Mac Where Is Photos Library

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We take a lot of photos with our iPhones and even DSLRs and other cameras. Photos are great for capturing memories with others, or when you just want to get a snapshot of something beautiful. Photos on Mac can help you keep all of your photos in one place, and even help you organize them.

  • Jul 12, 2017  Apple’s new Photos application was released as part of a recent system update. By default, Photos creates its library in your Pictures folder, but it can be easily moved or newly created. There are any number of reasons you might want to create a new Photos library or move it to another location.
  • Oct 05, 2017  After created a new library, open it up go to preferences, set Use as system photo library and the new one shows up in the iMovie. Now, I open the original Photo Library with Photos, go to preferences and the option Use as system photo library available, set it and my old Photo Library appear again in iMovie. Delete the new library.
  • How to Export Your Mac Photos Library. The first step in exporting your Mac Photos library is determining where your library resides on your hard drive. To do that, open Preferences in Photos: Look in the General section, where it says Library Location: Now, click on Show in Finder.
  • Jul 12, 2017 On our system, we see our Photo Library is in our Dropbox, but yours will almost likely show up in your user folder. We click the the “Show in Finder” button and here’s where our “Photos Library” is located. We want to move it back to our user folder so Dropbox stops constantly updating.
  • This will open a Finder window with your current Mac Photos library highlighted.NOTE: Your Mac Photos library will almost certainly be called something else; we changed the name of the file for the purposes of this tutorial. Nowhere is the secret: to export your Mac Photos library to another location, all you have to do is copy that file.
  • By Glenn Fleishman. How to find Photos' image files in the Finder. And Copy Items to the Photos Library is checked next to the Importing label), then you can’t easily get to the.

How to add pictures and videos to albums

Apr 18, 2015 Massive use of RAM and machine grinds to a halt. Eventually finishes after approx 12 hours but repeats every time I try to quit photos. Tried repairing the library - no luck. Eventually backed up photos library onto an external drive and deleted it from my mac mini. I then started photos again pointing it to my old iphoto library.

If you have a lot of photos and videos, one of the simplest and easiest ways to start organizing everything is to make use of albums, especially when you give them good names. And if you use iCloud Photo Library, all of your albums in Photos for Mac get synced to your iOS devices too.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Click on Photos in the sidebar, under the Library section.

  3. Pick out the photos you want to add to an album, either new or existing.

    • Hold down the command key on your Mac and click to select multiple photos.
  4. Right-click on your chosen photos and videos.
  5. Move the cursor to Add to.

  6. You can choose an existing album, or create new album.

    • If making a new album, give it a good, easy-to-remember name.

Optionally, you can make a new album at any time by clicking the + button that appears in the sidebar next to My Albums. Drag-and-drop the albums in whatever order you want to rearrange them in the sidebar.

How to organize albums and folders

When you have a lot of albums, it may be better to clean it all up by organizing albums into folders, which are like collections of albums. It's easy to do.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Either right-click on My Albums in the sidebar, or hover above and then click on the + button that appears next to My Albums.

  3. Click New Folder.

  4. Give your folder a name.

  5. Drag the albums that you want into that folder.

How to use Smart Albums

Smart Albums are like regular albums, but smarter, obviously. They're great for helping you quickly organize images without the need of manually adding each one to an album because it's all automated.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Right-click on My Albums or click the + button that appears next to My Albums.

  3. Select New Smart Album.
  4. Give your Smart Album a name.

  5. Choose the parameters for your Smart Album.

  6. Click OK to confirm.

Smart Albums have a large number of different parameters, such as photos, faces, aperture, ISO, Live Photo, RAW, Portrait, and more. With all of these options, you can create many different Smart Albums to suit whatever it is you need.

If you're not satisfied with the Smart Album, you can always tweak the settings by clicking on the gear icon that's next to the Smart Album's title, then re-select the parameters you want to use.

Unfortunately, Smart Albums do not sync to your other devices through iCloud Photo Library, as they're only available on your Mac.

How to navigate Photos for Mac faster with the sidebar

Where Is Mac Photos Library Stored

The Sidebar in Photos is a great way to quickly jump between various areas in Photos quickly and easily. Plus, it helps you find albums that may otherwise be hidden, so this was a design choice made by Apple.

However, if you are running macOS Sierra and older, you can actually hide or unhide the sidebar as you wish.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
  2. Click on View in the menu bar.
  3. Select Show Sidebar in the menu.
  4. The sidebar will appear on the left side of the screen.

  5. Follow the steps above to hide it (make sure Show Sidebar is unchecked).

How to navigate moments, collections, and year views in macOS Mojave and earlier

One of the coolest things about Photos is that it intelligently groups all of your photos and videos into moments, collections, and years.

This means that your photos appear in a timeline and are grouped by things like location, or even event. It's a great way to take a look back at your memories and relive those specific moments in time.

The Moments, Collections, and Year views are only available in macOS Mojave and older.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
  2. Make sure that you're in the Photos view from the sidebar.

  3. Click on Photos, Moments, Collections, or Years buttons at the top of the window.

  4. Click on a section of a Year to move to that Collection, or a section of a Collection to drill down into that Moment, or an item in a Moment to view that image or video in closer detail.

  5. You can also use your keyboard's arrow keys to move between photos and videos in a Moment.

  6. A single click on an item selects it, while a double click takes you to view it.

In the Year and Collections views, thumbnails can be small. You can click-and-hold and then drag the cursor in any direction over the thumbnails to get a larger preview. Letting go will take you directly to the image that the cursor was last on.

How to navigate through Years, Months, and Days in macOS Catalina

To replace the previous Moments/Collections/Years view, Catalina changed it to Years, Months, and Days for simplicity.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Make sure you're in the Photos section in the sidebar.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click the Years, Months, or Days buttons at the top of the window. The default view is All Photos.

  4. Clicking on Years lets you see each year as a block. Double-clicking the year takes you into Months.

  5. When you double-click on a Month, you'll drill down into the Days view.

How to create a new library with Photos for Mac

You can create a new library for your photos at any time with Photos for Mac. To do so, make sure that you quit Photos and reopen it with the following method to get the Library options.

  1. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
  2. Double-click on Photos on your Mac.
  3. Click on the Create New button in the Choose Library window.
  4. Name your Library.

  5. Click OK.

You've now created a brand new Photos Library. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to migrate over photos and video, so you will need to export the content you want, and then import it back into the new library.

How to switch between Libraries in Photos for Mac

When you create a new library, you may still want to go back to a previous library for something. Fortunately, it's easy to switch between multiple libraries.

  1. Make sure that Photos is not open (quit if it is).
  2. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
  3. Double-click on Photos.

  4. Click on the name of the library you want to open.

Voilá! Just make sure to repeat this process each time you want to switch to a different Photo library.

How to move your Photos library to an external hard drive

If you're low on storage space on your Mac, you can just move your Photos Library to an external hard drive. Keep in mind though, that you will need to have this external drive plugged in to access your Photos Library, even if you have iCloud Photo Library enabled. And you aren't able to create a second Photos Library that has iCloud Photo Library enabled on your Mac, so be wary.

  1. Launch a Finder window on your Mac.
  2. Click on the Mac hard drive (Macintosh HD) in the sidebar.
  3. Double-click on the Users folder.
  4. Double-click on your username.
  5. Double-click on your Pictures folder.

  6. Click on the Photos Library file and then drag it to your external hard drive in the sidebar.

This process may take a while, depending on how big your Photos library is.

A note on reference libraries

The Photos app technically supports the management of images that aren't locally stored within its library — that is, you can keep a set of images in a folder called 'October Trip' and manage them within Photos without having to make a separate copy of them. You can do this by navigating to Photos > Preferences from the menu bar, selecting the General tab, and unchecking the 'Copy items to the Photos library' box under Importing.

That said, reference libraries won't play nicely with iCloud Photo Library users; you may run into problems when syncing, or not be able to sync at all. So if you plan on using a reference library, you'll have to opt out of iCloud Photo Library.

I also didn't have any luck getting referenced files to sync properly with Photos — I'd delete a photo, but the reference file would stay in its original location, even after deleting it from the 'Recently Deleted' folder. Not sure if that's a bug or just not how Photos wants us managing referenced photos, but worth noting.

Questions?

Sound off in the comments below!

October 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.

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“Library is not working in photos in macOS Catalina. Recently I updated to macOS Catalina but after the update, photos are not working. I am getting library could not be opened error. How can I recover from it?” – From Apple Discussion.

The library not working is one of the most famous macOS issues. So, the users have faced it numerous times and it mostly occurs after an update. Although it is a well-known error, when this error occurs, there are also several associated issues like;

  • the library could not be opened
  • Photos app crashes on launch in Catalina
  • photos are missing after Cataina
  • updating library is not working in photos

So, this needs to get fixed immediately in order to enjoy the much-awaited advanced features of macOS Catalina. Just read the article below and you will get your answers.

  • Part 1: Fix Library is Not Working in Photos in macOS Catalina

Part 1: Fix Library is Not Working in Photos in macOS Catalina

There are multiple ways to fix photos library could not be opened. These procedures are effective. So, follow the details provided below, carefully.

Solution 1: Use Mac Built-in Photos Library Repair Tool

Mac Where Is Photos Library

If Mac photos the library could not be opened or it is showing unexpected errors, then Photos Library Repair Tool is one of the best ways to fix it. This is a built-in repair tool, comes with macOS and it is pretty easy to use.

Step 1: Press and hold the “Option” and “Command” keys while photos are opened on your Mac.

Step 2: Then, a dialog box will appear, click on “Repair” to proceed.

Mac Where Is Photos Library

You will be asked to provide a password for your user account. The tool will analyze the library database at the beginning. Depending on the size of the library, the repair could take a while.

Solution 2: Update Photos App If It is Not Up to Date

It is possible that Photos app on your Mac has not been updated in a while. As you have just updated to Catalina, the latest version of macOS. It is possible that macOS Catalina is interfering with the older version of Photos app.

So, if you just update the Photos app to its latest version, the issue may get fixed.

Solution 3: Force Quit Photos then Re-launch to Fix Library is Not Working in Photos in macOS Catalina

It is also possible that you are facing a temporary glitch with the app. So, force-quit the Photos app and launch it again.

Possibly the library issue may get fixed.

Solution 4: Disable Autoplay Videos Setting in Photos

This is a very simple fix. Here’s how to do it;

Step 1: Click Launchpad from your mac desktop and open Photos app.

Step 2: Go to Photos > Preferences and you will find the option Autoplay Videos and Live Photos.

Mac Photo Book Maker

Now, simply uncheck the feature.

Solution 5: Reinstall macOS Catalina to Fix Library is Not Working in Photos in macOS Catalina

You should also try re-installing macOS Catalina if the error still hasn’t disappeared. But the proper way to re-install macOS Catalina is to use Mac’s Recovery Mode. Here’s how to repair photo library Mac:

Step 1: So, restart your Mac. While the device is starting, you need to hold “Command and R” keys together in order to enter Recovery Mode.

Step 2: As the follow-up window appears, click on “Reinstall macOS”. Then, click on “Continue”.

Step 3: Then, you have to agree to “Terms & Conditions”.

Step 4: Finally, select the drive where you want to install macOS Catalina and click “Install”.

Part 2: What If Your Photos are Lost after Fixing Library is Not Working in Photos in macOS Catalina

There is a possibility that photos from your photo library may get erased even after fixing the library. If that happens, you need to make a photo recovery Mac.

Although, the discussed solutions for the library fix are very effective but so many changes were made on the Mac system that lost photos are a possibility. Now, in order to recover lost photo on Mac, an effective data recovery program is required and it needs to be used immediately. As the longer you wait, the chances of photo recovery gets slimmer.

So, stop using the Mac and use Tenorshare UltData-Mac Data Recovery. UltData is a great software developed by Tenorshare, provides effective data recovery with precision and software is quite secure as well. Here are a few important features of the software:

  • UltData is capable of recovery of any sort of lost files on Mac.
  • May it be a deleted file of lost due to format, UltData will make the recovery anyway.
  • Files can be restored from internal hard drive, as well as external drives.
  • The data recovery rate is 100%.
  • The program is also safe to use and very secure.

Now, the recovery of those lost photos will be very easy with UltData. Just follow the steps below:

Step 1: Download and install Tenorshare UltData for Mac on your computer and launch it.

Step 2: Choose the location of the lost photos and click “Scan” to proceed.

Step 3: It will take a while to complete the scan but upon its completion, the scan results will get displayed on the screen. You can click on them to preview the details.

Step 4: The lost files will be among the results. Just choose them and click “Recover” to restore them successfully.

You also have to choose a path where the restored photos will be located. Don’t choose the same location from they were originally, erased. Doing it will cause permanent data loss.

Part 3: Some New Features of Photos in macOS Catalina You Need to Know

The macOS Catalina is the newest addition to the macOS line up. It is brand new, better, faster and equipped with some amazing new features. Let’s have a look.

Photos View

All your photos and videos will be displayed on a grid. This is the new Photos View. You will be able to zoom in and get a larger view and additional details. The photos on the grid will be visible in a square format.

Live Photos and Videos

Live videos and photos are also included in the photo library. You just have to click “Auto-Play” when they are visible on the screen. It uses a dynamic display system.

Memory Movies

You will be able to view memory movies that you created on your iOS device. So, finally, memory movies came to Mac.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is included. It helps to realize the photos app, who is in the photo and what is going on. This helps users in many ways.

Conclusion

Hence, you will be able to repair photo library Mac and it will be easier if you just follow the detailed solution mentioned in the article, above. But as mentioned before, it is possible that you may lose some of your stored images from the library while fixing it. If it happens, you need to stop using the Mac immediately and use Tenorshare UltData for the fast and successful recovery of those photos.