Roger Barre

Q: Xfer Photos projects to new computer

Moving from old MBP to new iMac. I decided not to use Migration Assistant, but clean install. For Photos, I let iCloud populate the new iMac (meaning I didn't even copy over the old Photos Library.photoslibrary file. The only thing that didn't transfer over to the new iMac (that I'm aware of) are Projects. I had made some books on the old MBP, and the Projects listings didn't transfer over. Is there some way I can grab just those from the old MBP and move them to the new iMac (without having to transfer the whole .photoslibrary file?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 28, 2015 9:22 AM

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Q: Xfer Photos projects to new computer

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Nov 28, 2015 11:54 AM in response to Roger Barre
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Nov 28, 2015 11:54 AM in response to Roger Barre

    as you noticed, iCloud Photo Library does not transfer the projects and the faces, see:

    Use Photos and iCloud Photo Library on multiple Mac computers - Apple Support

     

     

    Is there some way I can grab just those from the old MBP and move them to the new iMac (without having to transfer the whole .photoslibrary file?

    Projects can only be transferred as a part of a library.

     

    You could copy the photos library to an external drive and delete all albums and photos that are not needed for your projects, and then transfer only this trimmed photo library.

  • by Roger Barre,

    Roger Barre Roger Barre Nov 28, 2015 11:57 AM in response to léonie
    Level 2 (246 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 28, 2015 11:57 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks Leonie.

     

    So If I want to have all the "Faces" I used on the old MBP, I'll need to transfer the entire old .photoslibrary file to the new computer. Should I first delete the library on the new iMac?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Nov 28, 2015 12:29 PM in response to Roger Barre
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Nov 28, 2015 12:29 PM in response to Roger Barre
    So If I want to have all the "Faces" I used on the old MBP, I'll need to transfer the entire old .photoslibrary file to the new computer.

    It depends on how much work you want to invest. iCloud Photo Library does not transfer the faces thumbnails but searchable keywords. You can search for faces and will find the correct photos, but the faces will not be marked. If that suffices for your needs, you can just leave it this way. If you want all photos to be marked by Faces thumbnails you will indeed have to copy the complete library over.

    You do not need to delete the current library, unless you are running out of storage. You can have several Photos libraries and switch between them.