Question: Q: Cannot import items to Photo library. I tried doing the import on my Mac and my MacBookPro and am still encountering this problem. I even tried added the pictures via airdrop, and through drop box. Had the same problem stated above after using a brand new iPhone X. Running Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6. Apr 01, 2020 Designate a System Photo Library in Photos If you have multiple photo libraries on your Mac, you can choose one to be the System Photo Library. The System Photo Library is the only library that can be used with iCloud Photos, Shared Albums, and My Photo Stream.
Photos in your System Photo Library are available in apps like iMovie, Pages, and Keynote. You can also sync them to iOS devices and view them on Apple TV. And if you want to use your own images as your desktop picture or screen saver, the images need to be in your System Photo Library before you can select them in System Preferences.
If you have only one photo library, then it's the System Photo Library. Otherwise, the first photo library that you create or open in Photos will become the System Photo Library. If you have more than one library, you might need to designate a System Photo Library, so other apps can access the photos and videos you want them to use.
Follow these steps to designate a System Photo Library:
If you open a second or different library in the Photos app, and you haven't designated it as the System Photo Library, other applications will use photos from the original System Photo Library. Hold down the Option key when you open Photos to see which library is set as the System Photo Library.
You can use iCloud Photos, Shared Albums, and My Photo Stream only with the System Photo Library. If you choose a different library in Photos without designating it as the System Photo Library, the iCloud tab in Photos preferences is disabled:
If you designate a new library as the System Photo Library and then turn on iCloud Photos, the photos and videos in the new library will merge with those already in your iCloud Photos. If you want to keep the contents of your photo libraries separate, don’t turn on iCloud Photos for more than one library in Photos.
A few months ago when OS X Yosemite was first shown to the public, Apple demonstrated its new Photos app. This app is meant to simplify photo management for all Mac users by emulating the looks and functions provided by the Photos app on both the iPhone and the iPad. This simplification comes at a cost though: when it finally releases its Photos app, it will replace iPhoto, its legendary photo management app that has been on every Mac by default for years.
This move will definitely be hard on a lot of users, especially those who, like me, got used to working with iPhoto for so many years.
Even worse: for most of us, our photo albums hold a huge number of dear memories, and as with every update, there is always the possibility of something going wrong when the time comes to migrate to the new Photos app.
With that considered, here are a couple of short guides on how to back up your iPhoto library both the simple way and the not-so-simple way.
First, the good news (or bad depending on how you see it). In a very Apple way, in order to keep things simple and integrated on OS X, Apple consolidates your photos into a single, giant file that represents your photo library. But this file is not composed of just your photos, it also holds very important meta-data, like your events, photo stream shots and such.
To find your iPhoto library, open any Finder window and click on the Pictures folder. There you should find it.
To back it up manually and without complications, all you have to do is copy the entire file to any destination you want. It can be a USB flash drive or a portable backup disk if you want and that’s it.
Cool Tip: If you want to transfer your iPhoto Library to another Mac just plug your drive to it and copy your iPhoto library backup to the target Mac’s Pictures folder. Be warned though, this will replace your existing iPhoto library. So this tip is mostly targeted at new Mac owners or for those who perform a clean install of OS X.If you want more control over what to back up from your library, there’s a way to do it that requires some digging around but that is perfect for that purpose.
For this, you have to head to the same iPhoto Library file within your Pictures folder, except this time instead of copying it, right-click on it and then select the Show Package Contents option.
Then, head to the Masters folders. There you will see several folders categorizing the different years your photos belong to.
Update for Xcode 8.3This no longer works in Xcode 8.3.
When you open each of them, you will find folders for the different events, albums and dates that contain the photos as you organized them in iPhoto. There you will be able to select exactly what you want to back up and the way that you want to back it up.
Dec 11, 2018 If you just have your photos in a folder on your Mac, all you need to do is plug your external drive in and move them over. If you’re using another app that maintains a library, you’ll have to configure things within that app. Mar 18, 2020 In the Finder, go to the external drive where you want to store your library. In another Finder window, find your library. The default location is Users username Pictures, and it's named Photos Library. Drag your library to its new location on the external drive. Nov 09, 2018 Go to the location of the Photo library and move it to external drive. Set the external library as a System Photo Library (So whenever you open the Photos app it will open the photos library from the external hard drive.) After completing trasfer to drive, make sure this external drive is connected to your Mac whenever you want to access photos. Copy the Photos Library from your Pictures Folder to an external disk. Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch Photos. From the resulting menu select “Other Library” and navigate to the new location. You’ll get a message that says: “This library contains items that need to download from iCloud Photo Library.”. Photos library to external drive mac. Copy the Photos Library to the external drive. You can drag and drop. Wait while it copies over - this may take a while depending on the size of your library and the speed of the connection to the.
And there you have it. Now you will always be in control of your photo library and most importantly, you will have peace of mind in case things don’t go that well with the new Photos app. Enjoy!
It's estimated that people share more than 700 billion photos per year on Facebook.