How timely! I'm just about to import all the photos on my '07 iMac to my '14 iMac, in preparation for getting a new 16" Macbook Pro, which will then get them all (backed up, of course). Thanks Gary.
Gary, your videos are extremelly useful! Thank you for taking the time to explain it to us. I use iCloud on my iPhone to backup the photos. As I have too many pictures I can't keep all of them in the cloud, as it would be too expensive for my liking. Therefore I am currently sorting out everything to apply following structure: 1) Have one archive library with all my pictures sorted in specific albums, this one is on an external drive, I access it via Mac mini, I will from time to time make a copy into a 2nd external backup. Currently it contains all my pictures until 2023 2) use one system library for daily usage with phone and with cloud storage and backup. cThis one will contain all recent pictures that haven't yet been archived (2024) + only favorites from previous years. How do I best import the 2024 picture into my main archive library? My plan is once all pictures are stored into the archive library, I will create a copy, delete everything except favorites and configure this new clean library as my daily system library. Therefore I can start again for 2025 with only my 2025 picture and have my favorites only always available. So my question is how do I merge the two libraries from time to time to keep the archive all in one place. Thank you!
There's no "good" way to do what you want. I would never set it up like this, so I really don't have any advice for you. I suppose if the way you are doing it now works for you, then great.
I understand that you very politely would advise against such an approach. May I ask for the reasoning beyond? . And how would you rather set it up? Do you ahve a recommendation or a video covering how do your sort you personal pictures? I like the highlight from past years showing nice memories. But I can t afford having my complete picture collection in the cloud as I have over 20000 pictures.
@@juledeloys5875 I just have everything in one iCloud Photos Library. Simple, easy and very powerful. 1. It makes working with your photos much more difficult and organizing too. You'd need to be switching libraries all the time. Want that photo of you by that waterfall in that park? When was it taken? Switch back and forth. Want to use it and a photo in the other library together, more work switching. Always switching. 2. It removes maybe the best feature of Photos, and perhaps the entire Apple ecosystem for me: having all my photos with me all the time. I have them on my Mac, my iPhone, my iPad, my MacBook. I see a family member and I want to show them the photo I took of us 10 years before, here it is... I have twice as many photos as you, FWIW. I find iCloud Photos worth every penny to make my photo organization easy and having them with me always. If money was tighter for me, there are a lot of other things I would give up before I would get to iCloud Photos. $2.99/month gets you 200GB which should covert 20,000 photos easily. But I realize that not everyone is the same and wants the same things from their tech. So if what you are doing works now, as I said before. then great. But expect to have to make compromises, like having to switch libraries and export+import from one to the other regularly, etc.
Thank you for the wonderful tips on importing sub folders and keeping the folder structure in photos. But for all its powerful import features, I really wish it would have filtering abilities so you can import only videos, or only raw files, etc.
Thank you for your advice - useful as always. I have been recently occurring issues while importing photos from my iPhone to my Mac.When I connect the iPhone to the Mac, Photos application launches. However in the import view I sometimes see photos which have been imported long time ago (as if they were not imported at all) or sometimes I don't see any photos :(
Another way to move photos from your phone to your Mac is by using Air Drop. I then import the photos that are air dropped into your Mac's Download folder. I did not realize, however, you could transfer photos by connecting the phone to the Mac.
Hi Gary, thank you for this very helpful video while I navigate learning the Photos app on Mac. When importing a locally saved folder into the Photos app with the box ticked to "Keep Folder Organization" (just like you explain at 4:38) , does Photos create a duplicate copy of all the photos I imported in the Photos library in the Mac hard drive or does the Photos app just rely on the original source folder that has the files? I would like to avoid duplication and be able to secondary click a photo in the photo app and see "Show Reference File in Finder" for quick file access (since photos were imported from local hard drive).
It is "Copy items to the Photos Library" that controls this. With that on, a copy is made in the library. With it off, the original is relied upon. But note you can't use that with iCloud Photos.
What If I have my fotos on an external drive and I imported them by leaving them in the original place (checkbox in preferences) . How can I import fotos from my iPhone and save them to the same external path like the others are?
That will become a chore. You'd need to use Image Capture on your Mac to grab them and manually place them on that drive. Then import them into Photos. See,s like a lot of work to have LESS functionality than just doing things normally using iCloud.
Hi Gary, many thanks for the helpful video. I am working on bringing my entire collection of photos (hundreds of thousands) into photos, are there any issues with lag or slow down if the photos library gets too big?
Very helpful, thank you. Though, I have a further question: I want to save a photo received via WhatApp (an app on my computer) into Photos -- is there an easy way to do this?
very useful info. I need help changing meta data of photos so when i import to icloud they organize correctly, they currently only have the correct dates in the file name and the creation date and meta data date is the day they were downloaded and not correct, any advice?
Ok, I have 5000+ photos to import. I want them on my portable La Cie 2TB drive (not on my Mac 🖥) Can I select the (Apple) sub-folders like ‘live’, videos, recent etc … only? I want to move all photos, except for ‘screenshots’ (I do not use cloud, nor stream.) Manually deleting photos sucks. It’s soooo time consuming. I have put this project off for so long but I’m finally conquering it. Massive help from watching your videos Gary, I’d be lost without you!
hey does the import function in apple photos on the mac support transferring live photos from an iphone? also does all metadata remain the same (dates, location, etc…). thanks and kudos for the video
Hi Gary- so grateful I have found your page, recently just moved over to the mac side instead of windows! On this subject, I have trying to import from my sony camera, and whilst the photos all show up and importing is an option, it says "importing 5/10" for example then once it finishes it just stops, and the videos do not appear in my imports. Do you any idea why they are not importing when they say they are? Getting more and more frustrated haha thank you! Tilly
Privacy and Security: Apple Photos will show all image files on your device as thumbnails “Already Imported” and “New”. They also show in the list under Imports under Utilities, forever, unless you select and hide them. Am I missing something? This seems a casual approach by Apple. Can you Clear All or Select and remove images from the Imports page?
Thanks so much! One question is nagging me: how can I import (with the File Import feature you explained) images with an xmp sidecar? I got the sidecar by exporting from another library (I have several libraries, but need/want to move some images including metadata between albums). Or maybe there is another way to load the original images with metadata ( not the transcoded jpgs) from one library to another? Thanks!
@@macmost Thank you so much for your quick responce! I thought I was not getting something straight. In my mind it sounded a gread idea to detach every past year's photos (organised into albums) into a largerer library living in my external hard drive. What a dissapointment to get a dead end here.. I really hope apple will include this detail into some update.. Thank's again Gary you saved me lots of time!
Thankyou! One thing I don’t understand is how do you avoid having loads of pictures in the import folder? I tried deleting them from import but they all deleted from the folders I had put them in.. is this avoidable?
I enjoyed your video Gary. Can you tell me why Mac Ventura 13.1 shows DUPLICATE photos for all my single photos in my Canon camera which I connected directly by USB. This occurs in all Mac apps (Preview, Image Capture and Photos). Do you know how to fix this? I am new to Mac. Thank you.
Actually Lightroom unreliability with big database and import issues with double photos really freaked me out and I switched over to Apple Photos for the biggest part of the photos which I do not need to adjust so much.
Thank you for this. It was very helpful! I do have a question: Is there any way to know the status of an import that is taking place, like some sort of indicator? When I start the import I don't see an indicator telling me that it is even working. I just have to wait and see if it happens.
When I called Apple for assistance, the Apple representative told me that dragging photos in and out of Photos is not as good as using Import and Export. He said you might lose some of the photo data by dragging photos as opposed to using Import and Export. I don't know if that is true but I have stuck to using Import and Export.
Exporting sucks because you have time choose between exporting the original unmodified file or the edited version. You lose your edit history metadata :( Import is nice but sometimes it skips some photos but it doesn’t tell you which ones so good luck figuring out which photos are missing :( PowerPhotos keeps all the metadata & shows you exactly which photos it had trouble importing or merging :D
Hi Gary and thanks for sharing this useful video! Could you please tell me if there's a way to change the location of where the Photos App stores all the photos? For example, to move it from a default place to another bigger hard drive. Thank you again! Paul.
@@macmost Gary, thanks for your reply! Can I just move that file (which is located in Home directory / Pictures / An icon with flower) to anywhere I want?
@@paul9034 More or less. Quit Photos first. Then copy the library "file" to your external drive. Then hold Option and launch Photos. Then select the new library. Check to make sure it is all there before doing anything to the original. Also, if you are using iCloud Photos then before you do anything else go to Photos, Preferences, General and be sure to set the new library as your "System Library" so iCloud continues to work with it.
Photos in the Movie app? You mean you added them to the timeline but then removed them from the timeline and now want to add them back? Look under Project Media, or below that in Events.
A 2022 iMac has several USB-C ports. USB-C has become the standard for both USB and Thunderbolt connections over the last few years. See ua-cam.com/video/kjuWZM_eK7c/v-deo.html
@ i cant find all the pics that i already airdropped, im not importing yet, and i accidently closed the photos app but when i open the photos app again, the import file that contain all the airdropped pics is gone, but somehow i found some the airdropped pics at the “recent”when i click the apple logo at the corner, but still cant find the whole docs, anyway thank you for your respond!
I have 1 photo on my iPhone, that seem impossible to import. gone through the selection and import etc. a dozen times, and still wont show up on my iMac photos album. Driving me mad.
@@macmost I transfer videos from various cameras to Mac. They go into 1 folder. I use finder saved searches to organize the files. But Photo app has some features I would like to use, such as location data. So I would like to import the videos automatically as soon as they get added to the folder on the Mac (as a reference not the actual file). (Thanks btw for the finder saved search tutorial and the great Numbers tutorials, very usefu!l)
@@echtesnorwegen Interesting workflow. I don't think you'll be able to automate that step though. You'll need to drag and drop them into Photos. No way around that I can think of.
hi, can ask for help.. i upload my photos in macbook photos now it has around 16k photos while my iphone only says have 13k photos. also the macbook photos have this note at the bottom "Restoring from iCloud" but its almost half a day but still the same.
Thank you for a great video, Could anyone help me ? When I import my photos from my canon camera to my Mac they appear in random order and not the time order they were taken, however when I import from my iPhone or iPad they appear in time order. Is there a way I can import my canon photo's in order? I'd be so grateful for anyones help :) xx
@@macmost I am viewing them in the library , i firstly imported them by the SD card but then purchased a lead to import them that way as I wondered if that was the problem. As I was importing my Apple products with a cable and they were in order. It’s just I take around 200 stock photos at a time for my work and it’s difficult to find them when they are mixed up. I’ve searched google and there’s no answer? Could it possibly be my camera? It’s a canon powershot sx430 ? I’m so very grateful to you for taking time out of your day to reply as I’m sure you’re very busy 😊
@@emmadomachowski973 Sorry, I don't know what you are dealing with here. If you are viewing them in Library, All Photos then they should be in order by date according to the metadata in the photo, unless you have changed the date specifically for a photo in the app.
@@macmost That part I understand. But what if the file you are trying to import exists in the library already, but the source you are now trying to import from, wasn't the original source of the library file? I'm probably not doing a good job explaining my question.
Yes. Just like I show here. Connect your iPhone and import. Note that you don't need a paid iPhone subscription to use iCloud Photos. The "paid" part just gets you more storage. If you have a small number of photos, then you don't need to pay anything.
@@macmost Thank you for the reply. I meant to say...Is there a way to select "import only videos", since the photos get automatically imported via iCloud "My photostream" album? The basic, default plan (5 GB) won't import videos automatically as it does with the photos, so I have to hardwire via USB in order to extract or backup the videos from the iPhone to the iMac. Going back to the question... I won't import videos automatically at less you select them manually.
Turn on iCloud Photos for your MacBook and also on your other devices. Give it time to upload and merge those libraries. Now you should see the same photos from ONE library on all three of your devices and they will stay in sync since they are really looking at the same library. ua-cam.com/video/zalXTBzpNI8/v-deo.html
@@macmost yeah there are new things daily, that sounds too often. My battery is old and too much wifi use drains battery quick. If only it would upload actual iPhone camera photos and not every image in the library.
Since iCloud photos isn’t a backup what is the best way - after putting every single photo into Photos on my MacBook - to then back them up in case of a crash? I have all my photos in Dropbox but it would be nice if Photos automatically imported them each time I add them to Dropbox.
Page? Do you mean the video? Perhaps you are streaming it over a slow connection? You can go to the settings at the bottom of the video and change the resolution to 720 or higher.
I am not able to import photos that I took with Samsung Galaxy S22+. I transfered all the photos to a SSD and I can open and view all the photos on my Mac - but when I drag the photos into Photos app after creating a dedicated album, it gives an error for all the photos and not even import a single photo. Not sure what's wrong
Just use iCloud Photos. Then the photos will stay in sync between devices. Otherwise, you can connect it and sync your photos to your iPhone manually like always.
They will be saved in your Photos Library. It is up to you whether you want to delete them from your iPhone. In most cases someone would be using iCloud Photos between an iPhone and Mac which means you don't need to import at all, and your photos are always visible across both devices. Much simpler, and nothing to "do" at all.
Make sure you only import the new ones as I show here. Also, if you are already using iCloud Photos, then there is no need to import at all. They will sync automatically. Importing will just give you a second copy. Plus if you use the old Photo Stream feature, you'd get a copy that way too. Turn off Photo Stream and just use iCloud Photos, no import.
@@macmost Appreciate the reply! Correct, I am only importing new photos and am not using iCloud or Photo Stream, just USB. It's only some photos that duplicate (and multiple times), most don't, and there's no obvious pattern. 😕 Maybe a bug???
@@macmost Thank you so much! May I do what you told me and export unmodified original, and what should I choose for subfolder format? Should I check the " Export IPTC as XMP?
@@catlove6332 Choose whiter option you want for subfolder format. That's up to you. As for the XMP, do you need that? (If you don't know what it is, then the answer is no).
@@macmost Thank you! How to not show the hidden photos in my iPhone in Macbook photo app when browsing iPhone photos on Macbook before reporting the other unhidden photos ? It's always bothers me.
@@catlove6332 I'm not following you. If you hide photos in your iCloud Photos Library, then they should be hidden on all devices. Is maybe one of your devices using an older version of its respective OS?
After years of use of Android products i recently moved to Apple products. I have easily 100k pictures/photos and about 50k of them moved from Google Photos to IPhotos. In the process of moving them over, I keep getting new duplicates, various pictures won’t transfer and run out of space on my MAC. So it would be nice to know which photos have not been transferred and only attempt to move them. So the import feature you showed us in this video has a list of which have been sync and which ones are new and will delete them off the drive as transferred. So my question is there a good way to sync and delete as I transfer pictures/videos from google photos. My ultimate goal is to have all photos/videos/files moved to ICloud and backed up to external drives. A lot of the videos I seen help with someone with a few hundred photos but thousands is frustrating. The other issue I have is they are out of order. The new pictures I take are in order based on date but the old ones are in order based on time they were imported. Any suggestions? Maybe you can setup a google photos account to help us newbies out. Thank you for your great and easy to follow content.
@@macmostAnother thought I had is if the method in the video won’t work well importing photos from google photos; are there any good services or apps that might make this an automated transfer and delete them from google as they transfer successfully?
@@Upsidedownfoodpyramid Sorry, I don't know what sort of issues you ran into when doing your import. Maybe work first to export everything from Google Photos to files. And once you are satisfied with those files, then import them into a fresh empty Photos library. Hard to suggest anything more specific without knowing exactly what you have going on. Good luck with it.
Currently finding this video very useful as I am adding all of my photo files from an EHD to Photos. However, when I import multiple folders from the external hard drive Photos puts them into individual "folders" instead of "Albums". What am I doing wrong? HEEEEELLLLPPP please. Once I get this figured out, this trick will save me days of time. Currently I am importing every file one at a time ;(
The iPhone photo import is great but when you tag faces on iPhone library Desktop photos app doesn’t import those names into the desktop photo library. So we have to re-tagged all the faces again.
You’re the best, Gary. Thanks for all you do for us.
How timely! I'm just about to import all the photos on my '07 iMac to my '14 iMac, in preparation for getting a new 16" Macbook Pro, which will then get them all (backed up, of course). Thanks Gary.
I can hardly think of a video where I didn't find something which was immediately useful to me! Thank you, Gary.
Gary, this has been one of my favorites. So useful!
Gary, you're great. Clarity is a virtue (especially these days).
Gary, your videos are extremelly useful! Thank you for taking the time to explain it to us. I use iCloud on my iPhone to backup the photos. As I have too many pictures I can't keep all of them in the cloud, as it would be too expensive for my liking. Therefore I am currently sorting out everything to apply following structure: 1) Have one archive library with all my pictures sorted in specific albums, this one is on an external drive, I access it via Mac mini, I will from time to time make a copy into a 2nd external backup. Currently it contains all my pictures until 2023 2) use one system library for daily usage with phone and with cloud storage and backup. cThis one will contain all recent pictures that haven't yet been archived (2024) + only favorites from previous years. How do I best import the 2024 picture into my main archive library? My plan is once all pictures are stored into the archive library, I will create a copy, delete everything except favorites and configure this new clean library as my daily system library. Therefore I can start again for 2025 with only my 2025 picture and have my favorites only always available. So my question is how do I merge the two libraries from time to time to keep the archive all in one place. Thank you!
There's no "good" way to do what you want. I would never set it up like this, so I really don't have any advice for you. I suppose if the way you are doing it now works for you, then great.
I understand that you very politely would advise against such an approach. May I ask for the reasoning beyond? . And how would you rather set it up? Do you ahve a recommendation or a video covering how do your sort you personal pictures? I like the highlight from past years showing nice memories. But I can t afford having my complete picture collection in the cloud as I have over 20000 pictures.
@@juledeloys5875 I just have everything in one iCloud Photos Library. Simple, easy and very powerful.
1. It makes working with your photos much more difficult and organizing too. You'd need to be switching libraries all the time. Want that photo of you by that waterfall in that park? When was it taken? Switch back and forth. Want to use it and a photo in the other library together, more work switching. Always switching.
2. It removes maybe the best feature of Photos, and perhaps the entire Apple ecosystem for me: having all my photos with me all the time. I have them on my Mac, my iPhone, my iPad, my MacBook. I see a family member and I want to show them the photo I took of us 10 years before, here it is...
I have twice as many photos as you, FWIW. I find iCloud Photos worth every penny to make my photo organization easy and having them with me always. If money was tighter for me, there are a lot of other things I would give up before I would get to iCloud Photos. $2.99/month gets you 200GB which should covert 20,000 photos easily.
But I realize that not everyone is the same and wants the same things from their tech. So if what you are doing works now, as I said before. then great. But expect to have to make compromises, like having to switch libraries and export+import from one to the other regularly, etc.
Thanks! I never knew what the "keep file organization" was for.
Thank you for the wonderful tips on importing sub folders and keeping the folder structure in photos. But for all its powerful import features, I really wish it would have filtering abilities so you can import only videos, or only raw files, etc.
Thank you for your advice - useful as always. I have been recently occurring issues while importing photos from my iPhone to my Mac.When I connect the iPhone to the Mac, Photos application launches. However in the import view I sometimes see photos which have been imported long time ago (as if they were not imported at all) or sometimes I don't see any photos :(
This has been happening to me for years! My library is full of duplicated photos, no update has solved this so far :(
Another way to move photos from your phone to your Mac is by using Air Drop. I then import the photos that are air dropped into your Mac's Download folder. I did not realize, however, you could transfer photos by connecting the phone to the Mac.
Air Drop is extremely fast in my experience.
Wow - you were right that last one was new to me!
Watching this video before a big Google Photos exodus has saved me a massive amount of time, thanks Gary!
I have learned a new trick! Thanks, Gary.
Great tutorial 👍👍
Your directions are so clear ( I’m French 😊) Merci! Thank you for this video 😊
Hi Gary, thank you for this very helpful video while I navigate learning the Photos app on Mac. When importing a locally saved folder into the Photos app with the box ticked to "Keep Folder Organization" (just like you explain at 4:38) , does Photos create a duplicate copy of all the photos I imported in the Photos library in the Mac hard drive or does the Photos app just rely on the original source folder that has the files? I would like to avoid duplication and be able to secondary click a photo in the photo app and see "Show Reference File in Finder" for quick file access (since photos were imported from local hard drive).
It is "Copy items to the Photos Library" that controls this. With that on, a copy is made in the library. With it off, the original is relied upon. But note you can't use that with iCloud Photos.
What If I have my fotos on an external drive and I imported them by leaving them in the original place (checkbox in preferences) . How can I import fotos from my iPhone and save them to the same external path like the others are?
That will become a chore. You'd need to use Image Capture on your Mac to grab them and manually place them on that drive. Then import them into Photos. See,s like a lot of work to have LESS functionality than just doing things normally using iCloud.
thx!! Do you know how to fix when your photos is only showing imports?
In the left sidebar, select what you see. Instead of Imports, select Library at the top.
Hi Gary, many thanks for the helpful video. I am working on bringing my entire collection of photos (hundreds of thousands) into photos, are there any issues with lag or slow down if the photos library gets too big?
It is built for big libraries. Not sure at hundreds-of-thousands, and it probably depends on processor and drive speed.
Is it possble, in Numbers, to have a column like LOCATION, and then have the row with a drop down menu to choose from a list of locations? thanks.
Not sure what this has to do with the Photos Import feature.. You can create a pop-up menu cell in Numbers, yes. It is a format type.
@@macmost Sorry it was off subject, but thanks for the help, you are the Mac genius!
Gary you must have quit your day job to come up with ALL these tips. Your tips are the Best. Thanks SO MUCH!
Very helpful, thank you. Though, I have a further question: I want to save a photo received via WhatApp (an app on my computer) into Photos -- is there an easy way to do this?
I don't use WhatsApp so I don't know what the options are. You'll have to explore the app to see what is available.
very useful info. I need help changing meta data of photos so when i import to icloud they organize correctly, they currently only have the correct dates in the file name and the creation date and meta data date is the day they were downloaded and not correct, any advice?
Are you sure? Usually the meta data is correct, but the file date is not. Check by opening one in Preview, and view the Exif info there.
Hi Gary, could you do a video on how to export pic and videos to an external drive
Just drag and drop, or use File, Export.
Ok, I have 5000+ photos to import. I want them on my portable La Cie 2TB drive (not on my Mac 🖥)
Can I select the (Apple) sub-folders like ‘live’, videos, recent etc … only?
I want to move all photos, except for ‘screenshots’
(I do not use cloud, nor stream.)
Manually deleting photos sucks. It’s soooo time consuming.
I have put this project off for so long but I’m finally conquering it. Massive help from watching your videos Gary, I’d be lost without you!
hey does the import function in apple photos on the mac support transferring live photos from an iphone? also does all metadata remain the same (dates, location, etc…). thanks and kudos for the video
Hi Gary- so grateful I have found your page, recently just moved over to the mac side instead of windows! On this subject, I have trying to import from my sony camera, and whilst the photos all show up and importing is an option, it says "importing 5/10" for example then once it finishes it just stops, and the videos do not appear in my imports. Do you any idea why they are not importing when they say they are? Getting more and more frustrated haha thank you! Tilly
Privacy and Security:
Apple Photos will show all image files on your device as thumbnails “Already Imported” and “New”. They also show in the list under Imports under Utilities, forever, unless you select and hide them.
Am I missing something? This seems a casual approach by Apple.
Can you Clear All or Select and remove images from the Imports page?
The Imports list is just a convenience. You don't need to use it. It is just a reference showing you what your imported and when.
Thanks so much!
One question is nagging me: how can I import (with the File Import feature you explained) images with an xmp sidecar? I got the sidecar by exporting from another library (I have several libraries, but need/want to move some images including metadata between albums).
Or maybe there is another way to load the original images with metadata ( not the transcoded jpgs) from one library to another? Thanks!
Not sure. Have never worked with XMP before.
How do you choose between two similar photos on such a small preview screen? Is there any preview shortkey I don't know about on the import window?
Not sure and can't try it right now. Try spacebar. But otherwise, why not just import both and then delete one later if you think you may not need it.
@@macmost that totally makes sense 😄
still don't know how to move a photo from the library into an existing folder
Thank you so much for your help! New to Mac and you made it so easy to understand. God bless
Hello Gary, great work. It is possible to merge two photos library with albums? Thanks
Not easily, no.
Hi Gary! I'm new with a Mac. Can I delete photos out of the import folder without them being deleted out of the Library folder?
No. The Imports list is just a convenient way to see what was imported and when.
Gary, would it be possible to import another library with its folders/albums? I tryied but the albums and folders were not visible. Thanks!
No, you can't do that. You can only easily import individual photos, not merge whole libraries.
@@macmost Thank you so much for your quick responce! I thought I was not getting something straight. In my mind it sounded a gread idea to detach every past year's photos (organised into albums) into a largerer library living in my external hard drive. What a dissapointment to get a dead end here.. I really hope apple will include this detail into some update.. Thank's again Gary you saved me lots of time!
You are the best! TQSM!
Thankyou! One thing I don’t understand is how do you avoid having loads of pictures in the import folder? I tried deleting them from import but they all deleted from the folders I had put them in.. is this avoidable?
I enjoyed your video Gary. Can you tell me why Mac Ventura 13.1 shows DUPLICATE photos for all my single photos in my Canon camera which I connected directly by USB. This occurs in all Mac apps (Preview, Image Capture and Photos). Do you know how to fix this? I am new to Mac. Thank you.
Not sure what you mean. Shows what exactly, and where?
Actually Lightroom unreliability with big database and import issues with double photos really freaked me out and I switched over to Apple Photos for the biggest part of the photos which I do not need to adjust so much.
Thank you for this. It was very helpful! I do have a question: Is there any way to know the status of an import that is taking place, like some sort of indicator? When I start the import I don't see an indicator telling me that it is even working. I just have to wait and see if it happens.
Not sure. I thought you see the progress at the top in the toolbar somewhere. Not easy for me to test.
When I called Apple for assistance, the Apple representative told me that dragging photos in and out of Photos is not as good as using Import and Export. He said you might lose some of the photo data by dragging photos as opposed to using Import and Export. I don't know if that is true but I have stuck to using Import and Export.
Exporting sucks because you have time choose between exporting the original unmodified file or the edited version. You lose your edit history metadata :(
Import is nice but sometimes it skips some photos but it doesn’t tell you which ones so good luck figuring out which photos are missing :(
PowerPhotos keeps all the metadata & shows you exactly which photos it had trouble importing or merging :D
Hi Gary and thanks for sharing this useful video! Could you please tell me if there's a way to change the location of where the Photos App stores all the photos? For example, to move it from a default place to another bigger hard drive. Thank you again! Paul.
Yes, you can move the whole library to another location. You can put Photos libraries anywhere you like.
@@macmost Gary, thanks for your reply! Can I just move that file (which is located in Home directory / Pictures / An icon with flower) to anywhere I want?
@@paul9034 More or less. Quit Photos first. Then copy the library "file" to your external drive. Then hold Option and launch Photos. Then select the new library. Check to make sure it is all there before doing anything to the original. Also, if you are using iCloud Photos then before you do anything else go to Photos, Preferences, General and be sure to set the new library as your "System Library" so iCloud continues to work with it.
@@macmost Gary, thank you so much again for your reply - this helps a lot!
please tell me how to find the imported photos in iMovie app overall good info
Photos in the Movie app? You mean you added them to the timeline but then removed them from the timeline and now want to add them back? Look under Project Media, or below that in Events.
What USB port on my 2022 iMac? I don't see one. I have three USB ports Apple says are USB but they are not standard USB ports.
A 2022 iMac has several USB-C ports. USB-C has become the standard for both USB and Thunderbolt connections over the last few years. See ua-cam.com/video/kjuWZM_eK7c/v-deo.html
Thanks as always
Wow!
Hi nice vid! i need help that i forgot to click the import button at the corner, how can i find the file to import all the picture,:((
Not sure what you mean. If you forgot to click the Import button, what's stopping you from importing it now?
@ i cant find all the pics that i already airdropped, im not importing yet, and i accidently closed the photos app but when i open the photos app again, the import file that contain all the airdropped pics is gone, but somehow i found some the airdropped pics at the “recent”when i click the apple logo at the corner, but still cant find the whole docs, anyway thank you for your respond!
I have 1 photo on my iPhone, that seem impossible to import. gone through the selection and import etc. a dozen times, and still wont show up on my iMac photos album. Driving me mad.
Can Photo app monitor a folder and import any new videos automatically when added to the folder?
Can you explain the situation more? Hard to suggest something without more details.
@@macmost I transfer videos from various cameras to Mac. They go into 1 folder. I use finder saved searches to organize the files. But Photo app has some features I would like to use, such as location data. So I would like to import the videos automatically as soon as they get added to the folder on the Mac (as a reference not the actual file). (Thanks btw for the finder saved search tutorial and the great Numbers tutorials, very usefu!l)
@@echtesnorwegen Interesting workflow. I don't think you'll be able to automate that step though. You'll need to drag and drop them into Photos. No way around that I can think of.
@@macmost Thanks for answering!
hi, can ask for help.. i upload my photos in macbook photos now it has around 16k photos while my iphone only says have 13k photos. also the macbook photos have this note at the bottom "Restoring from iCloud" but its almost half a day but still the same.
Let it finish restoring, or call Apple Support if you think there is an issue.
@@macmost thanks.. will do..
Thank you for a great video, Could anyone help me ?
When I import my photos from my canon camera to my Mac they appear in random order and not the time order they were taken, however when I import from my iPhone or iPad they appear in time order. Is there a way I can import my canon photo's in order? I'd be so grateful for anyones help :) xx
Which way are you viewing them? If you are looking at Library, All Photos they should be in order. But maybe you are viewing them some other way?
@@macmost I am viewing them in the library , i firstly imported them by the SD card but then purchased a lead to import them that way as I wondered if that was the problem. As I was importing my Apple products with a cable and they were in order. It’s just I take around 200 stock photos at a time for my work and it’s difficult to find them when they are mixed up. I’ve searched google and there’s no answer? Could it possibly be my camera? It’s a canon powershot sx430 ?
I’m so very grateful to you for taking time out of your day to reply as I’m sure you’re very busy 😊
@@emmadomachowski973 Sorry, I don't know what you are dealing with here. If you are viewing them in Library, All Photos then they should be in order by date according to the metadata in the photo, unless you have changed the date specifically for a photo in the app.
@@macmost I do feel very silly. I think the problem was I hadn’t set the date on my camera (head palm moment) thank you so much for your help 😊
Will "already imported" weed out any duplicates already existing in the library, or only those previously imported?
It is for this import.
@@macmost That part I understand. But what if the file you are trying to import exists in the library already, but the source you are now trying to import from, wasn't the original source of the library file? I'm probably not doing a good job explaining my question.
@@reaker60 If you try to import the same photo, it will show you. See in the video.
Is there a way to just import videos from the iphone (when you don't have the icloud photos subscription?
Yes. Just like I show here. Connect your iPhone and import. Note that you don't need a paid iPhone subscription to use iCloud Photos. The "paid" part just gets you more storage. If you have a small number of photos, then you don't need to pay anything.
@@macmost Thank you for the reply. I meant to say...Is there a way to select "import only videos", since the photos get automatically imported via iCloud "My photostream" album? The basic, default plan (5 GB) won't import videos automatically as it does with the photos, so I have to hardwire via USB in order to extract or backup the videos from the iPhone to the iMac.
Going back to the question... I won't import videos automatically at less you select them manually.
@@DirectorWD40 Don't use Photostream. Just use iCloud. For importing your videos, try using the Image Capture app on your Mac instead.
@@macmost Thanks! I will.
Q: When I go to desktop wallpaper/screen saver, none of my photos are there. Any tips to fix it
Do you see the "Photos" section listed on the left side? If so, click > to reveal the contents.
@@macmost yes and no pic is shown. Strangely the pics I have in “my fav” folder do show. But none of the other
I’m kinda confused with the iCloud features… how can I see the photos in the MacBook Photos app in my other devices? (iPad & iPhone).
Turn on iCloud Photos for your MacBook and also on your other devices. Give it time to upload and merge those libraries. Now you should see the same photos from ONE library on all three of your devices and they will stay in sync since they are really looking at the same library. ua-cam.com/video/zalXTBzpNI8/v-deo.html
@@macmost oh right… maybe I have to think it through then. I don’t know if I want everything to upload automatically every single day.
@@manart6506 That would only happen if you took new pictures every day. And it would only upload the new ones. That's how most people do it.
@@macmost yeah there are new things daily, that sounds too often. My battery is old and too much wifi use drains battery quick. If only it would upload actual iPhone camera photos and not every image in the library.
Great Vid like always! I would like if you could make a Vid „how to use multiple librarys?“ thanks
Since iCloud photos isn’t a backup what is the best way - after putting every single photo into Photos on my MacBook - to then back them up in case of a crash? I have all my photos in Dropbox but it would be nice if Photos automatically imported them each time I add them to Dropbox.
If you have them all on your Mac ("Optimize" turned off) then Time Machine backups would be doing it.
Do i have to have a mac can i do this from iphone to pc?
Do which thing, exactly? Import from iPhone to iPad? Just use iCloud Photos and it will all be automatic.
Can you please tell us how to import photos from Google Photo to iPhoto? Please please please
I don't think there is a direct way. You have to get them out of Google Photos to files. Then import them in using this.
Why is your page so blurred. I can never see anything properly. Is there something I’m doing wrong?
Page? Do you mean the video? Perhaps you are streaming it over a slow connection? You can go to the settings at the bottom of the video and change the resolution to 720 or higher.
Awesome!
I am not able to import photos that I took with Samsung Galaxy S22+. I transfered all the photos to a SSD and I can open and view all the photos on my Mac - but when I drag the photos into Photos app after creating a dedicated album, it gives an error for all the photos and not even import a single photo. Not sure what's wrong
What does the error say?
What's the difference between a folder and an album?
In Photos, an album is a list of links to photos in your library. A folder is an organizational tool where you can group albums into folders.
You're fabulous.
i wonder if i can do the same thing but inverse ... send a photo from my computer into my Iphone ???
Great vid, as usual ....
Thanks from Portugal
Just use iCloud Photos. Then the photos will stay in sync between devices. Otherwise, you can connect it and sync your photos to your iPhone manually like always.
What if i wanted to directly import to a folder instead of using my photos app?
Directly import into where?
When I import my photos from my phone, where will the photos be saved? Can I delete all my photos from my iPhone after importing them?
They will be saved in your Photos Library. It is up to you whether you want to delete them from your iPhone. In most cases someone would be using iCloud Photos between an iPhone and Mac which means you don't need to import at all, and your photos are always visible across both devices. Much simpler, and nothing to "do" at all.
How come Photos keeps creating duplicates? Frequently when importing from my phone it imports the same images over and over.
Make sure you only import the new ones as I show here. Also, if you are already using iCloud Photos, then there is no need to import at all. They will sync automatically. Importing will just give you a second copy. Plus if you use the old Photo Stream feature, you'd get a copy that way too. Turn off Photo Stream and just use iCloud Photos, no import.
@@macmost Appreciate the reply! Correct, I am only importing new photos and am not using iCloud or Photo Stream, just USB. It's only some photos that duplicate (and multiple times), most don't, and there's no obvious pattern. 😕 Maybe a bug???
wow thanks specially for this 4:35
Thank you
How do I move a photo from library to a folder on my desktop?
Use File, Export. Or drag and drop. Or use File, Export, Unmodified Original if that is what you need.
@@macmost Thank you so much! May I do what you told me and export unmodified original, and what should I choose for subfolder format? Should I check the " Export IPTC as XMP?
@@catlove6332 Choose whiter option you want for subfolder format. That's up to you. As for the XMP, do you need that? (If you don't know what it is, then the answer is no).
@@macmost Thank you! How to not show the hidden photos in my iPhone in Macbook photo app when browsing iPhone photos on Macbook before reporting the other unhidden photos ? It's always bothers me.
@@catlove6332 I'm not following you. If you hide photos in your iCloud Photos Library, then they should be hidden on all devices. Is maybe one of your devices using an older version of its respective OS?
😢mine was working… and now all of a sudden it’s saying null and error ???
Can you do the same thing with Google Photos?
Not sure which "thing" you mean, but try it. I don't use Google Photos so I can't help there.
After years of use of Android products i recently moved to Apple products. I have easily 100k pictures/photos and about 50k of them moved from Google Photos to IPhotos. In the process of moving them over, I keep getting new duplicates, various pictures won’t transfer and run out of space on my MAC. So it would be nice to know which photos have not been transferred and only attempt to move them. So the import feature you showed us in this video has a list of which have been sync and which ones are new and will delete them off the drive as transferred. So my question is there a good way to sync and delete as I transfer pictures/videos from google photos. My ultimate goal is to have all photos/videos/files moved to ICloud and backed up to external drives. A lot of the videos I seen help with someone with a few hundred photos but thousands is frustrating. The other issue I have is they are out of order. The new pictures I take are in order based on date but the old ones are in order based on time they were imported.
Any suggestions? Maybe you can setup a google photos account to help us newbies out. Thank you for your great and easy to follow content.
@@macmostAnother thought I had is if the method in the video won’t work well importing photos from google photos; are there any good services or apps that might make this an automated transfer and delete them from google as they transfer successfully?
@@Upsidedownfoodpyramid Sorry, I don't know what sort of issues you ran into when doing your import. Maybe work first to export everything from Google Photos to files. And once you are satisfied with those files, then import them into a fresh empty Photos library. Hard to suggest anything more specific without knowing exactly what you have going on. Good luck with it.
Currently finding this video very useful as I am adding all of my photo files from an EHD to Photos. However, when I import multiple folders from the external hard drive Photos puts them into individual "folders" instead of "Albums". What am I doing wrong? HEEEEELLLLPPP please. Once I get this figured out, this trick will save me days of time. Currently I am importing every file one at a time ;(
Not sure what you mean by "folders" sorry. Folders of albums? Maybe you are still looking at the Import view and seeing the groups there?
The iPhone photo import is great but when you tag faces on iPhone library Desktop photos app doesn’t import those names into the desktop photo library. So we have to re-tagged all the faces again.
You should be using iCloud Photos to do that. Otherwise, if you "import" them you are just transferring the photo, and not library data like faces.
Very useful video tutorial today. I’m always learning something new. Thanks for the visuals. Thank you, Gary! 👍🏻👏❤️
All those old photos on an external hard drive are going into Apple Photos. Thanks!
Can you please show us what is the difference between a folder and an album?
Folders are just a level on top of albums for organizing. So photos can go into albums, and albums go into folders.
I tried importing photos from my hard drive (there's over 1M of them), and Photos crashes every time.
You have 1 million photos? I have 35,000 or so and that seems like a lot. I'd estimate around 3TB of photos, right?
☠BLACK BARON☠ It's software buggy with a Sony camera and USB importing.
Are you connecting the camera directly? Have you ever tried it with an SD card reader instead? May not only work better, but could be much faster too.
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