Merge Mac Os Photo Libraries

24-05-2021
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How to Merge iPhoto Libraries in Photos for OS X? But, you can create a separate Photo library and import your second library into that. To do so, hold down 'Option' key when launching the program. Open 'iPhoto' on your Mac. Select all photos and choose 'Export' option. 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.

I'd like to merge two macOS Photos libraries into one, with the ability to weed out duplicates during the process.

I just sold an old Mac and moved its Photos library onto another Mac with its own existing Photos library. Now I want to merge these two libraries into a single one.
PowerPhotos advertises itself as being able to merge libraries, but in practice it has a non-intuitive interface, and when you dig into its spotty documentation you see misspelled caveats like 'this is sligtly tricky.'
What's a better solution? Thanks!
(I've backed up both Photos libraries to an external drive in case everything goes completely sideways.)
posted by bassomatic to Computers & Internet (5 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
I just imported the second library into the first and then deduped afterwards using a (totally worth it) Duplicate Photo Fixer Pro. Is there a reason you don't want to two step this?
posted by jessamyn at 11:08 AM on November 1, 2017

Can totally two-step it and merge libraries before de-duping! But how did you import the first library into the second? (Hope it's okay to threadsit and answer specific Qs.)
posted by bassomatic at 11:19 AM on November 1, 2017

Merge Photo Libraries Mac Os


https://www.macworld.com/article/2909654/software-photography/how-to-import-merge-and-consolidate-your-libraries-in-photos-for-os-x.html
posted by humboldt32 at 11:29 AM on November 1, 2017
Merge two photo libraries mac
Yeah I think I did this using iPhoto so my step-by-step is probably not useful but the link humboldt32 offers seems like it will work.
posted by jessamyn at 1:33 PM on November 1, 2017

Wrapping this one up: I ended up using PowerPhotos and succeeded in merging my two libraries through a bit of trial and error. It worked, but if any developers are reading this - there's a real opportunity for someone to create a better way of doing it!
posted by bassomatic at 2:29 PM on November 12, 2017

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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:

Merge Mac Os Photo Libraries Download

  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:How
  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:

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.

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.

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.

Merge 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.