I recently purchased a new Mac and created a User for myself. I then wanted to move my pictures from my older MiniMac, so I used the migration assistant and move the older user onto the new Mac. Now I have 2 users and my Photos are split between users. Can I move the photos from the older user account to the new user account and delete? I do not want to share the photo folders, I want to move them and then delete the older user.
Thank you for your time
Did you keep your photos in a Photos Library on your old Mac Mini? Or did you use iPhoto or Aperture, or another software to manage the photos on the old Mac?
If the photos are in any kind of Photo Library in the old user account, you should find a package called Photos Library.photoslibrary, or iPhoto Library.photolibrary, or Aperture Library.aplibrary in your Pictures folder.
The icon will be a fan of three pictures. Move this library to the folder /Users/Shared, not the complete Pictures folder.
Then sign into your new user account and move the "Photos Library.photoslibrary" from the folder /Users/Shared to the Pictures folder in your new home folder. If you already have a Photos Library there, rename it, so you do not overwrite it.
It would have been much easier, if you migrated your user account using Setup Assistent, immediately after you started up the new Mac the first time, before you created a new user account on the new Mac. The Photos Library from the old account, and all its internal files, will have the file ownership of the old user account, and the new user will not be able to open it directly. Before you can use it with Photos from the new account, the permissions and file ownership need to be repaired, not only for the library, but for all internal files as well. You can do that by repairing the library. See this Help page on how to repair a Photos Library: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/photos/repair-the-library-pht6be18f93/mac
You can switch between two separate libraries by double-clicking the library you want to open.
Photos has no tools to import one library into another library, bt there are work-arounds, see:
Did you keep your photos in a Photos Library on your old Mac Mini? Or did you use iPhoto or Aperture, or another software to manage the photos on the old Mac?
If the photos are in any kind of Photo Library in the old user account, you should find a package called Photos Library.photoslibrary, or iPhoto Library.photolibrary, or Aperture Library.aplibrary in your Pictures folder.
The icon will be a fan of three pictures. Move this library to the folder /Users/Shared, not the complete Pictures folder.
Then sign into your new user account and move the "Photos Library.photoslibrary" from the folder /Users/Shared to the Pictures folder in your new home folder. If you already have a Photos Library there, rename it, so you do not overwrite it.
It would have been much easier, if you migrated your user account using Setup Assistent, immediately after you started up the new Mac the first time, before you created a new user account on the new Mac. The Photos Library from the old account, and all its internal files, will have the file ownership of the old user account, and the new user will not be able to open it directly. Before you can use it with Photos from the new account, the permissions and file ownership need to be repaired, not only for the library, but for all internal files as well. You can do that by repairing the library. See this Help page on how to repair a Photos Library: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/photos/repair-the-library-pht6be18f93/mac
You can switch between two separate libraries by double-clicking the library you want to open.
Photos has no tools to import one library into another library, bt there are work-arounds, see:
You are logged into the Mac from the old user account?
You have to switch to the old user account you restored with Migration Assistent; log in using this old user account and drag the Photos Library.photoslibrary to the folder Users > Shared at the top level of your system drive. It has to be done while signed in as the old user, or you will not have the permissions to do that.
Thank you macjack. I shared the pictures folder on the old user, but when I log into the new user I can't find where to view the pictures from the shared file from the old user. I looked in Finder but I do not see the old users picture folder under the shared section. Do you know where I can see the pictures? And how should I copy them over to the Photos Library on the new user?
Thank you very much for your help
Thank you. When I go into the old account and try to share the pictures folder as described above, I can find the right path but the file with the fan of 3 pictures icon is greyed out. Research I do on-line seems to indicate part of the pictures file is corrupt. Do you know an easy work around to sharing a grey file?
Thank you very much for your help
You can move them into the Users/Shared folder, then into your new user.
Can I move photos between users?
