Change Default Library Photos Mac

Feb 05, 2013  As we take more photos, download more music and videos, space is being used up quicker now than ever before. To combat this, we’re going to use an external hard drive. We’ll show you how to move your iTunes, iPhoto or Aperture library to an external hard drive. Feb 05, 2011  2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.

Export Mac Photos Library

The iCloud Photo Library is one of those “where have you been all my life” kind of apps. Once you’ve started using it, there’s no going back. The iCloud Photo Library lets you sync your photos across all other devices meaning your precious memories are with you at all times and completely safe should anything happen to your device.

Sep 03, 2019  Keep fresh your screen from Download HD Mac Wallpaper or For iPhone 7 Plus Download Wallpaper. Also Read – Best Real Estate apps for iPhone 6, Phone 6 plus – Canada- USA – 2015. Share this post on, how to Change desktop background Picture on Mac OS X Yosemite in your Social media Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others. Jan 20, 2020  In a default installation, you will not be able to access the Plex Media Server data directory when running on NVIDIA SHIELD. In order for you to have access, you need to choose to move the storage location for the server. Before going ahead with the steps to Access the Hidden Library Folder on your Mac, you need to be aware that /Library Folder contains important Data and Files related to Mac User Accounts. Hence, make sure that you are accessing the Library Folder for a good reason and you do know as to what you are trying to achieve. Nov 13, 2016  How to find and change Apple’s default wallpaper on macOS Sierra. Repaper your Mac. To start with, open Finder. Into this type: /Library/Desktop Pictures and hit Go. May 24, 2018  Your Mac lets you pause the upload whenever you like. To do this, open up the Photos app, select Photos, then click on Moments. Scroll to the bottom of your photos and hit the Pause button. How to Access iCloud Photos on Mac. The iCloud Photo Library really doesn’t change anything in terms of how you view or manage your photos.

Before we show you how to set up the iCloud Photo Library and how to access iCloud on Mac, there’s a bit of housekeeping we need you to take care of.

How to keep no junk in iCloud

One of iCloud’s great features is that it automatically backs up all of your photos. So when you’re out happily snapping away with your iPhone camera, iCloud will work in the background to add all of your images to the Photo Library so that you can instantly access them on your Mac when you get home.

However, as you’re going to be setting up the Library for the first time, your Mac will automatically start syncing every image that already exists on your computer to iCloud. There are two reasons why this might not be ideal:

  1. There are photos on your Mac that you don’t want, or need, uploading.
  2. The iCloud Photo Library only comes with 5GB of free storage. More storage costs a minimum of $0.99 (USD) a month.

So, before switching on the Photo Library, it’s worth clearing out some of your iPhoto junk. CleanMyMac X lets you do this in a few clicks, using its smart scanning tool to only remove photos that you no longer need, such as pre-rotated or pre-cropped shots.

Here’s how to use CleanMyMac to clean up your iPhoto folders.

  1. Download CleanMyMac (you can do that here, for free).
  2. Launch CleanMyMac and click on Photo Junk from the sidebar menu.
  3. Your default photo library is already pre-selected to be scanned, but can easily be changed by clicking on Change Library.
  4. Hit Scan.
  5. Then hit Clean.

That’s it! No more useless photos poised to take up precious iCloud space.

Setting up the iCloud Photo Library

Okay, you’re ready to start syncing your photos. Before turning on the iCloud Photo Library make sure that you’re running the latest version of macOS. You can check for updates by going to Apple Menu > System Preferences > App Store and clicking on the Updates tab. While you’re there, check that “Automatically check for updates” and “Download newly available updates in the background” are selected, this will ensure you never miss a new update. Then, check that you’re signed to iCloud with the same Apple ID that you use across all devices.

To turn on the iCloud Photo Library, go to System Preferences > iCloud. Next to Photos, click Options, then select iCloud Photo Library.

Your photos will now automatically begin uploading to the iCloud Photo Library. Depending on the size of your collection and your internet speed, the process might take some time. Fortunately, you don’t have to upload everything at once. Your Mac lets you pause the upload whenever you like.

To do this, open up the Photos app, select Photos, then click on Moments. Scroll to the bottom of your photos and hit the Pause button.

How to Access iCloud Photos on Mac

The iCloud Photo Library really doesn’t change anything in terms of how you view or manage your photos. To view photos synced to iCloud, open up the Photos app — they’ll all be there, just like before.

The Photos app is also the place to manage your storage space. iCloud offers an “Optimize Mac Storage” feature that stores full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud and keeps originals on your Mac (if you have space). It’s a feature worth using alongside CleanMyMac to better manage your free space. To enable the feature, click Photos > Preferences and select Optimize Mac Storage.

If you decide that 5GB of storage isn’t enough, you can upgrade your plan by going to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage and clicking on Storage Plan or Buy More Storage.

How to access iCloud Photos on an iOS device

While your Mac is likely to be your main hub for organizing and editing photos, your iPhone or iPad is the device you'll use to snap all of those lovely photos.

To access the iCloud from iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Apple TV first you’ll need to turn it on. In iOS 10.3 or later, do this by going to Settings > [name] > iCloud > Photos, then turn on iCloud Photo Library.

In iOS 10.2 or earlier, go to Settings > iCloud > Photos.

On Apple TV tvOS 9.2 or later, go to Settings > Accounts > iCloud > iCloud Photo Library.

Now, iCloud storage access of all photos and videos can be had by using the Photos app.

How to access iCloud drive from a browser

If you don’t have your Mac or iOS device, you’ll be pleased to know that you can also access iCloud from a PC, Android, or Windows device using your preferred browser.

All you need to do is go to iCloud.com and login in using your Apple ID. Once you’re logged in, click on the iCloud Drive button to manage your account in the same way that you would on your Mac.

Keep the photos you need, get rid of the ones you don’t

Enabling the iCloud Photo Library across all of your devices is the best way to organize and manage your photos, and keep your precious memories close to hand at all times. However, you should always be mindful of space. If you shoot as many videos as you take photos, iCloud’s 5GB of free storage can be maxed out fast, leaving you unable to backup media files until you upgrade or delete unwanted photos.

With the Photo Library enabled, make a regular habit of using CleanMyMac to delete unneeded photos and manage space with iCloud’s optimize feature.

CleanMyMac X makes it easy to rid your Mac of old photos and videos to ensure your iCloud Photo Library only syncs the things you need. Download the app for free today.

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We take a lot of photos with our iPhones and even DSLRs and other cameras. Photos are great for capturing memories with others, or when you just want to get a snapshot of something beautiful. Photos on Mac can help you keep all of your photos in one place, and even help you organize them.

How to add pictures and videos to albums

If you have a lot of photos and videos, one of the simplest and easiest ways to start organizing everything is to make use of albums, especially when you give them good names. And if you use iCloud Photo Library, all of your albums in Photos for Mac get synced to your iOS devices too.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Click on Photos in the sidebar, under the Library section.

  3. Pick out the photos you want to add to an album, either new or existing.

    • Hold down the command key on your Mac and click to select multiple photos.
  4. Right-click on your chosen photos and videos.
  5. Move the cursor to Add to.

  6. You can choose an existing album, or create new album.

    • If making a new album, give it a good, easy-to-remember name.

Optionally, you can make a new album at any time by clicking the + button that appears in the sidebar next to My Albums. Drag-and-drop the albums in whatever order you want to rearrange them in the sidebar.

How to organize albums and folders

When you have a lot of albums, it may be better to clean it all up by organizing albums into folders, which are like collections of albums. It's easy to do.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Either right-click on My Albums in the sidebar, or hover above and then click on the + button that appears next to My Albums.

  3. Click New Folder.

  4. Give your folder a name.

  5. Drag the albums that you want into that folder.

How to use Smart Albums

Smart Albums are like regular albums, but smarter, obviously. They're great for helping you quickly organize images without the need of manually adding each one to an album because it's all automated.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Right-click on My Albums or click the + button that appears next to My Albums.

  3. Select New Smart Album.
  4. Give your Smart Album a name.

  5. Choose the parameters for your Smart Album.

  6. Click OK to confirm.

Smart Albums have a large number of different parameters, such as photos, faces, aperture, ISO, Live Photo, RAW, Portrait, and more. With all of these options, you can create many different Smart Albums to suit whatever it is you need.

If you're not satisfied with the Smart Album, you can always tweak the settings by clicking on the gear icon that's next to the Smart Album's title, then re-select the parameters you want to use.

Unfortunately, Smart Albums do not sync to your other devices through iCloud Photo Library, as they're only available on your Mac.

How to navigate Photos for Mac faster with the sidebar

The Sidebar in Photos is a great way to quickly jump between various areas in Photos quickly and easily. Plus, it helps you find albums that may otherwise be hidden, so this was a design choice made by Apple.

However, if you are running macOS Sierra and older, you can actually hide or unhide the sidebar as you wish.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
  2. Click on View in the menu bar.
  3. Select Show Sidebar in the menu.
  4. The sidebar will appear on the left side of the screen.

  5. Follow the steps above to hide it (make sure Show Sidebar is unchecked).

How to navigate moments, collections, and year views in macOS Mojave and earlier

One of the coolest things about Photos is that it intelligently groups all of your photos and videos into moments, collections, and years.

This means that your photos appear in a timeline and are grouped by things like location, or even event. It's a great way to take a look back at your memories and relive those specific moments in time.

The Moments, Collections, and Year views are only available in macOS Mojave and older.

Set Default Photos Library

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
  2. Make sure that you're in the Photos view from the sidebar.

  3. Click on Photos, Moments, Collections, or Years buttons at the top of the window.

  4. Click on a section of a Year to move to that Collection, or a section of a Collection to drill down into that Moment, or an item in a Moment to view that image or video in closer detail.

  5. You can also use your keyboard's arrow keys to move between photos and videos in a Moment.

  6. A single click on an item selects it, while a double click takes you to view it.

In the Year and Collections views, thumbnails can be small. You can click-and-hold and then drag the cursor in any direction over the thumbnails to get a larger preview. Letting go will take you directly to the image that the cursor was last on.

How to navigate through Years, Months, and Days in macOS Catalina

To replace the previous Moments/Collections/Years view, Catalina changed it to Years, Months, and Days for simplicity.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Make sure you're in the Photos section in the sidebar.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click the Years, Months, or DaysWhat to do when mac says closing the library. buttons at the top of the window. The default view is All Photos.

  4. Clicking on Years lets you see each year as a block. Double-clicking the year takes you into Months.

  5. When you double-click on a Month, you'll drill down into the Days view.

How to create a new library with Photos for Mac

You can create a new library for your photos at any time with Photos for Mac. To do so, make sure that you quit Photos and reopen it with the following method to get the Library options.

  1. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
  2. Double-click on Photos on your Mac.
  3. Click on the Create New button in the Choose Library window.
  4. Name your Library.

  5. Click OK.

You've now created a brand new Photos Library. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to migrate over photos and video, so you will need to export the content you want, and then import it back into the new library.

How to switch between Libraries in Photos for Mac

When you create a new library, you may still want to go back to a previous library for something. Fortunately, it's easy to switch between multiple libraries.

  1. Make sure that Photos is not open (quit if it is).
  2. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
  3. Double-click on Photos.

  4. Click on the name of the library you want to open.

Voilá! Just make sure to repeat this process each time you want to switch to a different Photo library.

How to move your Photos library to an external hard drive

If you're low on storage space on your Mac, you can just move your Photos Library to an external hard drive. Keep in mind though, that you will need to have this external drive plugged in to access your Photos Library, even if you have iCloud Photo Library enabled. And you aren't able to create a second Photos Library that has iCloud Photo Library enabled on your Mac, so be wary.

  1. Launch a Finder window on your Mac.
  2. Click on the Mac hard drive (Macintosh HD) in the sidebar.
  3. Double-click on the Users folder.
  4. Double-click on your username.
  5. Double-click on your Pictures folder.

  6. Click on the Photos Library file and then drag it to your external hard drive in the sidebar.

This process may take a while, depending on how big your Photos library is.

A note on reference libraries

The Photos app technically supports the management of images that aren't locally stored within its library — that is, you can keep a set of images in a folder called 'October Trip' and manage them within Photos without having to make a separate copy of them. You can do this by navigating to Photos > Preferences from the menu bar, selecting the General tab, and unchecking the 'Copy items to the Photos library' box under Importing.

That said, reference libraries won't play nicely with iCloud Photo Library users; you may run into problems when syncing, or not be able to sync at all. So if you plan on using a reference library, you'll have to opt out of iCloud Photo Library.

I also didn't have any luck getting referenced files to sync properly with Photos — I'd delete a photo, but the reference file would stay in its original location, even after deleting it from the 'Recently Deleted' folder. Not sure if that's a bug or just not how Photos wants us managing referenced photos, but worth noting.

Mac Photos Library Size

Questions?

Sound off in the comments below!

October 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.

I use it often to view the preferences for the apps I have installed on my Mac. This is a folder that Apple feels you shouldn’t need access to most of the the time, but occasionally, you may need it for specific things. I also use it to access the Application Support folder, which as its name alludes to, features supporting files for apps.If you use a Mac for a long enough time, you’ll eventually run into a situation where you’ll need to access the /Library folder. How to access library on mac el capitan. This video tutorial will show you several ways to do just that.

Photos for Mac

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