optimal for a late 2011 MacBook Pro, except that I only have 4 GB) in order to have the same functionalities. My hesitation arises because my external hard drive is not with me, so I am unable to perform a back-up. But do you think that being able to view the photos in both iCloud and Photos means that iCloud successfully saved copies of the photos?

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Answer 4

bigeasy23 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 30, 2020 9:24 AM in response to léonie

I would not rely on the My Photo Stream transfer. Once you upgrade to the newest version your system can manage, you can convert the iPhoto Library to a Photos Library and let iCloud merge the libraries properly. Photos 3 on GG´High Sierra is the first version that can sync named faces with iCloud.

Everything above has been helpful. Essentially, I found a way to backup my computer to Time Machine. I upgraded to Yosemite and entered by iCloud information into the system. I presume the machine will automatically upload things to iCloud. I will find out soon enough. I don't need any of the special features on Photos 3; just having photos/videos sync will do. Basically, new question is: does Yosemite play nice with Catalina even if Yosemite doesn't support the latest Photos updates?

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Transferring photos from iPhoto to Photos (10.7.5 to Catalina)

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