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Moving photo albums on MacBook Pro

Joe Hutch

Mate of the bloke
This might be better in the photo room but
anyway …

Last year my 2012 MacBook Pro gave up the ghost. A local repair shop had several goes at mending it, including installing a new SSD, but it just kept crashing.

Fortunately I’d kept all my data backed up, so when I caved in last year and bought a new MBP, I was able to copy it all on to the new machine. However, it was copied into a different drive from the main account, using my login details for the old MBP, so all my pre-2020 photos are stored separately from the newer ones. (There’s not much else I need to access from the old account).

Is there any way of transferring the photos to the main account?
 
Select the folder containing the photos in the old folder and select
Command key and the C key and the same time
and then place the cursor in the folder where you want the images to go to and then press
Command key and the V key

depending on how many pictures and the size of the pictures you should be able to see them appear in the target folder. Depending on the speed of the machine and the size of the files you will seee them appear in the target folder.

When all the files appear to have been copied across, check that all have moved into the new folder, check again the next day and then delete them from the source folder if you are totally happy that alll your files have moved across.
 
Joe are your photos within a mac photo library? If so Dereks advice may not work.

In the pictres folder in the side bar of finder you will see the file called 'Photos Library' you want to copy that from your old user account into the new one.

Rename it 'old photos' or something and right click and copy then click the happy mac face in the dock and click public and drop box then paste

Back in the new account follow these instructions to merge the content with your new library:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209528

You'll find the old library you renamed in that public folder as it crosses over accounts. Once it has merged (could take a long time depending on size) you can delete it from the public folder and if you wish delete the old transfer account.
 
Joe are your photos within a mac photo library? If so Dereks advice may not work.

In the pictres folder in the side bar of finder you will see the file called 'Photos Library' you want to copy that from your old user account into the new one.

Rename it 'old photos' or something and right click and copy then click the happy mac face in the dock and click public and drop box then paste

Back in the new account follow these instructions to merge the content with your new library:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209528

You'll find the old library you renamed in that public folder as it crosses over accounts. Once it has merged (could take a long time depending on size) you can delete it from the public folder and if you wish delete the old transfer account.

Thanks Gary, yes they are in a photo library. I'll try your method if Derek's doesn't work.
 
Sorry - I am not using the photo library app - I am Lightroom based hence source pics are located in regular folders.
 
If you hold down the alt/option key when opening the Photos app it should ask you to select which library to open, so if you can open the old library then select all the photos in there and from the File menu choose Export ( E) and export them to a new folder somewhere. Then go back into your current library and import the photos from that folder. You might just be able to drag and drop the folder on to the app or its icon.
 


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