- Can I Merge Two Photos Libraries
- How To Merge Two Photos Libraries On Mac
- How To Merge Two Photos Libraries
To combine Photos libraries, export the photos from a previous library or library you no longer want to use, then import the photos to your primary library. Export photos from your library Press and hold the Option key as you open the Photos app. View Multiple Document Libraries together. I have a large repository of media files on O365 Sharepoint Online (about 30, 000 pictures), they were separated by year to be in separate Picture Library's by year so we would not have to deal with the 5000 item view threshold. Stardew valley save editor. We should be able to to merge viewing the libraries using a ' Data View.
Sync a Photo Library across Devices
- It helps you to create and manage multiple libraries, copy photos between libraries, find duplicates, and — most important for this topic — merge libraries. Because PowerPhotos is working entirely on your Mac’s drive, it’s fast and it doesn’t require huge amounts of extra disk space.
- Photo is not at all my photography main app but it comes handy at importing off of the iPhone, I just figured it out that on my backup MacBookAir I have two Photo libraries and was trying to find out how to merge them in a single one as to save space (there probably are doubles) and to create less confusion.
If you use Photos and have more than one Apple device, you may want your entire Photos library to appear on all of them. Thanks to iCloud Photo Library, this is now possible, and it’s what I describe in this chapter. (To learn about My Photo Stream, which sync only recent photos among your devices, see the previous chapter, Sync Photos and Videos across Devices.)
With iCloud Photo Library, you have just one photo library, which is stored in the cloud; your individual Macs and iOS devices can store copies of all those photos (space permitting), optionally optimized to use less storage—with full-resolution originals available for download on demand. Any edits or organizational changes sync across all your devices, too (with some qualifications; see What Doesn’t Sync). One catch is that depending on the size of your library, you may have to pay Apple for additional iCloud storage. (For more details and tips, see my TidBITS article iCloud Photo Library: The Missing FAQ.)
Unfortunately, Apple currently offers no good way for two or more people to keep their photo libraries in sync with each other, whether they’re using the same Mac (with different user accounts) or different Macs. iCloud Family Sharing (see Share Family Photos), iCloud Photo Sharing, and third-party tools (discussed in this chapter) can partially address this problem, but with numerous qualifications.
Sync Your Photos Library
To enable iCloud Photo Library:
- iOS: Tap Settings > iCloud > Photos and make sure iCloud Photo Library is on.
OS X: In Photos, go to Photos > Preferences > iCloud and select iCloud Photo Library ①.
- To keep all your originals on the device (space permitting), leave Download Originals to this Mac (OS X) or Download and Keep Originals (iOS) selected.
Alternatively, select Optimize Device Storage to keep smaller versions of the photos on your device to save space—the app downloads larger versions as needed.
Once you’ve done this on each device, photo libraries will begin syncing with each other. Fl studio program. You can also view, upload, or download iCloud Photo Library photos in the Photos Web app on the iCloud Web site.
What Doesn’t Sync
Mayhem manor game 1990s. Per this Apple support article, certain kinds of metadata don’t sync across devices when using iCloud Photo Library:
Can I Merge Two Photos Libraries
- Books, cards, and calendars
- Slideshows
- Keyword shortcuts and unused keywords
- The Last Import album
- Faces tiles and Faces data
Other Photos Library Syncing Options
iCloud Photo Library is the best way to sync all your photos between Macs, but there are other ways to approach the task, each with its own limitations:
- Sync user-created albums:SyncMate can sync various kinds of data between Macs, including Photos albums. But the app can sync only individual, user-created albums—not smart albums or entire libraries.
- Merge libraries:PowerPhotos lets you merge two Photos libraries (even from two different users) into a new library, maintaining albums and most metadata (see exceptions) while eliminating duplicates. Alas, this is a one-shot, manual process. It won’t keep two libraries in sync; if they diverge, you must manually merge them again.
Note: Although there are ways to do some of these things with iPhoto, they’re more complicated and less reliable. Since Apple is no longer distributing iPhoto, I don’t cover it in this book.
How To Merge Two Photos Libraries On Mac
Share Libraries with Others
I said Apple currently offers no good way for two people to share the same complete Photos library, but there is a way to sort of do it, as described on this Apple support page (the instructions are for iPhoto but they work for Photos too.) The workaround involves working from an external drive that other users can also access.
This method has two key limitations:
- Apple recommends against using network storage, because it can lead to (among other problems) corruption and data loss. Putting it on an external drive—and, presumably, shuttling the drive between users—should work.
- Only one user can have a given library open at a time. If you try to open a library someone else is using, you’ll get an error message.
In other words, this technique works reasonably well for sharing a library across user accounts on a single Mac, but poorly for any other scenario.
Tip: To learn much more about iCloud’s photo syncing and sharing features, read my book Take Control of iCloud.
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