Photos is great for new photos. What about the thousands of photos in my iPhoto file? Do I import them and if so how? Can you change the date on the photo files that are automatically put on the photos when they are put into Photos? If I import old photos I am afraid it will put the current date on the file.
Aperture 3, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
You can create a new Photos library from your iPhoto Library by dragging the iPhoto Library onto the Photos icon in the Dock. The new Photos library will preserve the edit you did in iPhoto, the keywords, the titles and captions you added, the faces and places. Also the capture dates.
See: How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support
But you cannot merge your iPhoto Library into your existing Photos library; If you did not yet import too many new photos into your new Photos Library, I'd start by migrating your iPhoto iibrary, and then add your newer photos to the migrated iPhoto Library.
Thank you, but what does migrating my iPhoto library mean?
and my second question...
Is it possible to change the date that the programs automatically put on a file. I brought many old photos in to my iPhoto library and they were all dated at the time I brought them in from different sources. They were not all from 2014 but many go back several years and to organize my photos I can't do it by date audit gets confusing.
Photos uses a totally different library structure from iPhoto - to use an iPhoto library with Photos you must migrate it to the new format
and as to
Is it possible to change the date that the programs automatically put on a file. I brought many old photos in to my iPhoto library and they were all dated at the time I brought them in from different sources. They were not all from 2014 but many go back several years and to organize my photos I can't do it by date audit gets confusing.
I'm not sure what your question is but file dates have nothing to do with Photo dates for digital camera photos - the photos date are independent of the file dates and are in the photo itself in the EXIF data - you can change photos dates using the Photos' adjust time and date command
LN
Thank you very much for your response and patience. I apologize for my ignorance but what does "migrate to the new format mean". I have looked up the word migrate and I cannot find an explanation. How do I migrate my iPhoto library to Photos? I have around 15,000 photos in my iPhoto and about 300 in Photos. It would be a lot easier to look in one source for a photo rather than figuring out that if it was before a certain date it must be in one file and after that date in another file.
to migrate an iPhoto library just drag it to the Photos icon in the Dock - this will migrate it to Photos
Since you have some three hundred photos in a photos library already before migrating open Photos and select all (command A) and export the unmodified originals to a desktop folder - after migrating your large library open use the Photos file menu ==> import command to import those photos so you have everything in one place
LN
Photos vs iPhoto
