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Old photo library

On my macOS Catalina I have 3 photo libraries in my pictures folder. Photos Library is the one being used (115GB). I also have iPhoto.migratedphotolibrary (96GB) and an older iPhoto Library (different photos from the primary library 3GBs). I want access to all of these photos and to migrate to a new Mac or iCloud.


Are the iPhoto.migratedphotolibrary duplicates of the Photos from when Apple got rid of IPhoto?


How do I get old iPhoto library into my new library? Will they just automatically switch formats?


Thanks

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 20, 2023 10:24 AM

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8 replies

Dec 27, 2023 4:17 AM in response to ChrisVM13

Can you upgrade your Mac to macOS to a newer system version or are you stuck on Catalina?

The duplicate detection is a new feature in macOS 13 or later.


And starting with macOS 12 Monterey, you can import the photos from another library directly into your current library. The Import pane will show you the photos from the library you are importing from sorted as New photos and already imported, if you select to import only the new photos, you should avoid duplicates: Import photos from another library in Photos on Mac – Apple Support (UK)


Jan 4, 2024 6:24 AM in response to STCav

Stephen, on Catalina the results of the background process "Detecting Duplicates" are only available for the process, that is creating the "curated layout" of the Library views. The result is used to omit the duplicates and redundant photos from the curated views. Photos is just brushing the duplicates below the carpet for a clean layout, but not showing us the duplicates so we could get rid of them.

We could use the curated layout to find duplicates, however. The omitted photos are candidates for deletion. I have described this as a user tip, while I have still been using Catalina, see: About the Duplicate Detection in Photos 5 - Apple Community



Jan 4, 2024 4:57 AM in response to léonie

léonie: "The duplicate detection is a new feature in macOS 13 or later."


I'm stuck on Catalina on my desktop (but on Ventura on my laptop - the two are synchronised via iCloud Photos). My desktop Photos app includes "Detecting Duplicates..." in the cycle of background processes shown beneath the 'Days' tab in the main library view. No duplicates have been detected, which is probably correct for my library.


Does your comment mean that the background process is not actually running a duplicate detection on the desktop (i.e. the cycle label is untrue), or is there some sort of interaction with Ventura on the laptop? Photos on the desktop is Version 5.0 (161.0.120).


Regards,

Stephen


PS, sorry if this is somewhat off-topic.

Old photo library

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