New iMac, not accessed Photos yet. Migrating Photos. from old mac to new.

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Level 1

10 points

New iMac, not accessed Photos yet. Migrating Photos. from old mac to new.

I just bought a New iMac, and I have not used Photos yet on new machine. If I upload pics into Photos on the new machine, will it create problems or complicate the process of migrating Photos from old iMac? Or would it be best to migrate from old iMac to new, before using Photos on new iMac? It will most likely take a while to migrate from old to new, and I am eager to use Photos on new iMac. Is there a right or wrong way?

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), Late 2008 iMac

Posted on Jul 12, 2015 11:48 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,705 points

Jul 12, 2015 12:00 PM in response to cpo23

Photos cannot merge photo libraries.

If you open Photos now and import photos, you cannot merge your old iPhoto Library into the new Photos library. If you want to try Photos, launch it and import a few test photos and experiment a bit.

Then copy your iPhoto Library from the old Mac to the new mac into the Pictures folder and double click the library to migrate it to Photos.

This will create a new Photos library from your iPhoto Library.

See this document how the library will be converted: How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support

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Answer 2

cpo23 Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 12, 2015 12:17 PM in response to léonie

Are you referring to iPhotos--> to Photos. I already converted my iPhoto library over to Photos on the old machine. Both machines have Photos. So what I want to do is, use Photos on my new machine now and then migrate Photos library from old iMac to new machine later. I was hoping that the migration of old iMac Photos would just see the new pics in Photos and merge into Photos on new iMac. Clear as mud, right!! 😁

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,705 points

Jul 12, 2015 12:32 PM in response to cpo23

I was hoping that the migration of old iMac Photos would just see the new pics in Photos and merge into Photos on new iMac. Clear as mud, right!!

Sorry, I misunderstood your question.

But still, there is no tool yet to merge Photos libraries. If you create anew Photos library on your new Mac; you cannot merge it with your old library when you migrate the documents and data from your old Mac. Copy your Photos library over, if you do not want to have to deal with two Photos libraries.

The quickest and easiest way to migrate from an old mac to a new Mac is to use the setup assistant. Right after installing he system on your new mac connect the old mac or a drive with a time Machine backup off the old Mac and let the setup assistant transfer all settings, apps, documents and data.

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