Export whole Photos library including folders

Question

Export whole Photos library including folders

Hi,

I have a very old iMac which I have decided to replace with a PC (sorry Apple peeps). I wish to extract my entire Photos library (>22,000 photos) including the "structure" which I have painstakingly maintained over the years for migration, via the cloud, to my new PC.

I have located the Masters and Modified folders in the Photos package but they do not contain the structure that I put in place, seemingly referencing my photos by when I uploaded them rather than by when they were taken. For instance, my Xmas 2017 photos are showing in a folder for 2018. A test upload to the cloud and download to my PC reveals that, even worse, the files themselves contain the date & time they were downloaded onto my PC rather than the date taken. The only way I can determine when the pictures were taken is to individually inspect the files Exif data. As you can imagine this would take most of my life given the volume of pictures.

So, getting to the point, is there a means of exporting all the photos in the library, maintaining the structure and ready for import into another application, or even just a well-ordered file structure? If this was a finance package I can export in a portable format, but Photos is proving more troublesome.

Thanks for reading and hopefully for any advice you can provide me.

Will Hatton

iMac 20"

Posted on Jan 23, 2018 7:05 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,555 points

Jan 23, 2018 11:16 PM in response to TheRealWillHatton

I am definitely using Photos,

To export from Phots you can also use the "File > Export > Export unmodified originals" command and the file naming preset "use moment" to save the original, high quality photos in folders. Or "File > Export > Export .. photos" to save the edited versions. But when saving edited versions make sure you click the "v" to the right of "JPEG" to set a high jpeg quality.

The user Jacques Roux provided a script to save the photos to folders named like the albums: Export Albums to Folders - Jacques Rioux's Script

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,555 points

Jan 23, 2018 1:25 PM in response to TheRealWillHatton

I have located the Masters and Modified folders

Are you using iPhoto or Photos? In the current Photos version is no "Modified" folder, but in iPhoto. So which photo application are you using, iPhoto or Photos?

To save your iPhoto photos preserving your organization, I would use file > Export in iPhoto and save the photos with "Kind > Original" and the subfolder format "Event".

Or export each album individually and save it to a separate folder.

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Answer 3

Jan 23, 2018 1:25 PM in response to léonie

Hi Léonie, thank you for your response.

I am definitely using Photos, however a couple of years ago I was prompted by an iOS update to upgrade from iPhoto to Photos. It is possible that what I am seeing in the "package" is a throw-back to this and the update that was made.

I don't have access to my iMac at this moment in time, but I will certainly try what you have suggested and I thank you very much for your knowledge on this matter. I will post again once I have been able to determine more information!

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Answer 4

Feb 2, 2018 8:37 AM in response to léonie

Thank you for your information - I ran your modified script and had a few timeout issues but with persistence, it has completely resolved my issue. I'm delighted! Thanks again!

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

200,555 points

Feb 2, 2018 8:40 AM in response to TheRealWillHatton

I'm glad it worked for you 🙂

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