You can use iCloud Photos, Shared Albums, and My Photo Stream only with the System Photo Library. If you choose a different library in Photos without designating it as the System Photo Library, the iCloud tab in Photos settings is disabled.
Mac Photos Selecting Library
If you designate a new library as the System Photo Library and then turn on iCloud Photos, the photos and videos in the new library will merge with those already in your iCloud Photos. Additionally, all photos and videos from iCloud will redownload to the device.
If you open a different library in the Photos app, and you haven't designated it as the System Photo Library, other applications will use photos from the original System Photo Library. Hold down the Option key when you open Photos to see which library is set as the System Photo Library.
You can create additional photo libraries to organize your photos, albums, and projects, and then switch between the libraries. For example, you could keep separate libraries for personal photos and work photos.
You can also create an iCloud Shared Photo Library that up to five family members and friends can access. Your iCloud Shared Photo Library provides a new way to share photos seamlessly in a separate iCloud library that all participants can collaborate on, contribute to, and enjoy. See What is iCloud Shared Photo Library?
You can switch to another library and designate it as the System Photo Library. For information about considerations to keep in mind when choosing the System Photo Library, see System Photo Library overview.
When you first set up Photos for Mac, it asks you to choose a library. This becomes your default library, or the System Photo Library in Apple's parlance. You might logically conclude that Photos always opens the System Photo Library unless otherwise instructed, but the app instead opens the Last Opened library.
To choose a different library than the library you last opened, hold down the Option key when launching Photos. It will open a dialogue window before opening Photos, asking you to Choose Library or Create New. You can't merge libraries using Photos; you can only view them separately.
If you decide at some point you'd like to pick a different photo library as your default library for Photos, you can do so by going to the General tab of Preferences and click the button Use as System Photo Library.
If you are using iCloud Photo Library with the Photos app, it will work only with the System Photo Library. That is, your secondary libraries will not upload photos to iCloud to share across your iOS devices and OS X machines. If you want to get all of your photos and videos in iCloud, however, you can designate another library as your System Photo Library and then enable iCloud Photo Library. The Photos app will then upload the new library's photos to iCloud Photo Library, merging them with the photos that are already there from your first System Photo Library.
You can't store your library on a storage device used for Time Machine backups. And to avoid possible data loss, don't store your library on a removable storage device like an SD card or USB flash drive, or on a device shared over your network or the internet, including over a cloud-based storage service.
When you first use Photos, you create a new library or select the library that you want to use. This library automatically becomes your System Photo Library. Although you can use multiple photo libraries in Photos, the System Photo Library is the only library that can use iCloud Photos and Shared Albums. In addition, some Apple apps and third-party apps also access your System Photo Library using the Media Browser.
If you switch to a library other than the System Photo Library, the changes you make are not reflected in iCloud Photos, because iCloud Photos only syncs changes from your System Photo Library. If you create any other libraries, make sure they are backed up using Time Machine.
By default, all the files you import into Photos are stored in the current photo library. If you want, you can set Photos to leave the files you import in their original locations (for example, on a storage device) and not place them in the library. See Change where Photos stores your files.
The reason why the photos cannot find System Photo Library could be different every time. This article discusses all System Photo Library, different ways to find System Photo Library on photos and tips to protect System Photo Library.
With the assistance of this incredible tool, you can easily access various Mac applications, including iMovie, Pages, Keynote, and more. Moreover, it allows you to sync photos on IOS devices and view all your precious collections on Apple TV.
To make it easier for other apps to easily access all the photos and videos that you want to share, it would be better if you designate a System Photo Library. However, it is only essential if you have more than one library.
As briefly mentioned earlier, designating a System Photo Library works best to share your photos on different platforms or devices. This makes it reasonably easy for your computer to choose a photo from the photo library without the need to ask for permission during selection. Not only it reduces time to access photos but also eliminates the hassle of going through the entire procedure every time you want to sync photos with other applications.
1ST Scenario: When you open the iPhoto application on your system, you won't find anything going wrong in the uploading of the photo collection. In this case, there might be only a few photos that you'll find hard to locate.
As mentioned earlier, one of the reasons for the issue is that the iPhoto library version becomes somewhat incompatible with the Photo app. But there are numerous ways to find the System Photo Library on Photos. The tricks mentioned in the following points try to address the issue from different angles. Here are five possible solutions that will help you find photos in System Photo Library.
If there is more than one photo library file, removing the non-essential one could solve this problem. There is a possibility that the photo library without any images has been set as the System Photo Library. If that is the case, it is obvious why you are unable to see any photos. The steps to remove the System Photo Library is as follows,
Though it might seem like a highly unlikely scenario, you might have accidentally moved it to some other location. It would be a difficult task to go through your entire computer to find the System Photo Library. So, here're some of the efficient ways to find a missing photo library.
In all MacOS and IOS operating systems, you will get a desktop search feature called Spotlight. It is located in the top-right corner of the menu bar. You can use this tool for system-wide search action to find the System Photo Library. Follow the steps below to find your photo library files.
If you're unable to find your missing files, it would be best that you create a new photo library. System Photo Library is only there to assist you with efficient management and easy syncing with iCloud Photos and Shared Albums. You still have your photos in your hard drive. Follow the steps to create a new photo library.
Whenever you are exporting photos to iCloud or Shared Albums, make sure it is properly synced with your computer. A good internet connection is vital so that it doesn't take much time to upload huge files. Often it gets corrupted when it transfers big files.
You can't store your library on a storage device used for Time Machine backups. And to avoid possible data loss, don't store your library on a removable storage device, such as an SD card or USB flash drive, or on a device shared over your network or the internet, including over a cloud-based storage service.
If you want to delete the original Photos library to save storage space on your Mac, you can drag it from its original location (the Pictures folder of your home folder) to the Bin. Then empty the Bin.
If you are using macOS 10.13 and higher and your library has HEIC assets, Apple Photos runs a background task to process these photos for migration. After the processing is complete, all the HEIC assets are ready for migration.
(Occasional) Review any exceptions that the migrator reports. For example, the migrator can report an exception if it is unable to locate some photos included in your source catalog. In such a case, you can click Cancel and begin the process afresh after resolving the issues in Apple Photos Library. If you want to ignore the exceptions and continue migrating, click Start Migration.
Note that, by default, all the files you import into Photos are stored in the current photo library. If you want, you can set Photos to leave the files you import in their original locations (for example, on a storage device) and not place them in the library.
If I am working off my Mac, but also saving iPhoto on a external Hard Drive, is it easy to update the external hard drive iPhotos or, would I have to replace the external hard drive version iPhotos on My Mac each time I add new photos? Thank you so much for your information on this.
It is totally mind blowing that the simple act of working with photos is so damn hard on a Mac. I am new to Mac and am coming from windows. Windows was much easier to work with files. EVERYTHING is a PITA on Mac. Is it that damn hard to let me simply point to a folder on an external drive?!?
I have all my photos stored on an external hard drive and have Lightroom and photoshop installed on my Mac which I use to catalogue and edit them.I have not used Apples Photos.Is it possible to import all my photograph library into Photos and still be able to use LR & PSWill photos just catalogue the images and use little space or will it have to copy the whole file.I want to keep my photos on the external HDDIf it is possible how to I go about setting it up 2ff7e9595c
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