Sep 24, 2018 — Managing a huge gallery and organizing photos is a tricky business, even if you’re generally tidy, so it’s always a good idea to use some help. Especially when there’s software out there designed specifically to deal with an overload of pictures.
The only trouble with professional photo organizing software is that, much like any photo equipment, it’s painfully expensive. In this article we’ll suggest tools that tame your giant photo gallery without leaving a hole in your pocket.
Best photo organizing software for Mac, as of 2018
Gemini 2: The duplicate photo finder
Mac os library folder visible. The first thing you need to do to organize photos is remove the extras. There’s a high chance you’ve got plenty of duplicates and similar images — 15 shots from slightly different angles, for instance. You usually only use one of those, so there’s really no point in keeping them all.
The easiest way to get rid of those files is to get a duplicate photo finder, such as Gemini 2. It can scan your whole gallery, locate duplicates and point out similars. It usually takes a few minutes to clean your whole photo collection, so download Gemini and give it a quick test drive.
Photos: Mac’s native photo organizer app
Here’s the biggest secret to good photo organization: master Photos. You might be thinking: seriously, a native Apple app is any good? And you’d be surprised how much it is.
Since macOS Sierra, Photos has been getting makeovers and new features. In macOS Mojave, the app lets you organize content just by dragging-and-dropping it, and with Smart Albums, you can instantly group photos by date, camera, and even the person in them. At this point, it’s just a really good piece of photo management software.
Nov 23, 2016 Moving a Mac’s Photos Library. Apple’s Photos app lets you create multiple photo. If you hold down the Command key while you drag the library file, the Mac will copy it to the.
May 31, 2018 I made a backup of my iPhoto Library. Now, I want to open my backup iPhoto Library on Microsoft computer. BUT if the Backup drive is formatted to the Mac default File System of HFS-Plus, you will need to install other software to enable Windows to read the HFS+ file system. For most people a better solution is to have iCloud Photo.
You can copy referenced files into your photo library so they’re easier to back up and are automatically stored in iCloud if iCloud Photos is turned on. In the Photos app on your Mac, select the files that you want to copy into the photo library. Choose File Consolidate.
Feb 22, 2017 when I try to open the photos application the screen says 'The library could not be opened.' And underneath 'The library “Photos Library.photoslibrary” could not be recognized.' It gives me two options, open other and quit, quitting quits photos and when i attempt to open other I have to create a new library.
Before going ahead with the steps to Access the Hidden Library Folder on your Mac, you need to be aware that /Library Folder contains important Data and Files related to Mac User Accounts. Hence, make sure that you are accessing the Library Folder for a good reason and you do know as to what you are trying to achieve.
Mylio: A free photo manager app
If you’ve been meaning to consolidate your photos in one place for years, Mylio will help you do just that. When you first start using the app, it offers to look for your photos on the current device, on an external drive, and even on your Facebook.
Once all the photos you’ve taken in your lifetime are imported, Mylio organizes into a variety of views. The coolest one is Calendar, showing you photo collections on an actual calendar. That way, you’ll quickly find the photos from your son’s first birthday, even if you forgot how you named the folder. Plus, Mylio offers a free mobile app, so you can access your photo library wherever you are.
Final word on photo management on Mac
There are basically two things you need to remember to bring order into your photographing life:
Before you get to organization and management, be sure to unclutter your photo library. The easiest way to do it is with a duplicate finder, such as Gemini 2. Otherwise you'll be rummaging around in thousands of photos you don't even need.
Photos, the native Apple photo manager can accomplish everything you need to make organizing photos into groups and categories easy.
Third-party tools can provide you with added functionality that’s missing in native macOS tools, like calendar view or managing photos right in the Finder.
Now that you know all the secrets to photo organization, Mac photography shouldn’t be that hard or that expensive. Not when you’ve got the right tricks up your sleeve.
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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.
How to add pictures and videos to albums
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.
Launch Photos on your Mac.
Click on Photos in the sidebar, under the Library section.
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.
Right-click on your chosen photos and videos.
Move the cursor to Add to.
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.
Launch Photos on your Mac.
Either right-click on My Albums in the sidebar, or hover above and then click on the + button that appears next to My Albums.
Click New Folder.
Give your folder a name.
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.
Launch Photos on your Mac.
Right-click on My Albums or click the + button that appears next to My Albums.
Select New Smart Album.
Give your Smart Album a name.
Choose the parameters for your Smart Album.
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
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.
Launch Photos on your Mac.
Click on View in the menu bar.
Select Show Sidebar in the menu.
The sidebar will appear on the left side of the screen.
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.
Launch Photos on your Mac.
Make sure that you're in the Photos view from the sidebar.
Click on Photos, Moments, Collections, or Years buttons at the top of the window.
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.
You can also use your keyboard's arrow keys to move between photos and videos in a Moment.
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.
Launch Photos on your Mac.
Make sure you're in the Photos section in the sidebar.
Source: iMore
Click the Years, Months, or Days buttons at the top of the window. The default view is All Photos.
Clicking on Years lets you see each year as a block. Double-clicking the year takes you into Months.
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.
Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
Double-click on Photos on your Mac.
Click on the Create New button in the Choose Library window.
Name your Library.
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.
Make sure that Photos is not open (quit if it is).
Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
Double-click on Photos.
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.
Launch a Finder window on your Mac.
Click on the Mac hard drive (Macintosh HD) in the sidebar.
Double-click on the Users folder.
Double-click on your username.
Double-click on your Pictures folder.
Click on the Photos Library file and then drag it to your external hard drive in the sidebar.
Find Photo Library On Mac
This process may take a while, depending on how big your Photos library is.
A note on reference libraries
Where Is The Photo Library File On Mac
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.
Change Photos Library Location Mac
Questions?
Mac Photo App
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October 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.
Where Is The Photo Library On Mac
Photos for Mac
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