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After choosing to "download originals to this mac" photos do not show up in Photos library master file and I can't extract them to move them. Please help!

Hi all!


I took advice of another thread on here for transferring photos in bulk out of Photos Library to another photo management program. To do that I chose to "Download originals to this Mac" in iCloud settings so that all my photo from phones and iPads and what not would download into Photos Library.

When I am in the Photos app I can see that it has downloaded originals.

Yet, when I then go into Photos Library --> Show Package Contents --> Master file, where all originals should be stored and easily extractable, I only see some of the photos that were downloaded and stored a long time ago, but none of the new photos I downloaded from the iCloud!


Any ideas of where they are or may have gone or how I can make them visible?


I double-checked that I am using the right Photos Library, but weirdly the size of that file itself also has not changed since Photos said it's downloaded the originals...


I need to move several years of photos from iCloud to the Lightroom and I believe based on what other users have suggested this is the easiest way to move them with dates in tact, so I really need to figure out why they are not showing up...


Thanks a lot for your help!!!

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Aug 28, 2020 9:36 AM

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Posted on Aug 28, 2020 9:47 AM

The system version below your post is OS X 10.11, but could it be, that you are now using macOS 10.15 Catalina?

Then you can no longer extract the originals from the Masters folder. If there is still a Masters folder, the upgrade of the library has not been complete.

Photos 5 on Catalina is storing the originals in a folder "originales" and changing the filenames.

You will have to use the command "File > Export > Export unmodified Originals" to save the original image files. And I would enable the option "Export IPTC as XMP". This will create a sidecar file with the metadata.


If you are still using OS X 10.11, you may have to wait, until all originals have been downloaded. View your photos enlarged to force a download.


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Question marked as Best reply

Aug 28, 2020 9:47 AM in response to CatsAndApples

The system version below your post is OS X 10.11, but could it be, that you are now using macOS 10.15 Catalina?

Then you can no longer extract the originals from the Masters folder. If there is still a Masters folder, the upgrade of the library has not been complete.

Photos 5 on Catalina is storing the originals in a folder "originales" and changing the filenames.

You will have to use the command "File > Export > Export unmodified Originals" to save the original image files. And I would enable the option "Export IPTC as XMP". This will create a sidecar file with the metadata.


If you are still using OS X 10.11, you may have to wait, until all originals have been downloaded. View your photos enlarged to force a download.


After choosing to "download originals to this mac" photos do not show up in Photos library master file and I can't extract them to move them. Please help!

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