Compare 2 Photo Libraries Mac

  1. The Mac Photos app has a feature called Smart Albums, which are essentially saved searches that constantly update whenever you add new images to your library which meet the album’s criteria. Smart Albums can be incredibly useful for sorting your photos, especially if you have a massive collection, and it’s a feature that every Mac user.
  2. Fill your library, not your device. ICloud Photos can help you make the most of the space on your Mac. When you choose “Optimize Mac Storage,” all your full‑resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud in their original formats, with storage-saving versions kept on your Mac as space is needed.
  3. 1) Launch Photos while holding down the option key. 2) Select the main library from the list of available image libraries. 3) In Preferences, select the General tab. Make sure the library is the System Photo Library. 4) In Preferences, select the iCloud tab. Place a checkmark in the iCloud Photo Library box.

Having all your photos in one place is great, but sometimes you need to get a little more organized. By creating multiple photo libraries, you can separate - for example - work and personal photos. It’s simple to setup and although you can’t have two libraries open at the same time, it’s easy to switch between them.

Esa Ruoho has a 11,000-item iPhoto library and an Apple Photos library for OS X that comprises over 6,000 items: I just spent 6 hours combining three iPhoto Libraries (one on a MacBook Pro, one on.

In order to choose a new library, we need to quit the application. The shortcut for this is 'command-Q'.

Hold the option key on the keyboard (sometimes labeled as Alt) and click the Photos icon in the dock. This will launch a dialogue box that asks you to choose a library. You should see “Photos Library” (or whatever you might have named it when you set up Photos) as the only option.

Next to “Choose Library” you should see an option that reads “Create New…”. Click this and label your alternate library. For this example, I used “Work Photos”. The library will save in your Pictures folder by default, but if you put your regular Photos library in another location, you might want to put the alternate one in the same folder. Click OK to save and Photos opens with your new, empty library.

Now that you have multiple libraries set up, it’s easy to switch between them. There are two ways to do this:

  1. Quit Photos and hold the option key while re-opening Photos to open the choose library dialogue (which now should display both your main photo library as well as your alternate one).
  2. Double-click the Photos library directly from Finder, which launches photos with whichever library you selected. From here, you should be able to see the size of the library, indicating how much space it is taking up on your hard drive.
As previously mentioned, you can only have one Photos library open at a time. If you try to open one while another is already running, it will close it and open the one you selected. Be sure to check out our complete Photos for Mac Overview for more Photos for Mac tips!

To combine Photos libraries, open the source library and export the photos and videos that you want to keep. Then open the destination library (the one that you want to use as your main library) and import the photos and videos.

Choose a photo library

Here's how to open one of the multiple photo libraries that you might have on your Mac or on a connected external drive:

  1. Press and hold the Option key as you open the Photos app.
  2. Select the library that you want to open, then click Choose Library.
    Photos uses this library until you open a different one using the same steps.

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Export photos and videos from the source library

Open the source library, then decide whether you want to export your files as unmodified originals or edited versions:

Edited versions

Edited versions retain their edits when you import them. The advantage is that you don't have to recreate any edits; however, these files become the destination library's originals. This means that you can't revert to their earliest pre-import version.

Unmodified originals

Unmodified originals don't show any edits that you made when they were in the source library. This gives you flexibility for later editing, but recreating your edits might take substantial work.

How to export edited versions

  1. In the Photos app, select the photos and videos that you want to export. To select multiple items, press and hold the Command key while you click. To select a group of items in order, click the first one, then press and hold the Shift key while you click the last one. This selects all of the items between the two that you clicked. To select all of the items in your library, go to the Library tab > All Photos, select an item, then click Command-A.
  2. Choose File > Export > Export [number].
  3. An export dialog appears.
    • In the Photos section, set Photo Kind to JPEG, TIFF, or PNG. JPEG recompresses your photos, which may result in smaller file sizes. TIFF and PNG files are higher fidelity and may result in larger file sizes.
    • In the Videos section, choose a Movie Quality setting. This section appears only if your selected items include videos.
    • In the Info section, select the checkboxes if you want to preserve metadata and location data in the exported files.
    • In the File Naming section, set File Name to Use File Name and set Subfolder Format to either Moment Name or None. Moment Name creates a subfolder for each Moment that's represented in your selected items. This is useful if you'd like to create an Album in the destination library for each Moment. The None option exports all of the files directly into the destination folder.
  4. Click Export. A Finder dialog appears.
  5. Navigate to the location where you want to save the files, such as the Desktop or an external drive. Click New Folder if you create a new folder for your exported items.
  6. Click Export.

How to export unmodified originals

  1. In the Photos app, then select the photos and videos that you want to export. To select multiple items, press and hold the Command key while you click. To select a group of items in order, click the first one, then press and hold the Shift key while you click the last one. This selects all of the items between the two that you clicked. To select all of the items in your library, go to the Library tab > All Photos, select an item, then click Command-A.
  2. Choose File > Export > Export Unmodified Original.
  3. An export dialog appears.
    • If your photos include IPTC metadata (such as titles or keywords) that you want to keep, select the Export IPTC as XMP checkbox.
    • Leave the File Name setting on Use File Name.
    • Next to Subfolder Format, choose Moment Name or None. Moment Name creates a subfolder for each Moment that's represented in your selected items. This is useful if you'd like to create an Album in the destination library for each Moment. The None option exports all of the files directly into the destination folder.
  4. Click Export. A Finder dialog appears.
  5. Navigate to the location where you want to save the files, such as the Desktop or an external drive. Click New Folder if you create a new folder for your exported items.
  6. Click Export Originals.

How to export your edited photos

You can create a Smart Album to quickly identify your edited photos and export them.

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To create a Smart Album for edited images:

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  1. Choose File > New Smart Album.
  2. Choose Photo is [edited] from the Smart Album Criteria. The new Smart Album will appear at the top of the Albums list.
  3. Open the album and press the Command key-A to select all, then choose File > Export.

How to import photos and videos into the destination library

  1. In the Photos app, open the destination library and choose File > Import.
  2. In the Import window, navigate to the Finder folder that contains the photos and videos that you want to import.
  3. Select the photos and videos to import, then choose Review for Import.
  4. Click Import All New Photos.

Mass effect 2 gibbed save editor unlock armor. The photos in the folder are sorted based on their creation dates and locations. The videos are sorted based on the date you exported them from the source library.

If you created subfolders when you exported the items and you want to create an Album for each subfolder, follow these steps:

  1. In the Import window, select the folders you want to import as albums.
  2. Select the checkbox labeled 'Keep Folder Organization' in the upper right hand corner. The top level folder will be imported as a folder in Photos, and subfolders will be imported as albums.

Save space by deleting the source library

If you're sure that you've exported all of the photos and videos that you want to keep from the source library, you can delete it to save disk space on your Mac.

First, open the Finder and find the source library that you want to delete. By default, photo libraries are stored in your Pictures folder. If you can't find the library, follow the steps to choose a library; the path to the selected library's location appears in the Choose Library window.

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Next, move the source library to the Trash. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash to permanently delete the files.

2 Photo Libraries Mac

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