Should I move Photos Library back to Pictures

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Level 1

13 points

Should I move Photos Library back to Pictures

My wife and I both use an iMac under different user login names, "Fred" and "Wilma". She primarily handles all photos and editing, but I wanted to be able to work on some photos myself using my Fred login. We set up a "Shared" folder and all of our 35,000 pictures are located in a subfolder "Shared Pictures". iPhoto worked under this arrangement, but I have not edited pictures using my Fred login account in some time (I view and edit the photos in her Wilma login account).

When migrating to Photos from iPhoto using Wilma's login, Photos did not find the iPhoto library in Wilma's Pictures folder (there were a handful of photos in the Pictures folder that started the Photos library), so I had to restart Photo and direct the app to the "Shared" folder. It successfully migrated all photos to Photos.

I tried to do the same thing in my Fred login, but Photos would not allow this, and it appears from previous blogs that this is not possible if the photos are on a local drive. I want to keep the photos on the local drive for Time Machine backup, so I will use Photos only under the Wilma login, which is not an issue to me.

My question is: Should I move the Photos Library and the actual photos to the Wilma Pictures folder? And if so, what is the advantage and how do I accomplish this?

Aperture 3, Mac OS X (10.7.4), iMac Intel, 16GB RAM

Posted on Apr 13, 2015 2:53 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

194,761 points

Apr 13, 2015 3:52 PM in response to sailorSig

If you want to be able to share a Photos library between two users, a Shared folder will not work any longer. To be able touches it from two different user accounts you need to move the library to a separate disk partition or an external drive, with the "Ignore ownership" flag set.

The Shared folder has not worked for iPhoto libraries since iPhoto 9.3 or later.

See this document: iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users

You can include external drives in your Time Machine backup. Just check the options iin the Time Machine settings that the drive is not on the exclude list.

If you do not want an external drive, move the library back to the default location and repair it. Using the library from two accounts causes permission problems for the items in the library.

To repair your Photos Library.

Quit Photos.
Back up your Photos library.
Hold down the key combination ⌥⌘ (the alt/options key and command key), while you are double clicking the Photos icon in the Dock to launch Photos into the Repair tools. Hold the keys firmly down, until the panel appears.

Select "Repair" and wait. Don't interrupt the repair.

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Answer 2

sailorSig Author

Level 1

13 points

Apr 15, 2015 10:13 AM in response to léonie

I don't want to use an external HD for the picture files. Photos works fine with the Photos Library in the Users-Shared folder. Is there any reason that I should move it to the default Users-<My User>- Pictures folder instead? I have about 35,000 pictures, and it will take a while to move these. Thanks.

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