So I have iCloud Photos set up on my phone and it has a lot of photos - but I also have an old backup on an external HD ... I'd like to merge them together and have it be my iCloud ... what is the best way to do this without losing anything?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Mac Studio, macOS 14.3
We do stuff like that using the trusted 3rd Party app, PowerPhotos ($30) -- it's great for dealing with multiple Libraries, and it does lots of other good things with Photos.
You can have Photos itself import another Library using File>Import, but you lose all the album and folder structure in the import.
I would certainly keep backups of the Libraries before messing around with them!
We do stuff like that using the trusted 3rd Party app, PowerPhotos ($30) -- it's great for dealing with multiple Libraries, and it does lots of other good things with Photos.
You can have Photos itself import another Library using File>Import, but you lose all the album and folder structure in the import.
I would certainly keep backups of the Libraries before messing around with them!
Do you have "Download Originals" checked in the Mac's Photos Settings>iCloud? If so, then you have everything that's in iCloud.
If you have "Optimize Storage" checked, then you can not be sure how complete the Library is. Merging still works (I think) but if you have storage space, you should keep the Originals, even if it forces you to keep a Library on an external drive. Otherwise, a backup of the Library doesn't really backup up the full Library. To get a full Library, you make a new empty one, designate it as the System Library, connect it to iCloud, and let the empty Library fill up from iCloud. This could take days to weeks, depending on the size of the Library. Let me know if you need more details.
Speaking of external drives, how is the one you have formatted? You should know that to avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
Is your "old backup on an external HD" an actual Photos Library, or is it straight files?
The one that is connected to my MacStudio is iCloud Library that is currently optimized storage.
The older backup is a Photos Library on an external drive (not sure what the format is) I have so many photos so it's not feasible to have them all downloaded on my Mac Studio (at least not permanently) - is there an external drive that is best recommended for this storage that will allow for optimized iCloud storage that will sync to my phone?
I'm afraid the drive will go so I want to make sure I have this properly backed up together so it will be easier to store.
Would it be best to download the iCloud one so it's all on the drive and then merge?
What is the best method to merge iCloud and external HD photos?
