But it’s also a ground-up rewrite of our Mac photo experience, and some pieces are missing (some permanently), some moved, and some broken. Repeat for each library. Or, you can export from.
- .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. Nowhere is the secret: to export your Mac Photos library to another location, all you have to.
- Note: If you use iCloud Photos and you restore the System Photo Library from a Time Machine backup, any photos you’ve deleted since the last Time Machine backup are restored to your Mac and uploaded to iCloud again.If you chose to optimize Mac storage, Time Machine may not have a backup of your originals. However, the originals are stored in iCloud.
- By Glenn Fleishman. A new file by translating the image or video in the library into something new. Menu in Photos, and you’ll see Export Quantity Photo (or Video) and Export.
- 2020-3-18 Here's how to open one of the multiple photo libraries that you might have on your Mac or on a connected external drive: Press and hold the Option key as you open the Photos app. Select the library that you want to open, then click Choose Library. Photos uses this library until you open a different one using the same steps.
Photos User Guide
If you back up your Mac with Time Machine, you can easily restore a photo library to its state when the last backup was performed.
Note: If you use iCloud Photos and you restore the System Photo Library from a Time Machine backup, any photos you’ve deleted since the last Time Machine backup are restored to your Mac and uploaded to iCloud again. If you chose to optimize Mac storage, Time Machine may not have a backup of your originals. However, the originals are stored in iCloud.
If the Photos app on your Mac is open, choose Photos > Quit Photos.
Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and choose Enter Time Machine, or choose the Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
Time Machine opens and shows your available backups.
Click the date of your last backup, navigate to the backup of your photo library, then click to select it.
Click Restore.
Depending on the size of your library, it may take some time for your library to be restored. When you next open Photos, you should be able to use your Photos library as it was when last backed up.
