Archiving photos and videos from my system Photos Library to a Secondary Photos Library

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Level 1

33 points

Archiving photos and videos from my system Photos Library to a Secondary Photos Library

Hi

As Apple are massively increasing the price of 2TB iCloud+ subscription here in the UK, I am looking for ways to stay within the 200GB subscription model.

As my System Photos Library (which syncs to iCloud) is 132.5 GB - that is what I need to target.

So I have created a secondary Photos Library (by closing photos app, holding the ALT key while opening it again, and selecting to create a new library). Then from within the new Secondary Photos Library I went to FILE - IMPORT, and selected the main System Photos Library and the source target. My idea is to import the older half of the system library into the secondary library, then to delete those older photos and videos from the system library, meaning only 60GB is synching with iCloud

But get this error message when trying to do the import

Where am I going wrong?

I am on a new Mac mini M2 on Ventura 13.4

In Finder, the main system Photos Library shows as being 155.84 GB, and sharing and permissions show I have Read & Write access to it. Both the system photos library and the new secondary photos library reside on the internal 1TB SSD of the Mac mini in the Home - User - Pictures folder

Further info: My System library contains photos and videos dating back to 2003 - a mix of photos from iPhones over the years and imported photos and video clips from cameras such as Panasonic and Canon

Any ideas please on how to achieve what I am trying to do?

Thanks

Mac mini (M2, 2023)

Posted on Jul 19, 2023 2:59 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

203,005 points

Jul 19, 2023 4:54 AM in response to jhrichmond

There are limitations for importing directly from a Photos Library.

You cannot import from a Photos Library that is syncing with iCloud Photos.

See: Import photos from another library in Photos on Mac - Apple Support

"In macOS Monterey or later, you can import photos and videos from another Photos library, as long as the library you want to import from doesn't have iCloud Photos turned on. "

Instead of importing from your System Photos Library into an empty library, you could simply duplicate your current library to have an archive of all your current photos on an external drive.

I would not bother to archive only selected photos. A complete copy will be much more useful. You will save your albums and folders this way as well, not just the photos.

This will only work however, if you are not using the Optimize Storage feature. With "Optimize Storage" the library will not contain all originals and the copy will be incomplete.

If you want regularly to transfer photos from your iCloud Photos Library to your archive of photos on the external, consider to invest into Power Photos as a helper. With Power Photos we can import photos also from an iCloud Photos Library. https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/

I am using PowerPhotos a lot to merge the new photos from my iCloud Photos Library into my archive, or to save partial, yearly libraries.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

203,005 points

Jul 19, 2023 6:29 AM in response to jhrichmond

Yes, that is what I suggest to do, if you want to split the library. If you want to delete the photos you are keeping in the iCloud Library from your new, second library, so all photos are only in one library, I recommend to use two smart albums based on the date where you want to split the library. For example like this: Crete the tow smart albums, before you duplicate the library. Then delete the photos from one of the smart albums in the corresponding library. This way you can be sure not to delete a photo accidentally from both libraries.
When you merge two libraries by importing from the split off library with Photos, the albums and keywords will be missing. The full, paid version of PowerPhotos will give you a better merge.
PowerPhotos will preserve the keywords when it merges photos from one library into another library. See: https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/

"You can split your library by copying albums and photos with a simple drag and drop. PowerPhotos will take care of copying the photos and retaining their metadata, including keywords, descriptions, titles, dates, and favorite status. Read more about what PowerPhotos can copy."

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Answer 3

jhrichmond Author

Level 1

33 points

Jul 23, 2023 4:37 AM in response to léonie

OK - so I now have messed up...

First, I took a copy of the full photo system library and made sure I have that backed up safely.

Then I successfully copied the system library and renamed the copy to "archived library"

Then I removed the older photos from the system library, making it smaller, and the newer photos from the archived library, so any photo only exits in one of the libraries.

It worked as expected, and the now smaller system library then synced to iCloud and my other devices, with only the newer photos being synced

So that all worked as per the plan

But then I found out that when merging two libraries together using PowerPhotos, the FaceName data would be lost. And that would be a problem if I wanted to combine libraries again in the future (which I will want to)

So I decided to try to back out my work, and revert to having just one single system library with all media in it, for now.

I did this by putting the copy I had made of the full system library back into my Pictures folder, selecting that library when opening Photos with the ALT key, and then going to Photos - Settings and choosing to use that as the System library to sync with iCloud

But then it started syncing, and instead of uploading the earlier group of photos back into iCloud, it synced the other way and iCloud removed all the earlier photos from the system library on my Mac.

I cannot seem to get iCloud to understand that I want the full system library on my Mac to be the master and to sync up from that rather than the other way round...

I still have all my media on my Mac - so no disaster yet - but I now cannot get all my media back up into iCloud - iCloud removes it from my Mac instead...

help!

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Answer 4

jhrichmond Author

Level 1

33 points

Jul 19, 2023 3:03 AM in response to jhrichmond

Further info: My System library contains photos and videos dating back to 2003 - a mix of photos from iPhones over the years and imported photos and video clips from cameras such as Panasonic and Canon

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Answer 5

jhrichmond Author

Level 1

33 points

Jul 19, 2023 6:10 AM in response to léonie

Thanks Leonie

Some questions:

1) So you suggest I make a copy of the system photo library using Finder - then rename it to be my archive library - then delete the earlier half of the media from my system library - then delete the later half of the media in my archive library - and end up with my earlier media only in the archive library and the later media only in my system library synching with iCloud ? That is what I want to achieve - so is that the way you are suggesting I do it?

2) In future when I want to make my system photo library smaller again, I repeat the process creating a second archive library. Can I then combine the two archive libraries into one library (as neither will be synching with iCloud) and will all the keywords and metadata be retained in that merge? And how do I do that merge? Do I have to buy the Powerphotos software to do that or can Apple Photo libraries me merged with Apple software?

3) Does Powerphotos importing / exporting retain the keywords?

Thanks

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

203,005 points

Jul 19, 2023 4:55 AM in response to léonie

I forgot to mention - by copying the library you will also be able to save the keywords you added.

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Archiving photos and videos from my system Photos Library to a Secondary Photos Library

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