Exporting Large Number of Photo App Photos

Question

Exporting Large Number of Photo App Photos

I have a large RAID disk (6 TB) and working to consolidate all my media there. I do have other media already on the disk, but want to move the photos I have in iCloud.

There are approximately 9500 pictures and 200 video files culminating in about 35GB. I've tried simply dragging and dropping, as well as the Photo App export feature, but neither method seems to be capable of handling the request and just stops after a minute or two.

I'd rather not export a few hundred files at a time. Is there someway to copy the photos to the external hard drive outside the application? I'm familiar with the terminal command line interface and not intimidated to use this, but simply don't know the commands to make it happen.

Tech specs:

The Mac Pro (6 core XEON w/16GB RAM) is connected to the RAID drive via thunderbolt. My current Mac Pro disk has about 200GB remaining.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

Russ

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), Photo App

Posted on Mar 14, 2016 11:27 PM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Mar 14, 2016 11:34 PM in response to Russ and Christina__

Are you using iCloud Photo Library and if so do you have optimized photos or originals on your Mac

LN

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Answer 2

Mar 14, 2016 11:37 PM in response to LarryHN

I am using the iCloud library. I have both optimized and originals in the photo app. I would like to retain the originals.

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Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Mar 15, 2016 9:10 AM in response to Russ and Christina__

Then when you export the unmodified original Photos must download it from iCloud Photo Library - that takes time and space - do you have adaquate sapce on your Mac? If so then change the preferences to keep otiginal on this Mac to eliminate the download

LN

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Answer 4

Mar 15, 2016 9:26 AM in response to LarryHN

Yes, but let me be more specific to ensure a common understanding.

In the Photo App, selecting Preferences from the Photos menu, selecting the iCloud tab. I have the "iCloud Photo Library" checkbox checked. In addition, the "Download Originals to this Mac" radio button is selected. The other checkboxes are also checked ("My Photo Steam" and "iCloud Photo Sharing")

Just above the "Download Originals to this Mac" radio button, there appears to be a download status which reads "Updated Just Now", so I believe the files are all local to my mac now.

At this point, I would like to move (or copy) all the files from my mac to the thunderbolt RAID drive. I don't know where the files are stored on my mac or the best way to copy them. I was toying with the cp command in terminal, but not sure if this is the best idea. The Photos export feature and dragging/dropping them from the Photos GUI have both failed.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

215,846 points

Mar 15, 2016 9:34 AM in response to Russ and Christina__

At this point, I would like to move (or copy) all the files from my mac to the thunderbolt RAID drive. I don't know where the files are stored on my mac or the best way to copy them.

Try using a backup app like Carbon Copy Cloner, Chronosync or Synk Pro. You can use these type of applications to copy just one file or folder of files to the new location. I believe CCC can be used in demo mode.

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Answer 6

Mar 15, 2016 9:40 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for the advice OT. I will definitely investigate. I've avoided third party apps because the photos are so valuable to me.

I suspect these third party apps use OS native capabilities. I'd rather do this myself if I can understand how.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

215,846 points

Mar 15, 2016 9:54 AM in response to Russ and Christina__

If you just want to copy the original files to the EHD you can do the following:

1 - open the Photos library package as shown in this screenshot:

2 - locate the Masters folder and drag the yearly subfolders to the EHD one at a time. DO NOT MANY ANY CHANGES TO THE CONTENTS OF THE LIBRARY PACKAGE - ONLY COPY THE FOLDERS TO THE EHD. If you get a copy error you'll have a better chance of finding which file is causing it and delete normally from the PHotos library using PHotos.

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Answer 8

Mar 15, 2016 9:54 AM in response to Old Toad

This worked perfectly and completed in just a few minutes.

Thanks OT!

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Answer 9

Mar 15, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Old Toad

Ok, so now a follow up question.

When I copied all the files, the file count didn't match. I started investigating and noticed there are multiple duplicate files (sometimes duplicated 4 times) in the Photo app. This duplication didn't occur with the master files, so there are 3,000 less image files in the masters.

My follow up question. Is there a way to clean up the Photos application to remove the duplicate images? I intend on keeping the files in the Photos app and just backing them up to the RAID drive.

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Answer 10

Old Toad

Level 10

215,846 points

Mar 15, 2016 10:06 AM in response to Russ and Christina__

These applications will identify and help remove duplicate photos from a Photos Library:

Duplicate Annihilator for Photos - $7.95
PhotoSweeper - $9.99 - Demo version available.
PowerPhotos - $19.95
Photos Duplicate Cleaner - Free

PowerPhotos is the iPhoto Library Manager version for Photos and is very powerful. Although more expensive I would recommend it as it has more capabilities than the others like the capability to merge Photos libraries or copy photos along with their metadata between libraries.

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