Prepare your external drive
You can store your library on an external storage device, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). However, you can't move your library to a disk that's used for Time Machine backups.
To prevent data loss, Apple doesn't recommend storing photo libraries on external storage devices like SD cards and USB flash drives, or drives that are shared on a network.
Move your Photos library to an external storage device
- After you combine photo libraries You’re likely to have duplicate or similar-looking pictures after you combine your photo libraries. The good news is you can use the app Gemini 2 to scan your images and quickly get rid of things like duplicate, blurry, or similar photos. But the best part is you can download Gemini 2 and try it for free!
- It’s been about two years since we covered this topic, and it’s still one of those “most asked” Lightroom Classic questions, so I wanted to cover it here again today. Getting all your catalogs combined into just one catalog can make your Lightroom life soooooooo much easier and faster. Imagine, having all your images (all of them!) in just one single catalog. It’s something I’ve.
- Quit Photos.
- In the Finder, go to the external drive where you want to store your library.
- In another Finder window, find your Photos Library. By default it's stored in the Pictures folder located at /Users/[username]/Pictures.
- Drag Photos Library to its new location on the external drive. If you see an error, select your external drive's icon in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info. If the information under Sharing & Permissions isn't visible, click the triangle , then make sure the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' checkbox is selected. If it's not selected, click the lock button to unlock it, enter an administrator name and password, then select the checkbox.*
- After the move is finished, double-click Photos Library in its new location to open it.
- If you use iCloud Photo Library, designate this library as the System Photo Library.
Yes, you can merge two Photo Libraries using iCloud yet, it is not suggested. Because firstly it is not merging, it is just uploading photos from two different iPhoto libraries onto the iCloud. Secondly, considering the cost of iCloud space, it is not practical to subscribe to iCloud just to merge iPhoto libraries. Obviously, it has its own perks. Step 1: Right-click on one of the images you want to merge and open with Paint 3D. Step 2: Click the three-dot menu icon when the image opens in Paint 3D and select Canvas options.
Make sure that the drive is turned on and available to your Mac before opening Photos. If Photos can't find your drive, it stops using the Photos Library stored there.
Delete original library to save space
After you open your library from its new location and make sure that it works as expected, you can delete the library from its original location.
In a Finder window, go back to your Pictures folder (or whichever folder you copied your library from) and move Photos Library to the trash. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash to delete the library and reclaim disk space.
Open another Photos library
If you have multiple libraries, here's how to open a different one:
- Quit Photos.
- Press and hold the Option key while you open Photos.
- Select the library that you want to open, then click Choose Library.
Photos uses this library until you open a different one.
Learn more
If you have a permissions issue with your library, you might be able to resolve the issue by using the Photos library repair tool.
* If the volume isn't formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or has been used for Time Machine backups but hasn't been erased, this checkbox will either not be present, or it won't be selectable after unlocking. Erase the drive for this option to be available.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I should have given you more information.
The two libraries are both on iCloud, but are attached to two separate Apple ID's. My Apple ID has one library, my wife's Apple ID has the other. Essentially we want to combine them both into my Apple ID library. I'm hoping the answer isn't to export her entire library onto a hard drive, then import those files into my library. It's my understanding that doing so will wipe out much of the metadata such as Live Photos, faces, GPS data, etc.
Any thoughts? The main reason we want to do this is to clean up the libraries by deleting duplicates and photos we don't want. She has 40,000 photos in hers. I have 30,000 photos in mine. There is likely lots of overlap. I don't want to have to go through each library and duplicate much of the work a second time.
Combining Two Photo Libraries Mac
Free Photo Libraries
Jason
How Do I Merge Two Photo Libraries On A Mac
Aug 23, 2018 8:01 AM