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I want to move some photos from the Photos Library to another album

How do I move photos from the Library to a folder? I know how to ADD them to a folder but I want to remove them from the Library and move them to a folder. Is this possible?

Thanks.

Posted on Feb 4, 2022 9:20 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Feb 4, 2022 10:24 PM

I am not sure, if I understand correctly what you want to do.

  1. Do you want to move photos from the "Library" section (All Photos, recents, etc") to a folder under "Albums" in the same library?
  2. Or do you want to move the photos completely out of your Photos Library to a folder in the Finder?


Number 1 is not possible, the way Photos has been designed. Photos is storing each photo only once, and the different views in the Library section are showing you all photos in your library, sorted specifically for the different views. "All Photos" is showing all photos sorted by the capture date, Recents is showing all photos sorted by the date is has been added to the library. The albums are not holding own copies of the photos, but are just referencing the photos in the library, like a catalogue. Folders in Photos can only hold albums or subfolders, so you can add photos to albums but not directly to folders.



Number 2 - If you want to move the photos to a folder in the Finder, select the Photos in Photos, then use the command "File > Export > Export unmodified originals" to save the photos in a folder outside of Photos. Once the export is complete, check the exported photos, if they are all readable, then delete the selected photos from Photos.


You cannot really move the photos from Photos. It requires two steps, exporting and then deleting them from Photos.



3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Feb 4, 2022 10:24 PM in response to ParrisWeitzman

I am not sure, if I understand correctly what you want to do.

  1. Do you want to move photos from the "Library" section (All Photos, recents, etc") to a folder under "Albums" in the same library?
  2. Or do you want to move the photos completely out of your Photos Library to a folder in the Finder?


Number 1 is not possible, the way Photos has been designed. Photos is storing each photo only once, and the different views in the Library section are showing you all photos in your library, sorted specifically for the different views. "All Photos" is showing all photos sorted by the capture date, Recents is showing all photos sorted by the date is has been added to the library. The albums are not holding own copies of the photos, but are just referencing the photos in the library, like a catalogue. Folders in Photos can only hold albums or subfolders, so you can add photos to albums but not directly to folders.



Number 2 - If you want to move the photos to a folder in the Finder, select the Photos in Photos, then use the command "File > Export > Export unmodified originals" to save the photos in a folder outside of Photos. Once the export is complete, check the exported photos, if they are all readable, then delete the selected photos from Photos.


You cannot really move the photos from Photos. It requires two steps, exporting and then deleting them from Photos.



I want to move some photos from the Photos Library to another album

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