Gauss
Level 1 (13 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: importing from one photos library to another

Hello

 

I have been using a Photos library on OneDrive for some time. This syncs moderately happily across my three Macs using OneDrive. I don't bother linking it with my iPhone or iPad.

 

However, Photos seems to do so much housework with which OneDrive struggles to cope and it affects the reliability of my syncs. Uploading a photo to Photos seems to create a 60 MB or greater sync, which seems to me to be wholly unnecessary.

 

So I am thinking of buying a 50 GB iCloud plan to keep Photos from interfering with OneDrive.

 

Question: There is a lot of legacy nonsense in Photos Library.photoslibrary that I was wondering: what would be the best way to migrate the library from OneDrive to the pictures folder? I don't want to lose face names or other metadata in the migration.

 

Two of my three Macs are running Sierra; the third is running El Capitan. I plan to upgrade when I know everything is fine.

 

If it is simply dragging the folder across I can do this, but I'd like to use this as the opportunity to do some tidying so that funny things did not happen later on.

 

Thanks!

 

Mark

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 5:20 AM

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Gauss

Q: importing from one photos library to another

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  • by LarryHN,Helpful

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 27, 2016 6:25 AM in response to Gauss
    Level 10 (84,937 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 27, 2016 6:25 AM in response to Gauss

    I am not familier with one drive but

     

    1 - the Photos library needs to be on a local volume formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) with a fast wired connection

     

    2 - so far as I've seen no one has successfully used it in a netword ev=nviorment

     

    3 - Apple specifically states (and this has been proven out but attempts to do it) that the Photos library can not be on any syncing service

     

    So what you are describing sounds very dangerous and you may very well not have a solid library

     

    in any case the way to move a Photos library is to drag it intact as a single entity to the destination which must be a volume formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) locally connected with a fast wired connection and not used as a TimeMachine backup volume - you then double click on it to open and set it as the default location - set it as the system library and then you can turn on the desired iCloud services

     

    There are no user serviceable parts within the Photos library and you should never go into it and you can not make any changes to it using the finder or other software

     

    LN

  • by Gauss,

    Gauss Gauss Sep 27, 2016 6:24 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 27, 2016 6:24 AM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks Larry

     

    I have been doing this for over a year without real problems. I think it is fair to say I am not syncing Photos in the way that Apple would deem it; I have merely copied the Photos Library to my OneDrive folder so that I can have the same Library on my different computers.

     

    Maybe I'll just copy it across because all I'm looking for is the easiest and most reliable way of having access to all my data. I have Lightroom so that is another option but I'm not a pro in that respect.

     

    I've been using Macs since 1989 and am not frightened of tinkering with packages but Photos is one where your advice to avoid fiddling may well be wise.

     

    Regards

     

    Mark