migrating Photos but not with the Apple way

[zoran]

I have a huge collection of photos and videos in Photos in HighSierra. How can i move those to a diff computer that will be running the latest OSX but without the use of migration assistant?
Its a different machine the one i wish only Photos to be transported there... is it possible?

 

[Fishrrman]

Are all the pics and videos in the Photos library on the High Sierra Mac?

Or.. are they stored some other way?

Is there enough room for the library on the newer Mac?

What is the size of the Photos library?

IF everything is inside the Photos library (which looks like a single icon but it's actually a folder full of stuff), then you could:
- copy it to an external USB drive or USB flashdrive (if the flashdrive is big enough)
- connect the drive to the new Mac
- take a step to prevent permissions problems (see below)***
- copy the Photos library into the "pictures" folder on your new Mac, replacing the Photos library that already may be there.
- open Photos and "direct it" to the new library (if it doesn't pick it up automatically). You can do this by holding down the option key while you click on the Photos icon in the dock.

I reckon that will work.

*** How to prevent permissions problems when moving from one Mac to another:
- connect the drive to the new Mac
- let the icon mount on the desktop
- click on the icon ONE TIME to select it
- bring up the get info box for it (command-i)
- at the bottom of get info, click the lock and enter the password you are using on the NEW Mac
- put a checkmark into "ignore ownership on this volume" (sharing and permissions)
- close get info.
Now you can copy stuff from the USB drive to the new Mac, and whatever you copy will "come under the ownership" of your new account.

 

[zoran]

Yes all photos are in the Photos Library and the size is 110GB

What do i do if already have a few photos and i want to merge the photos from the old Mac to the new Mac?

 

[Fishrrman]

"What do i do if already have a few photos and i want to merge the photos from the old Mac to the new Mac?"

You could try this:
- Move the smaller Photos library to another location (could be on the new Mac, an external drive, a USB flashdrive, etc.).
- Move the BIG Photos library from the older Mac to the new Mac (as I described above)
- Now, open Photos, and choose to "import" your "smaller" library into the bigger one.

I've never needed to do this, but seems like it would work to me...

 

[zoran]

Do u think it could work if i copied the folders contained in the "Masters" folder of the Package ?

 

[Fishrrman]

"Do u think it could work if i copied the folders contained in the "Masters" folder of the Package ?"

I don't think that would work. It might produce results that are very undesirable.
I noticed that Photos has a menu choice (file menu) called "Consolidate". That might work, but I have never tied it.

 

[zoran]

How can i test it though? Perhaps create a demo/test account and try it there?