Q: Clean Install - Photos Library how to handle
Hello.
My software install seems to be the culprit of some things going on with my Mac. A clean install seems to be called for - but I am concerned about Photos.
On a Thunderbolt drive I dragged the package over (under 40GB). But it took a long while to copy - just under an hour.
I sync to iCloud Photo Library from Photos on my Mac. I also run two Time Machine drives.
What I don't know is if it would be best to put my other data onto the newly installed clean Mac from the drives and then place a version of my Photos from my drive back onto the newly installed software or enable a blank library and download from iCloud to Photos.
What would give me the least convoluted version of my Photos library to reintroduce? I won't be able to use Time Machine as a RESTORE as I don't want to reintroduce the other problems.
NOTHING is more important to me than these photos and videos of my son's life.
What is the safest solution and most sure?
Thank you all for the continued support.
- H
MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
Posted on Jan 13, 2016 3:22 PM
- To answer your other question:
Has anyone done this successfully with iCloud photos download to an empty library?
Thanks again - so many questions! Everyone is so helpfull.
I have done that to migrate my Photos Library to my other Macs. Downloading from iCloud Photo Library is quicker than copying the library over and than have it sync with iCloud.
But if you are using faces and have many projects in your library this method is lossy. The faces thumbnails do not sync to iCloud, so you will have to label the faces again. It will be quicker than the original labelling, because searchable faces tag will sync back from iCloud, but it will still be a lot of work.
And your books, calendars, cards will not sync back. It will be like described here: Use Photos and iCloud Photo Library on multiple Mac computers - Apple Support
Before you go to trouble of a clean install: Have you tried if completely reinstalling the system by booting into the recovery partition will fix the issues you are experiencing? See this link on how to reinstall from the recovery partition: OS X: About OS X Recovery
If your problems are caused by incompatible software you installed, you would just reintroduce the problems, if you reinstall your software after the clean install. This can easily happen, if you do not know what the culprit is.
Posted on Jan 14, 2016 10:24 AM