![]() When you’re done, the last Photos library becomes the one you’ll keep, and you can delete the others. ICloud will try not to import duplicate photos, but if it isn’t certain, it will choose to include a photo rather than exclude it. Once the photos have all uploaded, go back to Step 1 with your next Photos library. A Pause link will appear there during uploading (click it if you need to keep Photos from monopolizing your Internet connection). Scroll to the bottom of the Photos view to see the progress. (If it’s dimmed out, that library is already set as the System Photo Library.) In Photos > Preferences > General, click Use as System Photo Library.Double-click the Photos library to open it.Now, starting with the smallest Photos library and working up in size, follow these steps for each library you want to merge: If you haven’t already enabled iCloud Photos, go to System Preferences > iCloud and click the Options button next to Photo. Plus, it may try to download the entire cloud-based collection of photos into each library whose photos you want to merge, so you may need a lot of local disk space too. If you haven’t already started using it, it could take a week or more to upload many thousands of photos. iCloud Photos is a great service, so it’s likely worth paying for anyway.Īnother important note is that the iCloud Photos way of merging will be slow. ![]() ![]() Almost everyone will have to pay for additional storage space ($0.99 per month for 50 GB, $2.99 for 200 GB, or $9.99 for 2 TB) for at least the month in which you’re doing the merge. On the downside, using iCloud Photos isn’t free unless you have so few photos that the combined library will fit within the free 5 GB of iCloud space Apple gives everyone. It also retains all the metadata surrounding your photos-titles, keywords, albums, face recognition, projects, and more. The trick is that whenever you designate a library as your “System Photo Library”, Photos automatically uploads all images that aren’t already present, adding them to the photos already in iCloud Photos. Need help wrangling your Photos? Let’s talk! Merge through iCloud PhotosĪpple’s iCloud Photos service offers the best solution for merging libraries. You have three options: merging through iCloud Photos, using the PowerPhotos utility, and merging by exporting and importing. Be aware that the process is slow, can require a lot of disk space, and may result in the loss of some metadata. If you want to consolidate multiple Photos libraries, the good news is you can merge them. But too much separation is annoying - you have to keep switching between libraries, and it’s easy to import new photos into the wrong one. For instance, an interior designer might want to keep personal photos separate from photos taken for work. That’s good when photos need to be kept completely separate. iPhoto/Aperture libraries can also be added directly to the PowerPhotos library list as read-only, so you can view, search, export, copy, and merge just like you can with Photos libraries.Photos makes it easy to create and switch between libraries.
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