How To Change Metadata On Photos Mac

Photos app on Mac Source: iMore

I've had a multi-Mac household pretty much since college, rocking a laptop and desktop in addition to miscellaneous iOS devices throughout the years. Dropbox and iCloud sync made near of the pains of using several Macs disappear, but iPhoto was always a problem. My laptop is tiny! My iPhoto library, not and so much.

Thankfully, Photos for Mac — paired with iCloud Photo Library's Optimize Storage feature — makes working with and syncing multiple Macs a cakewalk. Hither'south how you tin exercise information technology.

How to use Photos and iCloud Photo Library with multiple Macs

Here's a quick, simple breakup on setting upward your Macs to support Photos and iCloud Photo Library.

macOS Catalina Photos overview Source: iMore

I recommend starting with your biggest iPhoto library; it'll usually be on your desktop Mac. When you open up Photos for the first time, your library should import automatically; if it prompts y'all to create a new library, your Photos library may be stored in another location on your Mac, and you may need to manually open it.

Once y'all've imported your biggest library on your Mac, make sure iCloud Photo Library is turned on and syncing. You lot can do this by following these steps:

Launch Photos on your Mac.
Click Photos in the carte du jour bar.
Select Preferences (or practice this quicker by pressing ⌘,).

Source: iMore
Click on the iCloud tab.

Source: iMore
Bank check off the box for iCloud Photos.
- You tin can likewise bank check off the box for Download Originals to this Mac if you have the space.
- You can cheque off Optimize Mac Storage to save infinite on your Mac past just saving a percent of images and video locally — the balance will be thumbnails that you tin click on to download when you want to.
Source: iMore

How to back upward your iCloud Photo Library

At present, open your other Mac, and launch Photos. If you take an iPhoto library on that secondary Mac, follow the aforementioned steps as above — import your library, then turn on iCloud Photograph Library. If you accept duplicates of the same photo on each reckoner, iCloud should automatically resolve those conflicts when it syncs, providing you with just ane version of your photos when the sync process finishes.

If you don't have an iPhoto library on your secondary Mac, create a new library in Photos and turn on iCloud Photograph Library. If you want to save storage infinite on this secondary Mac, make sure Optimize Mac Storage is selected: This will save a sure percentage of images and video locally to your device, while providing thumbnails of all the others for you to download at your leisure.

How to create a new library with Photos for Mac

After you've fix all your Macs with Photos and the sync process has finished, you're now good to go. From hither on out, any time you add photos, they'll sync to every estimator you've fix up with Photos.

What syncs, what doesn't sync

Photos for Mac syncs a lot more simply your original photos and videos. According to a back up document on Apple.com, hither's what else you should expect to encounter sync:

All folders and albums
Smart Albums
Keywords
Memories
Searchable keywords
Key photograph selections

Catalina Photos keywords Source: iMore

There are a few things iCloud Photo Library won't sync, still. Here's Apple's list:

Books, cards, calendars, and slideshows
Keyword shortcuts
Unused keywords
Last imported anthology on the Mac in question
Names and faces in the People album

For those not using iCloud Photo Library

If you've called non to enable iCloud Photo Library, Apple still offers you complimentary syncing of your last 1000 photos via My Photo Stream, which doesn't count toward your iCloud disk infinite.

This will sync and download images you've imported or taken on other devices, but you won't take the option to optimize your storage or sync your albums.

Octoober 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an before version of this guide.