Mac Photos Library Masters Vs Originals

Wondering, “Where does iPhoto store photos?” Well, in this post, you will get to know about the location where it stores your photos, and how find photos on Mac.

The Photos Library 'Masters' folder holds all your original image files. Screen capture by Brad Moon. Start copying the contents to a new location, one folder at a time. Make certain you are.

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iPhone Photo Tips

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. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard. Double-click on Photos on your Mac. To do this, go to iOS Settings and choose Photos then Download and Keep Originals, or open Photos on macOS and choose Photos, Preferences, iCloud, and Download Originals to this Mac.

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Without any doubt, iPhoto is a useful picture management application by Apple. The app was present on a Mac computer, but it replaced with Photos application in 2015. However, whenever users import photos into iPhoto, the app makes copies of their photos and leaves original files somewhere else where users can’t access them easily.

No matter for what reasons you want to know the location where iPhoto stores original pictures whether for backup purpose or to transfer them into another application, you can refer to this guide. Here, we are going to show you where iPhoto stores photos in detail. Also, you will get to learn how to find photos on Mac computer.

Part 1: Where Does iPhoto Store Photos

So, let’s begin: iPhoto stores your picture copies in a special folder known as “iPhoto Library”. You can locate in your Mac Home folder and then, Pictures folder. Here are the detailed steps to find the location where iPhoto stores photos:

Step 1. To begin the process, go to the “Finder” in your Mac computer and after that, navigate to your Home directory.

Step 2. Thereafter, if you log in to your Mac computer with the name “Alex”, the full path to the folder “iPhoto Library” would be Mac HD > Users > Alex > Pictures > iPhoto Library. And right-click on the folder, and then, choose the “Show Package Contents” option.

Where Does iPhoto Store Photos

Step 3. When you reach your iPhoto Library folder, you will see a set of files and folders organized with numbers. All these numbers you see are the originals files creation dates. Look at the below figure to understand.

However, if you are now using an iPhoto newer version known as Photos, then you can locate the photos in a similar way as described above. But, you have to locate the “Photo Library” folder instead of “iPhoto Library” folder. And then, tap on “Masters” to view your pictures set in folders by date.

Part 2: How to Find Photos on Mac and Transfer Photos to Mac

No doubt, iPhoto or Photo application allows you to view pictures on Mac. But, what if you want to transfer photos from iPhone to Mac? Don’t worry as AnyTrans is here for you. It is mainly designed for iOS data management and transfer. With the help of it, you can manage your iPhone files including photos on Mac easily. Here are its main features and advantages on photos management:

Transfer any type of photos: With the help of it, you can move photos in Photo Stream, Camera Roll, Photo Library, Photo Share, and Albums from your iPhone to Mac.
Support selective transfer: It allows you to move all photos in one go or only selected photos to your Mac.
Multi-directional transfer: It allows you to migrate files from computer to iPhone also, and there will be no data and quality loss during transfer.
Supports all data types: No matter whether you want to move photos, audio, videos, apps, contacts, or any other data type from your iPhone to Mac, it can do it with ease.

Now, Free Download AnyTrans on your computer, and then follow the step-by-step guide to view and transfer photos from iPhone to Mac effortlessly.

Free Download * 100% Clean & Safe

Step 1: Connect your iPhone and Mac.

To begin the process, launch the software on your Mac. Then, run it and connect your iPhone to a computer with the help of a digital cable. Next, click Photos category as shown in the figure.

Open AnyTrans and Choose Photos

Step 2: Transfer photos from iPhone to Mac.

After that, select “Photos” and then, choose a photo type you want to move to your Mac computer from iPhone. Let’s take an example of My Photos. Here, choose the desired pictures you want to move and finally, click on the “to Mac” button as shown in the figure.

Step 3: View photos on Mac.

After the process completes, you can view the transferred photos on your Mac.

How to View Photos on Mac

The Bottom Line

That’s all on how to find photo files on Mac and how to transfer them to Mac. Hopefully, this guide helps you to find the location of your iPhoto/Photo original files. However, give a try to AnyTrans software by downloading and installing it on your PC, and manage your iPhone data in a better and efficient way.

Choose a photo library

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.

Export photos and videos from the source library

Open the source library, then decide whether you want to export your files as unmodified originals or edited versions:

Edited versions

Iphoto Library Masters Vs Originals

Edited versions retain their edits when you import them. The advantage is that you don't have to recreate any edits; however, these files become the destination library's originals. This means that you can't revert to their earliest pre-import version.

Unmodified originals

Unmodified originals don't show any edits that you made when they were in the source library. This gives you flexibility for later editing, but recreating your edits might take substantial work.

How to export edited versions

In the Photos app, select the photos and videos that you want to export. To select multiple items, press and hold the Command key while you click. To select a group of items in order, click the first one, then press and hold the Shift key while you click the last one. This selects all of the items between the two that you clicked. To select all of the items in your library, go to the Library tab > All Photos, select an item, then click Command-A.
Choose File > Export > Export [number].
An export dialog appears.
- In the Photos section, set Photo Kind to JPEG, TIFF, or PNG. JPEG recompresses your photos, which may result in smaller file sizes. TIFF and PNG files are higher fidelity and may result in larger file sizes.
- In the Videos section, choose a Movie Quality setting. This section appears only if your selected items include videos.
- In the Info section, select the checkboxes if you want to preserve metadata and location data in the exported files.
- In the File Naming section, set File Name to Use File Name and set Subfolder Format to either Moment Name or None. Moment Name creates a subfolder for each Moment that's represented in your selected items. This is useful if you'd like to create an Album in the destination library for each Moment. The None option exports all of the files directly into the destination folder.
Click Export. A Finder dialog appears.
Navigate to the location where you want to save the files, such as the Desktop or an external drive. Click New Folder if you create a new folder for your exported items.
Click Export.

How to export unmodified originals

In the Photos app, then select the photos and videos that you want to export. To select multiple items, press and hold the Command key while you click. To select a group of items in order, click the first one, then press and hold the Shift key while you click the last one. This selects all of the items between the two that you clicked. To select all of the items in your library, go to the Library tab > All Photos, select an item, then click Command-A.
Choose File > Export > Export Unmodified Original.
An export dialog appears.
- If your photos include IPTC metadata (such as titles or keywords) that you want to keep, select the Export IPTC as XMP checkbox.
- Leave the File Name setting on Use File Name.
- Next to Subfolder Format, choose Moment Name or None. Moment Name creates a subfolder for each Moment that's represented in your selected items. This is useful if you'd like to create an Album in the destination library for each Moment. The None option exports all of the files directly into the destination folder.
Click Export. A Finder dialog appears.
Navigate to the location where you want to save the files, such as the Desktop or an external drive. Click New Folder if you create a new folder for your exported items.
Click Export Originals.

How to export your edited photos

You can create a Smart Album to quickly identify your edited photos and export them.

To create a Smart Album for edited images:

Choose File > New Smart Album.
Choose Photo is [edited] from the Smart Album Criteria. The new Smart Album will appear at the top of the Albums list.
Open the album and press the Command key-A to select all, then choose File > Export.

Mac Photos Masters Vs Originals

How to import photos and videos into the destination library

In the Photos app, open the destination library and choose File > Import.
In the Import window, navigate to the Finder folder that contains the photos and videos that you want to import.
Select the photos and videos to import, then choose Review for Import.
Click Import All New Photos.

The photos in the folder are sorted based on their creation dates and locations. The videos are sorted based on the date you exported them from the source library.

If you created subfolders when you exported the items and you want to create an Album for each subfolder, follow these steps: