How do I transfer a large Photos folder of images from one Mac to another Mac?

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How do I transfer a large Photos folder of images from one Mac to another Mac?

For some reason, when my wife connected her iPhone 6s to her older MacBook Pro, iTunes would immediately recognize it, but no photos apps would (i.e. Photos, Image Capture, etc.) So, we called Apple Tech Support. The guy had never seen this problem before, and suggested I try connecting her phone to my newer computer and importing her photos with my Photos app into a folder with her name. It worked, but now I cannot figure out how to transfer this 30GB Photos folder to her laptop. None of the sharing options are available in Photos, presumably because the folder is too large. Every search I do comes up with instructions to migrate an entire photo library, which is not what I want to do.

In short, I just want to move a Photos folder with about 30GBs of images from my MacBook Pro to another one.

MacBookPro13,3

MacOS High Sierra 10.13.3

Photos 3.0

Posted on Mar 3, 2018 3:28 PM

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Answer 1

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LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Mar 3, 2018 5:26 PM in response to pablopaul

Depends

Photos does not have "folders of photos" - folders only hold albums or other folders

So are you talking about albums in Photos for folders in the finder? If in Photos select the photos and export the unmodified originals to a finder folder and transfer that folder (either via a network or on an external drive) and if they are in a finder folder transfer that folder to the laptop - then on the laptop import the photos to Photos

LN

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Answer 2

pablopaul Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 4, 2018 8:24 AM in response to LarryHN

Thank you for your reply. I exported the original images to a finder folder and then set up file sharing between my two MacBooks. It took about 2 hours to transfer the 30GBs that way, but it worked perfectly.

Strangely, on the receiving end, when I used Photos > File > Import... and selected the folder of images, it only seemed to see about 1,200 of them. So instead i just dragged the folder onto the Photos icon, and then it saw and imported them all.

Thanks!

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Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Mar 4, 2018 8:28 AM in response to pablopaul

That is strange

But it sounds like you found a work around

You are welcome

LN

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How do I transfer a large Photos folder of images from one Mac to another Mac?

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