How Do I Create A New Photo Library On Mac

02.06.2020

I've had a multi-Mac household pretty much since college, rocking a laptop and desktop in addition to miscellaneous iOS devices throughout the years. Dropbox and iCloud sync made most of the pains of using several Macs disappear, but iPhoto was always a problem. My laptop is tiny! My iPhoto library, not so much.

How To Create A New Photo Library On Mac
How To Start A New Photo Library On Mac
How Do I Create A New Photo Library On Mac Drive

Thankfully, Photos for Mac — paired with iCloud Photo Library's Optimize Storage feature — makes working with and syncing multiple Macs a breeze. Here's how you can do it.

How to use Photos and iCloud Photo Library with multiple Macs

Here's a quick, simple breakdown on setting up your Macs to support Photos and iCloud Photo Library.

Oct 16, 2019 Photos for Mac is only compatible with one primary library per Mac: This means that you can't combine multiple old iPhoto or Aperture libraries into one master library. As such, if you have multiple libraries on your machine, Photos will ask you to select which library you'd like to import when you first launch the app.

What does mac library group folder downloads. Jan 12, 2020 Apple hides the Library folder by setting a file system flag associated with the folder. Any folder on your Mac can have its visibility flag turned on or off; Apple just chose to set the Library folder's visibility flag to the off state. Access Library Folder On Mac Using “Go to Folder” Option. Another way to access the Library Folder on your Mac is by using the Folder Option on your Mac. Left-click your mouse anywhere on the screen of your Mac to reveal the Go Option in the top menu bar. You can also click on the Finder Icon in the Dock of your Mac to activate the Go option. The library folders store settings, resources, and support files. There are 4 (well, normally just 3) of them: The user library, /Library, stores per-user settings etc. Sep 27, 2016 A lot of Mac tutorials mention the Library folder, which is where your macOS applications store things like settings and caches. Some settings can only be changed by editing files in the Library. But the Library is hidden by default. Oct 03, 2018 As of Mac OS X Lion (10.7), the Library folder in your home folder is hidden by default. That doesn’t mean you can’t get to it. It’s hidden so you don’t accidentally delete settings.

I recommend starting with your biggest iPhoto library; it'll usually be on your desktop Mac. When you open Photos for the first time, your library should import automatically; if it prompts you to create a new library, your Photos library may be stored in another location on your Mac, and you may need to manually open it.

Word for mac autocorrect. Once you've imported your biggest library on your Mac, make sure iCloud Photo Library is turned on and syncing. You can do this by following these steps:

Apr 01, 2020 Quit Photos. Hold down the Option key, then open Photos. One of the photo libraries is already designated as YourLibraryName (System Photo Library). Choose the library you want to designate as the System Photo Library. After Photos opens the library, choose Photos Preferences from the menu bar. Click the General tab. Jul 12, 2017 Regardless, to create a new System Photo Library, first open the location where your current system library is and drag it to a backup spot if you want to keep it (recommended). Drag it to the Trash if you don’t. Next, open Photos, which will spur the following prompt. Click “Open Other” to either find an existing library or create a new one. Dec 28, 2018 If Photos is open, you’ll need to quit and reopen to create a new library: Hold down the Option key Double-click on the Photos apps Click the Create New button, then choose Library. All your photos on all your devices. ICloud Photos gives you access to your entire Mac photo and video library from all your devices. If you shoot a snapshot, slo-mo, or selfie on your iPhone, it’s automatically added to iCloud Photos — so it appears on your Mac, iOS. The caveat is that you can only modify items (such as albums) or edit photos in one library at a time. Here are the steps to create a new iPhoto library: Quit iPhoto. Hold down the Option key as you open iPhoto. In the window that appears, click Create New. Type a name and choose a location to store the new photo library.

Launch Photos on your Mac.
Click Photos in the menu bar.
Select Preferences (or do this quicker by pressing ⌘,).
Source: iMore
Click on the iCloud tab.
Source: iMore
Check off the box for iCloud Photos.
- You can also check off the box for Download Originals to this Mac if you have the space.
- You can check off Optimize Mac Storage to save space on your Mac by only saving a percentage of images and video locally — the rest will be thumbnails that you can click on to download when you want to.
Source: iMore

Now, open your other Mac, and launch Photos. If you have an iPhoto library on that secondary Mac, follow the same steps as above — import your library, then turn on iCloud Photo Library. If you have duplicates of the same photo on each computer, iCloud should automatically resolve those conflicts when it syncs, providing you with just one version of your photos when the sync process finishes.

If you don't have an iPhoto library on your secondary Mac, create a new library in Photos and turn on iCloud Photo Library. If you want to save storage space on this secondary Mac, make sure Optimize Mac Storage is selected: This will save a certain percentage of images and video locally to your device, while providing thumbnails of all the others for you to download at your leisure.

After you've set up all your Macs with Photos and the sync process has finished, you're now good to go. From here on out, any time you add photos, they'll sync to every computer you've set up with Photos.

How To Create A New Photo Library On Mac

What syncs, what doesn't sync

Photos for Mac syncs a lot more than just your original photos and videos. According to a support document on Apple.com, here's what else you should expect to see sync:

All folders and albums
Smart Albums
Keywords
Memories
Searchable keywords
Key photo selections

There are a few things iCloud Photo Library won't sync, however. Here's Apple's list:

Books, cards, calendars, and slideshows
Keyword shortcuts
Unused keywords
Last imported album on the Mac in question
Names and faces in the People album

For those not using iCloud Photo Library

If you've chosen not to enable iCloud Photo Library, Apple still offers you free syncing of your last 1000 photos via My Photo Stream, which doesn't count toward your iCloud disk space.

This will sync and download images you've imported or taken on other devices, but you won't have the option to optimize your storage or sync your albums.

Octoober 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.

macOS Catalina

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