Mac Photos Where Shared Libraries Stored

I've had a multi-Mac household pretty much since college, rocking a laptop and desktop in addition to miscellaneous iOS devices throughout the years. Dropbox and iCloud sync made most of the pains of using several Macs disappear, but iPhoto was always a problem. My laptop is tiny! My iPhoto library, not so much.

• Mac Photos Were Shared Libraries Stored Free
• Mac Photos Were Shared Libraries Stored In Word
• System Shared Libraries
• Linux Shared Libraries

Mac Photos Were Shared Libraries Stored Free

Thankfully, Photos for Mac — paired with iCloud Photo Library's Optimize Storage feature — makes working with and syncing multiple Macs a breeze. Here's how you can do it.

How to use Photos and iCloud Photo Library with multiple Macs

Here's a quick, simple breakdown on setting up your Macs to support Photos and iCloud Photo Library.

The Photos app in macOS Catalina underwent a major upgrade, bringing many iOS 13 Photos features to the Mac OS. And while Photos retains much of the same user interface as recent versions, the entire app feels snappier, while supporting many new features. I backed up everything and moved Photos and iTunes libraries to an external drive. Then I had the 1TB hard drive replaced with a 250GB SSD drive with a clean install of OSX. Running Sierra 10.12.6. The Mac has 4GB of RAM. The Photos library is 54,100 photos and is 222GB in size (all photos since 2008 and my wife takes a lot of pictures.

I recommend starting with your biggest iPhoto library; it'll usually be on your desktop Mac. When you open Photos for the first time, your library should import automatically; if it prompts you to create a new library, your Photos library may be stored in another location on your Mac, and you may need to manually open it.

Once you've imported your biggest library on your Mac, make sure iCloud Photo Library is turned on and syncing. You can do this by following these steps:

1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
2. Click Photos in the menu bar.

3. Select Preferences (or do this quicker by pressing ⌘,).

   Source: iMore

4. Click on the iCloud tab.

   Source: iMore

5. Check off the box for iCloud Photos.

   • You can also check off the box for Download Originals to this Mac if you have the space.
   • You can check off Optimize Mac Storage to save space on your Mac by only saving a percentage of images and video locally — the rest will be thumbnails that you can click on to download when you want to.

   Source: iMore

Now, open your other Mac, and launch Photos. If you have an iPhoto library on that secondary Mac, follow the same steps as above — import your library, then turn on iCloud Photo Library. If you have duplicates of the same photo on each computer, iCloud should automatically resolve those conflicts when it syncs, providing you with just one version of your photos when the sync process finishes.

If you don't have an iPhoto library on your secondary Mac, create a new library in Photos and turn on iCloud Photo Library. If you want to save storage space on this secondary Mac, make sure Optimize Mac Storage is selected: This will save a certain percentage of images and video locally to your device, while providing thumbnails of all the others for you to download at your leisure.

After you've set up all your Macs with Photos and the sync process has finished, you're now good to go. From here on out, any time you add photos, they'll sync to every computer you've set up with Photos.

What syncs, what doesn't sync

Photos for Mac syncs a lot more than just your original photos and videos. According to a support document on Apple.com, here's what else you should expect to see sync:

• All folders and albums
• Smart Albums
• Keywords
• Memories
• Searchable keywords
• Key photo selections

There are a few things iCloud Photo Library won't sync, however. Here's Apple's list:

• Books, cards, calendars, and slideshows
• Keyword shortcuts
• Unused keywords
• Last imported album on the Mac in question
• Names and faces in the People album

For those not using iCloud Photo Library

If you've chosen not to enable iCloud Photo Library, Apple still offers you free syncing of your last 1000 photos via My Photo Stream, which doesn't count toward your iCloud disk space.

This will sync and download images you've imported or taken on other devices, but you won't have the option to optimize your storage or sync your albums.

Octoober 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.

macOS Catalina

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Whether you’ve just taken a weekend trip up North or the European vacation of your dreams, you’re guaranteed to return home with a massive amount of photos, probably a handful of videos, and, if you were feeling particularly artsy, half a dozen time-lapses.

But now that you’re home, what are you going to do with all those pictures? Where are you going to keep them? How are you going to share them?

Enter the Photos app for Mac.

What is Photos on Mac?

The Photos app is a convenient home for all of your pictures and videos. Anything you shoot, Photos will store it and — better yet — organize it, so you can actually find said pictures when you feel like reliving the memories.

Mac Photos Were Shared Libraries Stored In Word

In this post, we’ll go over the basics of using Apple’s Photos app. We’ll talk about where to find photos on your Mac and how you can manage your ever-growing photo library. And of course, we’ll cover all the features Apple has built into this underrated app.

(If you release the SHIFT key, the “Library” option will disappear from the menu. Library folder mac high sierra. Opening the User Library Folder in macOS SierraIf you just need to access the user /Library folder on occasion, you can get into it by using the Finder “Go” menu. From the Finder in macOS, (Click anywhere on the Desktop where there isn’t already an app window, and you should see “Finder” appear in the upper left hand corner of your display, up near the Apple icon), click the “Go” menu item, and then hold down the SHIFT key on your Mac’s keyboard. Now you see it, now you don’t.)If you’re not much of a mouser, you can just hit the key combo of Command + Shift + L, and a Finder window will appear showing the /Library directory of the active user account. Click on “Library” in the drop-down list.

iPhoto vs Photos: What’s the difference?

Those of you familiar with iPhoto for Mac are probably wondering what makes its successor so special. And to oversimplify it, Photos is the next step in photo management — and a giant step at that.

Prior to Photos, Apple made two apps for managing pictures and videos. iPhoto, for those of us less experienced in photography, and Aperture, for the ones looking to do some heavier editing. Photos perfectly blurs the line between those two apps, combining the best of both while adding new features like iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Photo Sharing.

If you used iPhoto before, Photos will feel instantly recognizable. You’ll have your pictures, albums, and collections in the main window, a navigation sidebar to the left, and different viewing options at the top. However, a significant point of difference between iPhoto and Photos is the app’s performance. When working with larger libraries, iPhoto had the tendency to lag or choke up and had arbitrary limits that would restrict album and collection sizes. Photos gets rid of those limitations entirely and is able to handle much larger libraries than its predecessor. While the look of Photos may be the same, it feels like a faster and more powerful app.

Where are the photos stored on Mac?

The Photos app maintains pictures and videos in its own library, making it easy to view the content, but confusing to access the actual files. To find the photos on your Mac, you’ll need to find that Photos Library first:

1. With the Photos app open, click on Photos in the menu bar
2. Then go to Preferences > General
3. At the top of the window, you’ll see Library Location. Click the Show in Finder button.

The first thing you’ll notice after you find the Photos Library file is you can’t do much with it. You can double-click it, but that opens Photos again. If you want to find the original files of your pictures and videos, you’ll need to:

1. Right-click on Photos Library to open the alternate menu
2. Select Show Package Contents from that menu
3. Open the Masters folder
4. All of your pictures and videos live in this folder, organized by year, month, and date

How to use Apple’s Photos app

When you open Photos for the first time, the app offers you a glimpse of what your library will look like with all your pictures and videos imported. You get a quick intro to some of the features and tools, and learn how you can make these memories tangible through printed objects like calendars, photo books, and more.

Once you’ve finished the tour of the app and gone through the initial setup, you’re all set to start importing your pictures and videos!

How to import photos to Mac

There are several ways you can import your media content to Photos, depending on where you’ve been storing it.

From your iPhone or a digital camera

1. Connect your iPhone or camera to your Mac with a USB cable. You might need to unlock your iPhone with your passcode, and then tap Trust when prompted to Trust This Computer.
2. On your Mac, if the Photos app doesn’t open automatically, go ahead and open it.
3. The Photos app will show you an Import screen that has all the photos and videos on your iPhone or camera. If you don’t see the Import screen, click on your iPhone or camera in the Photos sidebar under Devices.
4. From here you can either choose to Import All New Items or select a batch and click Import Selected.

From a folder or an external hard drive in Finder

You have a couple of options here. If your pictures and videos live on an external hard drive, you’ll want to make sure it’s connected first. Then, you’ll want to do one of the following:

• Drag the files from your drive into the Photos window
• Drag the files from your drive onto the Photos icon in the Dock
• In Photos, go to File > Import from the menu bar. Choose the photos or videos you want to import and click Review for Import.

An important thing to know about Photos is that the app copies the pictures and videos into the Photos Library we talked about earlier, leaving the original file either on your device or in its folder.

Tabs in Photos: Library, Albums, Projects

Have you ever been unable to find a specific picture because you couldn’t remember when you took it? You can remember everything else about the photo, things like where it was taken and who was in it, but not the one thing you need to navigate your files.

The Photos app helps you with this predicament by organizing your pictures not only by date, but also by event, location, and even by people’s faces. In the sidebar, you’ll find a number of tabs designed to make sorting through your pictures easier.

Memories. Photos creates “memories” based on who is in a series of images as well as when and where those pictures were taken.

Favorites. These are the pictures you’ve gone through and clicked the heart icon on, marking them as your favorites.

People. This is where you’ll be able to see all the pictures of you have of specific people.

Places. This is where you can see all the pictures you’ve taken in specific locations.

Shared. This section is where you’ll find all the albums you’ve shared with other people and the albums that have been shared with you. (Check out our guide to iCloud Photo Sharing for more info on Shared Albums.)

Albums. If you want to group certain pictures for easy navigation, you’ll want to create a new album. This section is where you can access those albums.

How to tag people in photos

If you want to tag someone in a specific picture:

1. Open the photo in the Photos app
2. Click the info button in the top right corner.
3. At the bottom of the info window, you’ll see circles with faces at the bottom. Tap on one of those.
4. The face will now be circled on the photo. Underneath the circle will be a text box labeled “unnamed.” Click on the text box and type the person’s name.

If the person you’re tagging has already been tagged in your Library, their name should appear under the circle on the photo.

How to share pictures from the Photos app

The Photos app on Mac has made it easier than before to share your pictures. Just select the photos you want to share and click on the Share button in the top right-hand corner. You’ll see a list of options:

• Shared Albums
• AirDrop
• Messages
• Notes
• and more, depending on what apps and accounts you set up on your Mac

System Shared Libraries

Tap on your preferred option and proceed to send the pic or create a Shared Album.

Now that you’ve gotten a feel for how to use Photos on Mac, it’s time to give it a spin. Once you’ve got your library set up and organized, you’ll see how easy it is to relive and share your memories with Photos.

Linux Shared Libraries

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