Want to merge two iCloud photo libraries

Question

Want to merge two iCloud photo libraries

This is what I had previously read...

Merge the libraries in iCloud by uploading them to the same iCloud Photo Library: Merging in iCloud is the only way to preserve the master-version pairs, so you can revert edited photos to the original versions. Your albums and folders will migrate, keywords, titles, and other metadata. All edited images will be paired with their originals, so you can undo the edits and revert to the original. The searchable faces names will upload (only on Photos 1.5 or older, not on Photos 2.0), but not the faces thumbnails and albums. Photos will scan for duplicates while merging. It is the best way to migrate libraries you invested much work into, but uploading large libraries to iCloud requires a paid subscription for more storage than the free 5GB - for at least a month, and it is slow. My library with 40000 photos took a full week to upload.

To merge in iCloud enable the smaller of the two libraries as your iCloud Photo Library.
Wait for all photos to upload; that can take a very long time, a week ore more, depending on the size of the library. Photos will merge the the library into the library that is already in iCloud.
Now enable the larger library as your iCloud Photo Library. This library will be merged into the library in iCloud too, creating a merged library in iCloud. The merged library will sync back to your larger Photos Library. The merge will not include the Faces albums and projects from the first library you uploaded. That is why I recommend to start with the smaller library. The download will be like to a different Mac, see: Use Photos and iCloud Photo Library on multiple Mac computers - Apple Support
To sync the faces names with iCloud Photo Library, I apply keywords with the names of the persons to all photos in a people album.

Unfortunately it's still not that clear. "...enable the smaller of the two libraries as your iCloud photo Library." Whatever does that mean? Let's start there. Go!

Posted on Aug 20, 2018 4:03 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 23, 2018 8:01 AM in response to léonie

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I should have given you more information.

The two libraries are both on iCloud, but are attached to two separate Apple ID's. My Apple ID has one library, my wife's Apple ID has the other. Essentially we want to combine them both into my Apple ID library. I'm hoping the answer isn't to export her entire library onto a hard drive, then import those files into my library. It's my understanding that doing so will wipe out much of the metadata such as Live Photos, faces, GPS data, etc.

Any thoughts? The main reason we want to do this is to clean up the libraries by deleting duplicates and photos we don't want. She has 40,000 photos in hers. I have 30,000 photos in mine. There is likely lots of overlap. I don't want to have to go through each library and duplicate much of the work a second time.

Jason

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,457 points

Aug 22, 2018 5:40 AM in response to advantageellis

The advice you quoted refers to merging two libraries, if you are having two or more Photos Libraries on your Mac or on an external drive.

Then you can merge these libraries into one by opening one of the libraries, enabling it as an iCloud Photo Library, wait for all photos and videos to upload.

Then open the next library in Photos, turn on "Photo > Preferences < iCloud for this library an let the library upload to iCloud. Now wait for the merged library to download to your Mac.

Unfortunately it's still not that clear. "...enable the smaller of the two libraries as your iCloud photo Library." Whatever does that mean?

If you need two libraries to upload to iCloud and the merged library to download, it will be more economic to upload first the smaller of the two libraries. For example, if you have a library with 100GB of photos and a second library with 200GB, start with the 100GB Library to upload to iCloud. Then upload the 200GB Library. the merge library will download and be merged into the 200GB library. This will need less storage than merging into the 100GB library.

To get started:

Double click the smallest Photos Library you want to upload to iCloud Photo Library.
When the library opens, go to Photos > Preferences > General. Click "Use as System Photo Library". This option should be grayed ou.
Now go to Photos > Preferences > iCloud. Turn on "iCloud Photo Photo Library." If you have enough free storage, select "Download Originals to this Mac" to keep the original image files in your library.
Once the upload has finished , double click the next library to open in Photos. Select the same Photos preferences as before. Wait for the second library to upload and then to download to your Mac.

Do this with the Photos Libraries on a drive with plenty of storage for the merged library.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,457 points

Aug 23, 2018 1:38 PM in response to advantageellis

To merge the two libraries you need to move both libraries to the same user account, so you can open them in the same user account with the same AppleID and merge them into the same Photos Library by making them both the iCloud Photo Library, one after the other.

But after that, you can only open them in iCloud using the one AppleID.

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Want to merge two iCloud photo libraries

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