- Multiple Photos Libraries On Mac
- Why Do I Have Multiple Photo Libraries On My Mac
- Using Multiple Libraries In Photos
- Multiple Photos Libraries In Small
You can create multiple photo libraries on your Mac, but you have to choose one to be THE System Photo Library. Photos in it are available in apps like iMovie, Pages, and Keynote. You can also sync them to iOS devices and Apple TV via iTunes. If you have multiple photo libraries on your Mac, you can choose which library to use with iCloud Photos, Shared Albums, and My Photo Stream. ICloud and the System Photo Library You can use iCloud Photos, Shared Albums, and My Photo Stream only with the System Photo Library. Find duplicate photos. It's easy to have multiple copies of the same photo creep into your photo collection over time. Use PowerPhotos to find duplicate photos in one or more libraries, view them side by side, and separate them into albums where you can easily delete them from your library. Here is a guide on how to use multiple libraries within Photos on your Mac.
iPhoto can create multiple photo libraries, but to say its handling of them is bad would be a compliment. It’s a lot worse than that.
Apr 22, 2015 If you have divided a large photo library into small, more manageable libraries, Photos for Mac makes it easy to work multiple libraries. When you first set up Photos for Mac, it asks you to choose.
As most know by now, holding the option key while starting iPhoto enables the creation or selection of a different iPhoto library. This is cumbersome, very restrictive, and doesn’t solve the automatic launch of iPhoto when you connect a camera or camera media card with whichever was the last library you had open in iPhoto.
iPhoto library managers exist that solve some of these problems. One that stands out from the crowd is iPhoto Library Manager from Fat Cat Software.
Fat Cat Software is a one-man operation run by developer Brian Webster. Brian has been developing Mac software since high school and spent several years coding at Alsoft, Inc., best known for DiskWarrior. In 2006, Brian plunged into the life of self-employment. As well as iPhoto Library Manager, he has also produced a plist editor, Plist Edit Pro.
Hot Tip
Before I get into iPhoto Library Manager, I want to give you a hot tip that is useful for any iPhoto library manager. You may remember that the first time you started iPhoto it asked how you wanted to handle digital cameras when connected. For reasons only Steve could understand, to change which application launches when you connect a camera or media card, you have to go into the preferences in Image Capture (located in the Applications folder).
To get the real advantage of your iPhoto library manager, make it the default app that launches when you connect a camera or media card. To do this, on the General tab next to “When camera is connected, open:” select “Other…” and then locate iPhoto Library Manager (or your library manager of choice) and select it. Then click OK and close Image Capture.
I have two libraries, one for study related photos and one for personal. So usually the images on the camera are for one or the other and I want to choose which library before iPhoto launches, hence setting iPhoto Library Manager as the default. Of course, sometimes images are for both, and iPhoto Library Manager has a solution for this problem as well.
Features
Multiple Photos Libraries On Mac
From Fat Cat Software’s website, iPhoto Library Manager’s key features are:
Multiple libraries: Create multiple iPhoto libraries, instead of having to keep all your photos in a single library
Info at a glance: See at a glance what albums are in each of your libraries, as well as their version, modification date, and size
Share and share alike: Set your library’s permissions so that it can be used by multiple users on the same machine
In sync: Sync photos from multiple libraries with your iPod
Automate it: Customize your photo workflow using built-in Applescript support and Automator actions
Quick switch: Switch to another library with one click by using shortcut files
Makin’ copies: Copy photos from one library to another while retaining titles, comments, keywords, ratings, and dates
Doing the splits: Split a large library apart into smaller, more manageable libraries
Merge your acquisitions: Merge multiple libraries together into one
Photo first aid: Rebuild or extract photos from corrupted iPhoto libraries
Direct import: Import photos directly into a particular library with filtering and metadata options
Libraries can be created within iPLM and viewed either by roll or album name.
Okay, in the Hot Tip we solved the problem of which library to launch, but what if your media card contains images that you want to put in multiple libraries? Happens to me all the time. Some personal stuff, some school stuff. iPhoto Library Manager provides two ways of handling this.
Method 1: Use import (registered version only) to copy relevant photos directly from the camera/media to the corresponding iPhoto library. Repeat for each library.
Method 2: Open one iPhoto library. Import all images into it. Put photos to move in an album of their own. In iPhoto Library Manager, drag that album to the other library. Repeat as required.
Shortcomings
Using iPhoto Library Manager, I couldn’t find anything missing that should be there. It’s more like an app with fries and a coke thrown in and upsized. You knew you wanted some easy way of managing multiple iPhoto libraries, and with this app you get a whole lot of extra features you didn’t realize you needed and won’t be able to live without.
Overall
iPhoto’s greatest failing is that it doesn’t consider multi-purpose use of digital cameras. Many people find the need to save their images in different libraries.
My hope, one day, is that within iPhoto it will list all my libraries in a tree structure (a lot like Mail does with multiple accounts) with independent keyword lists for each library and searching across all libraries. (While we’re at it, I’d also like it to be able to copy image adjustments from one image to another.)
In the meantime, iPhoto Library Manager is a brilliant solution. There is a free version that has no time limits, but does have the following restrictions:
* Copying albums between libraries without the 20 photo limit (requires iPhoto 4.0.3 or later)
* Merging libraries together (requires iPhoto 4.0.3 or later)
* Importing photos directly into a library or album along with various metadata (requires iPhoto 4.0.3 or later)
* The ability to have more than one iPod Folder at a time, and copy more than 100 photos to an iPod folder
* Creating iPhoto library shortcuts
The full version costs US$19.95, which might be a smidge steep but is still worth it.
Highly recommended. 9/10
Photos makes it easy to create and switch between libraries. That’s good when photos need to be kept completely separate. For instance, a real estate agent might want to keep personal photos separate from house photos taken for work. 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.
If you struggle with multiple Photos libraries, never fear—you can merge them. Unfortunately, the process is slow, can require a lot of disk space, and may result in the loss of some metadata. You have three options: merging through iCloud Photos, using the PowerPhotos utility, and merging by exporting and importing. Each has pros and cons.
Merge through iCloud Photos
Apple’s iCloud Photos service offers the best solution for merging libraries. 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. It also retains all the metadata surrounding your photos—titles, keywords, albums, facial recognition, projects, and more.
On the downside, using iCloud Photos almost certainly won’t be free unless you have so few photos that the combined library will fit within the free 5 GB of iCloud space Apple gives everyone. 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. iCloud Photos is a good service, so it’s likely worth paying for anyway.
More problematic is that the iCloud Photos way of merging will be very slow. If you haven’t already started using it, it could take a week or more to upload many thousands of photos. Plus, it will probably download the entire cloud-based collection of photos to each library whose photos you want to merge, so you may need a lot of local disk space too.
If you haven’t previously used iCloud Photos, go to System Preferences > iCloud and click the Options button next to Photo. In the dialog, select iCloud Photos.
Now, starting with the smallest Photos library and working up in size, follow these steps for each library you want to merge:
- Double-click the Photos library to open it.
- In Photos > Preferences > General, click Use as System Photo Library. (If it’s dimmed out, that library is already set as the System Photo Library.)
- Wait for photos to upload. Scroll to the bottom of the Photos view to see the progress. A Pause link will appear there during uploading—click it if you need to keep Photos from overwhelming your Internet connection. Once the photos have all uploaded, go back to Step 1 with your next Photos library.
When you’re done, the last Photos library becomes the one you’ll keep, and you can delete the others. Needless to say, make sure you have good backups first!
Merge with PowerPhotos
The $30 PowerPhotos from Fat Cat Software provides a variety of extra capabilities when working with Photos. It helps you to create and manage multiple libraries, copy photos between libraries, find duplicates, and—most important for this topic—merge libraries.
Because PowerPhotos is working entirely on your Mac’s drive, it’s fast and it doesn’t require huge amounts of extra disk space. Unfortunately, unlike the iCloud Photos approach, which brings in both originals and any edits to those photos, PowerPhotos can import only your original photos or the versions that you’ve edited, not both. Plus, it can’t merge facial recognition data, smart albums, or print projects.
PowerPhotos provides an actual interface for merging too—choose Library > Merge Libraries to start.
In the window that appears, you have four tasks:
Why Do I Have Multiple Photo Libraries On My Mac
- Choose source libraries. You aren’t limited to merging just two libraries; you can pick multiple sources.
- Choose the destination library. This is the library you want to receive all the photos. If you want, you can create a new one.
- Configure duplicate handling. PowerPhotos can import just one of several copies of duplicate photos, or you can bring in all the duplicates if that’s important.
- Choose options. PowerPhotos can merge album contents, create an album from each source library, and create a backup before merging. Most important, though, is the choice of whether to merge your original photos or the edited versions.
Merge by Exporting and Importing
Using Multiple Libraries In Photos
This final option is conceptually simple. You export all the photos from one library and then import them into another. It’s even what Apple recommends. The main thing it has going for it is that it’s free, and it will be faster than the iCloud Photos approach. It could also be useful if you want to copy a subset of photos between libraries, rather than merging all photos.
However, as with PowerPhotos, you have to choose between original and edited photos, and you’ll need a lot of extra disk space. Even worse, you’ll lose even more metadata, including albums, faces, and print projects. And if you export as JPEG, your photos may also suffer a slight quality drop as they’re recompressed.
For those who want to use this approach, Apple provides detailed instructions. In essence, you’ll click Photos in the sidebar to see everything, and then choose Edit > Select All. Then you’ll choose File > Export and either Export X Photos (to get the edited versions of images) or Export Unmodified Original for X Photos (to get the original images). Once everything has exported, you’ll switch libraries in Photos and then drag the folder of exported images back into Photos to import it.
Multiple Photos Libraries In Small
Our nod goes to the iCloud Photos technique, but PowerPhotos is a fine utility for those who aren’t perturbed by its limitations. Of course, don’t start any merging without making backups first, and if you need help, don’t hesitate to call or text us!
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