I have an old Mac with thousands of photos that have not been backed up to iCloud.
I also use iCloud on my iPhone and iPad and sync all my photos.
how do I get the old Mac photos on my iCloud?
Is it as simple as updating my Apple ID on my old Mac and then syncing?
iPad, iPadOS 18
jameslambnz wrote: … Is it as simple as updating my Apple ID on my old Mac and then syncing?
Pretty much.
If you sign on with the current ID, and you connect your Photos Library to iCloud, then all the pictures from the iMac will be copied to your iCloud Photos, and all the pictures at your iCloud Photos will be copied to the iMac Photos Library. Photos will do its best to avoid duplicates, and it won't remove any pictures just because they weren't on the iMac or iCloud.
Repeating: all the pictures at your iCloud Photos will be copied to the iMac Photos Library. Do you have enough room on the iMac for this? Be sure! If not, then you may need to copy your Photos Library to an external drive, make that the System Library, connect it to iCloud, and run from there.
Let us know how this goes and if you need more clarification…
jameslambnz wrote: … Is it as simple as updating my Apple ID on my old Mac and then syncing?
Pretty much.
If you sign on with the current ID, and you connect your Photos Library to iCloud, then all the pictures from the iMac will be copied to your iCloud Photos, and all the pictures at your iCloud Photos will be copied to the iMac Photos Library. Photos will do its best to avoid duplicates, and it won't remove any pictures just because they weren't on the iMac or iCloud.
Repeating: all the pictures at your iCloud Photos will be copied to the iMac Photos Library. Do you have enough room on the iMac for this? Be sure! If not, then you may need to copy your Photos Library to an external drive, make that the System Library, connect it to iCloud, and run from there.
Let us know how this goes and if you need more clarification…
Thank you!
I’m now struggling to login with my Apple ID. After popping in my ID and password, I type in the code sent to my other devices but it after it automatically proceeds with the login, it continually just says there was an error. Have restarted etc but still same result.
is it because I’m running Catalina 10.15.7 and it’s no longer supported?
jameslambnz wrote: is it because I’m running Catalina 10.15.7 and it’s no longer supported?
I doubt that it's Catalina. Passwords and IDs can be crazy. I think you have to call Apple…
How do I combine old unsynced photo library on Mac with iCloud
