Importing RAW Images from Mac Photos App into Lightroom

In this video I show you one way (I'm sure there's others) to check if you have RAW images in your Mac OS Photos App (should be the same with Mojave but not sure about Catalina) and how to import them into Lightroom and check if they came in as RAW.
One note, if you are using iCloud Photos with Optimize Mac Storage enabled, your RAW images may not be stored locally on your Mac. It appears that previous RAW images imported are still located locally for me which I gather is either because I have room to store them or only newly imported RAW images will be uploaded and not stored locally.
Also a little tip about importing them into Lightroom. If you have both the JPEG and the RAW image from your camera/Photos app, when importing into Lightroom, it will display to you the RAW version to import. If the file names are different, then it will display/try to import both the RAW and JPG version.

[@mathwithsam]

This video is 5 years old but can confirm it helped me so much today 😩 thank you!!

[@mandyk728]

What a lifesaver!! I have been going in circles with just the RAW files! I could import RAW to Photos, but as soon as I moved any photos into a file on my desktop or into Lightroom, they would change over to JPEG!! So frustrating!! Thank you so much! I couldn't find anything else anywhere to explain this!!

[@natureexploration]

Thank you Tom! I am on my way to help a friend solving this problem, and this video was very helpful.

[@tomn68]

Glad I could help

[@Hsukhaybir]

Or you can press and hold option key while drag to finder directly and it will be transferred as raw

[@tomn68]

Great!

[@romalibra_books]

THANK YOU ! So so helpful and very clear

[@MacKarenLy]

Omg thank u! U saved me ❤

[@tomn68]

You’re welcome

[@ischarliel5749]

Omg thank you!! I really hate how we have to do all this step than just importing from Photo app to Lightroom, come on Apple

[@TheTromboneKing13]

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I was getting so frustrated trying to share my JPEG+RAW photos to Lightroom CC

[@tomn68]

You're welcome!

[@lizdellar]

Yes very helpful, thanks so much!

[@tahminahossain3230]

Saved me!

[@casualendmusic]

what do i do if my photos app wont open raw files

[@tomn68]

When you say the app 'won't open raw files', what do you mean by open? Are they imported into your library?

[@casualendmusic]

@@tomn68 yes but when i try to switch from jpg to raw it says its incompatable

[@tomn68]

@@casualendmusic Could be that the RAW file format is from a newer camera and is not supported by your MacOS and Photos app. From what I understand, when cameras update their RAW format for a new camera, the OS has to update to support it. If you're using an older OS with an older Photos app, it probably isn't getting updates for RAW formats.

[@casualendmusic]

@@tomn68 thank you 👍🏽