HT204414: Designate a System Photo Library in Photos

Learn about Designate a System Photo Library in Photos
Edward Weintraut

Q: Can I delete original Photos library?

Using Mac Book Pro Retina with El Capitan, and iPad and iPhone with iOS 9. I opened up Photos before merging my old iPhoto libraries with Photo Manager. I now have two libraries in Photos: the original Photos and the recent Merged Library. Can I delete the original Photos system photo library and still retain all iCloud and Sharing functionalities? Will traces of the original Photos library still be in iCloud?

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Mar 18, 2016 8:03 PM

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Q: Can I delete original Photos library?

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  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie Mar 19, 2016 8:17 PM in response to Edward Weintraut
    Level 10 (105,771 points)
    iCloud
    Mar 19, 2016 8:17 PM in response to Edward Weintraut

    Only the system photo library can be enabled as the iCloud Photo Library.  If  you want a different library to be your iCloud Photo Library you can enable this library as the system photo library and then enable it as your iCloud Photo Library.  The photos will upload and be merged with the photos that are already in iCloud.  Photos will scan for duplicates while merging the libraries, so that the same photo will not upload twice, if the duplicate can be recognized.

     

    You can then delete the first library.  But I would make a current backup before doing this.