Two days ago while trying to reorganise my multiple Photos Libraries I came across this Apple web page; https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209528 dated 25th Oct 2021.
Other pages I had found 2018-2020 suggested methods of transfer (import/export) as either a complex manual process or by using iCloud Photos Library to upload all libraries then restore to one library, a process requiring much more iCloud storage than I currently have and very slow.
Then I came across the above article, please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this a brand new feature of Monterey?
"In macOS Monterey, you can import photos and videos from another Photos library, as long as the library you want to import from doesn't have iCloud Photos turned on. When you import from another library, photos and videos will retain existing edits and most metadata is preserved.*The asterix refers to "names".
This procedure allows you to view one library while having another library open. This was always the big problem with multiple libraries, you could only open one at a time after quitting one and relaunching with the Option key. With this procedure you can import to the open library in much the same way that we import via USB from an iPhone to a Mac. You can choose to "Import Selected Items" only or "Import all New Photos," meaning no duplication and except for "names" all metadata is imported as well.
If this is entirely new and I think it is, why haven't I read anything about it because it's a pretty big improvement on how things were?
I have now successfully imported the contents of two Photos Libraries into one making the sorting and duplicate removal process so much easier.
I hope this post will be of help to others it sure was to me.
PS. My Early 13" 2015 MBP worked very hard on this task. I had nothing else running anticipating a fairly CPU intensive exercise and it was. My CPU PECI temp was approx. 100 deg Celsius for the whole process with Macs Fan Control running "Full Blast" (6200 rpm) for the whole procedure.
Other pages I had found 2018-2020 suggested methods of transfer (import/export) as either a complex manual process or by using iCloud Photos Library to upload all libraries then restore to one library, a process requiring much more iCloud storage than I currently have and very slow.
Then I came across the above article, please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this a brand new feature of Monterey?
"In macOS Monterey, you can import photos and videos from another Photos library, as long as the library you want to import from doesn't have iCloud Photos turned on. When you import from another library, photos and videos will retain existing edits and most metadata is preserved.*The asterix refers to "names".
This procedure allows you to view one library while having another library open. This was always the big problem with multiple libraries, you could only open one at a time after quitting one and relaunching with the Option key. With this procedure you can import to the open library in much the same way that we import via USB from an iPhone to a Mac. You can choose to "Import Selected Items" only or "Import all New Photos," meaning no duplication and except for "names" all metadata is imported as well.
If this is entirely new and I think it is, why haven't I read anything about it because it's a pretty big improvement on how things were?
I have now successfully imported the contents of two Photos Libraries into one making the sorting and duplicate removal process so much easier.
I hope this post will be of help to others it sure was to me.
PS. My Early 13" 2015 MBP worked very hard on this task. I had nothing else running anticipating a fairly CPU intensive exercise and it was. My CPU PECI temp was approx. 100 deg Celsius for the whole process with Macs Fan Control running "Full Blast" (6200 rpm) for the whole procedure.
