There are any number of reasons that one may want to export their Mac Photos (formerly iPhoto) library, including that they want to give it to someone else, they want to duplicate it on another machine, or they want to back their entire Photos library up to another location. But how to export your Photo library, while very simple to do, is not obvious. So, here’s how to export your entire Mac Photos library.
You would think that the Export option under the Photos menu would give you some relief.
Export from Mac Photos
But you would be wrong.
No Export Full Library Option in Mac Photos
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
CashApp us
Venmo us
Paypal us
Now, you can export all of your photos:
But that only exports the actual photo files, not your full library that can be opened with Photos as a library with all of the library settings, etc..
So, how can you export the actual library? It’s actually very easy; here’s how.
How to Export Your Mac Photos Library
The first step in exporting your Mac Photos library is determining where your library resides on your hard drive.
To do that, open Preferences in Photos:
Look in the General section, where it says Library Location:
Now, click on Show in Finder
This will open a Finder window with your current Mac Photos library highlighted
*NOTE: Your Mac Photos library will almost certainly be called something else; we changed the name of the file for the purposes of this tutorial.
Now…here is the secret: to export your Mac Photos library to another location, all you have to do is copy that file over to the new location!
That’s it, you’re done!
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
CashApp us
Venmo us
Paypal us
You may want to be careful to check the Mac Photos app is not set to ‘optimise library’, in which case not all photos reside on the local drive but may be stored in iCloud Library instead, with only a low-res preview in the local library.
Going through the photo export menu will actually download all photos even in that scenario.