Many people across the globe are long snapping digital photos. Since it’s a habit, obviously one would always have to transfer these photos to the systems. Right? However, copy-pasting these photos in one place and not backing them up might be a troubling factor. Why?
Because there are chances you might lose these photos because of system crashes or motherboard failures. Fortunately, some images have a Time Machine Backup, but that might not be the case always. Thus, the best thing that you can do is merge the old pictures with the current ones. The solution might seem a bit tricky but shouldn’t be overwhelming when you involve yourself in it. Following are some steps that can make the process pretty easy.
Let’s begin!
- Restore/Copy your media
The foremost thing includes restoring or copying your old media, especially when it is not on the same drive or other cloud storage devices connected to the same Mac. If you’re using Time Machine, don’t restore your iPhotos Library or the Photos Library to the Home directory. The tech giants exclaim not doing so since it will overwrite the newer images and libraries. The best thing to merge photo libraries on mac is to follow some essential steps. These will facilitate easy mergers and help you dwell in tranquillity.
- Quick Launch the Time Machine, which is present in the Applications folder. If you find the Time Machine in the menu bar, select the icon and click on the notification bar that says Enter Time Machine.
- Navigate to the Pictures folder to the home directory.
- To the last state of the Photo Library or iPhoto Library, navigate back in time from where you’re looking out to restore. The version may be the latest for an older machine.
- Control-click on the Library file for choosing Restore “Photos Library” and select the destination folder with utmost care. Note that the destination folder must not be the current Photos Library or iPhoto.
- Click on the option Restore.
- Now that you have two libraries, you can easily merge them.
- Merge with iCloud Photos
Apple’s iCloud Photos provides users with the best solutions for competently merging libraries. The trick lies with designating your library as your System Photos Library. You can witness the Photos uploading after the step. The Photo’s metadata also gets retained like the keywords, albums, projects, and more. To get started, follow some essential steps:
- Go to System Preferences> iCloud and select the Options button present next to the Photo. Now select iCloud Photos.
- Double click on the Photos Library for opening it.
- Click on Photos> Preferences> General, and click on Using as a System Photo Library.
- Wait for the photos to upload. Scroll to the Photos View to witness the progress. The pause link will appear during the uploading process.
- Note that the last Photos library becomes the one, you’ll be keeping, delete the others. Also, ensure that you have all your backups first.
Final Words
The above steps will come to maximum use when you opt to archive to the external drive. You can also delete the previous main library if you deem the contents unnecessary. You can archive or delete the iPhoto Library, which then upgrades to find usage in the Photos. By doing so, you no longer will have to worry about the deletion of files. Any file references in both places will be well retained within the Photos Library even if you delete those from the iPhoto Library.