Merge Two Photo Libraries Mac

Nov 11, 2015 7 thoughts on “ How to quickly combine multiple Photos libraries in OS X ” Sylvain LE BOUCHER February 10, 2016 at 2:08 pm. Thanks a lot, finally a solution to merge my libraries quite easily. It just change the date of the video Do you have a solution to keep the date inchanged?

  1. Combine Multiple Photo Libraries Mac
  2. How To Merge Two Photo Libraries Macbook
  3. Combine Mac Photo Libraries
  4. How To Merge Two Photo Libraries Mac
  5. Free Stock Photo Libraries
  6. Combine Two Photo Libraries Mac
  • Jul 27, 2019 Rather than having multiple iTunes library which is disorganized and scattered across multiple computers, take a few minutes out of your day and merge iTunes library into one. Not only that but if you have more than just two iTunes libraries then you are able to merge them too! Simply merge them one at a time and all into the same place.
  • How can you take two photo libraries, one created for iPhoto and one for Photos, with duplicates removed and merge them? How to merge large iPhoto and Photos libraries. Export your 11,000.

Your Photos library holds all your photos, albums, slideshows, and print projects. If your library is large, and you want to free up storage space on your Mac, turn on iCloud Photo Library and use Optimize Mac Storage, or move your library to an external drive.

Before you start, be sure to back up your library.

Prepare your drive

You can store your library on an external storage device, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).1 Find out how to check the format of your external storage device.

To prevent data loss, Apple doesn't recommend storing photo libraries on external storage devices like SD cards and USB flash drives, or drives that are shared on a network.

Move your Photos library to an external storage device

  1. Quit Photos.
  2. In the Finder, go to the external drive where you want to store your library.
  3. In another Finder window, find your library. The default location is Users > [username] > Pictures, and it's named Photos Library.
  4. Drag your library to its new location on the external drive. If you see an error, select your external drive's icon in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info. If the information under Sharing & Permissions isn't visible, click , then make sure the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' checkbox is selected. If it's not selected, click to unlock it, enter an administrator name and password, then select the checkbox.2

  5. After the move is finished, double-click Photos Library in its new location to open it.
  6. If you use iCloud Photo Library, designate this library as the System Photo Library.

Delete original library to save space

After you open your library from its new location and make sure that it works as expected, you can delete the library from its original location.

In a Finder window, go back to your Pictures folder (or whichever folder you copied your library from) and move Photos Library to the trash. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash to delete the library and reclaim disk space.

Open another Photos library

If you have multiple libraries, here's how to open a different one:

  1. Quit Photos.
  2. Press and hold the Option key while you open Photos.
  3. Select the library that you want to open, then click Choose Library.

Photos uses this library until you open a different one.

Learn more

If you have a permissions issue with your library, you might be able to resolve the issue by using the Photos library repair tool.

1. You can't move your library to a disk that's used for Time Machine backups.

2. If the volume isn't formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or has been used for Time Machine backups but hasn't been erased, this checkbox will either not be present, or won't be selectable after unlocking. Erase and reformat the drive for this option to be available.

Combine Multiple Photo Libraries Mac

As of OS X Yosemite, Apple is encouraging everyone to use its new Photos program for managing pictures in OS X. While Photos has a number of pros and cons, it does share a limitation of its “iPhoto” predecessor, in that while it uses a library system for managing photos and offers an option to create multiple libraries, it can only have one open at a time. This means that if you wish to consolidate libraries, you might find yourself jumping through hoops; however, there is a relatively simple way to get this done.

First, the classic way of doing this would be to use an export/import option:

How To Merge Two Photo Libraries Macbook

  1. Open Photos while holding the Option key
  2. Select your desired Library to open
  3. Select all items and export them to a folder
  4. Quit and re-open Photos while holding the Option key
  5. Select a second library to open
  6. Import all of the items into this second library.
This approach will undoubtedly take a long time, and will require you essentially duplicate your library contents more than once to consolidate them import them all into the second library. While it may be doable for those with only a few libraries to manage, for those with a number of different libraries, the following approach may be more streamlined:
  1. Open Photos to load your current library (or open with the Option key held to choose a different or new library to use)
  2. Open the Terminal utility (in the Applications > Utilities folder)
  3. Type the following command, then hold the Option key immediately after pressing Enter to execute it:

Combine Mac Photo Libraries

When you do this, a second instance of the Photos application will open, and will request you select a library. Do this for a different library, and you will now have two Photos windows on your screen with different libraries open. Now you can select some or all the photos from one library, and drag them into the second Photos window to add them to that library. You can do this for individual photos, entire moments, or custom selections as you browse through your photos.

How To Merge Two Photo Libraries Mac

Note that copying in this manner may cause Photos to briefly hang and show your cursor as a spinning beachball, but do not interrupt the process. After a short while, your photos will be copied and show up in your second library. You will also see a notification that confirms the number of photos imported.

Free Stock Photo Libraries

This window will pop up if you held the Option key at the appropriate time when launching an instances of Photos (if not, then quit Photos and try again). Use it to select a photo library other than the one open in your primary instance of Photos.

When done, close the second instance of the Photos application, and then repeat the Terminal command (press the Up arrow to quickly load the previously-entered command–be sure to hold the Option key after pressing Enter), to load a new library and copy your files into your main library.

To begin moving your library, open iTunes, click File in the Menu Bar and select Library Organize Library Check the box that says Consolidate files and click OK. This will make sure all the. Oct 27, 2011  My Macbook is running out of space, I wonder if I can point my iTunes Library (Music, Videos) to Time Capsule. You can move the iTunes Library / Media Folder to the Time Capsule and 'point' iTunes to the new location. Move itunes library from mac to time capsule. Nov 18, 2014  Launch iTunes while holding down the Option key A dialog box will open, asking whether you want to 'Cancel', 'Create a new library', or 'Choose an Existing Library'. Select 'Choose Library', then navigate to where you moved the iTunes folder. Remember that.

Combine Two Photo Libraries Mac

One quick warning with this approach, is that you should not load the same library in two separate instances of Photos, as this may lead to conflicts in how data in the library is handled, and could corrupt the library. Therefore, just be sure you load separate libraries in separate instances of Photos, and you should be good to go.