Five Easy Steps to Organize a Huge Photos Library and Stop Feeling the “Mac Shame”!

"I have way too many photos! I have to delete some! Don't judge!" If your Mac Photos Library has 20,000 to 300,000+ photos this video is for you! You'll learn some great tips to organize your photos library and - more importantly - stop feeling bad about taking so many photos!

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[frozennorthproductions]

I feel personally attacked at how accurately the intro of this video captured me lol

[Jimmy_Cavallo]

💥💥 I have 234, 000 pictures and videos in Photos and it is running 4.3TB. I wish there was a way to split it up into smaller libraries without losing my albums and “faces”.

[theeccentricenglishman]

You have a very entertaining way of teaching which makes learning so much more of a pleasure. Thank you.

[jfowlDance]

omg THANK YOU! The keyboard simplicity-- no one told me this! Annnnd I don't have to be in an emotional crisis 12, 435 times! 🤯

[Ray-ru]

For a digital photo hoarder that loves keeping all originals, the favorites tip is a great way to baby step towards creating a new smaller library for yourself without permanently deleting or losing anything. I’m going to use this suggestion for adding favorites and creating albums only from the favorites. Great tip!! Then you can easily export all these albums to a new photos library that you can select to be your new systems library that will sync to all your devices. Then just save the old enormous library on a hard drive so you know you have it if you ever need it! Then your actual phone and iPad and photos library you use on the daily is operating from your favorites and new stuff only! Great option for people like me that may have 100, 000 plus photos and videos from decades of photography! We can have our cake and eat it too!

[timothyvanpelt_cyclist]

"There are so many other things to worry about. Why worry about photos?" Haha, exactly. Thanks.

[willytrouble]

i did subscribe to the 2TB iCloud plan, however, it still saves all the photos on my phone and mac. this doesn't save me any space on my hard drive at all. is there a way to just keep them in iCloud and have a thumbnail on my phone and/or mac? really confused.

[davidmanderson]

Wow, best advice and orientation I have ever seen on organizing my photos, I am head on to macinhome right now, thanks so much!

[reneechristineharp]

Love your vids, just found your work. Has been helpful as I prepare for major Mac changes (finally deal with Aperture Library, enabling upgrade from Mojave to Big Sur, trim large Photos Library, and ultimately migration to new Mac with latest OS).  

This doesn't seem possible, but I deleted about 4, 000 of my 40, 000+ photos (in Photos) in preparation for upgrading. I emptied the trash, and the library said 36, 000+ photos. I made note of what the new library was called, (Library 2, with the old Systems Library also there in another file). I migrated Aperture Library into Photos. At this point the directory lists numerous libraries, including the long ago migrated iPhoto, and multiple Aperture Libraries. 

I upgraded my Mac and when I opened photos it only had the option of Systems Library and Library 2. Library 2 now had the migrated Aperture photos, (+ problems) and "Systems Library". I opened it, and it had 40, 000+ photos. I looked in system files for another library, and there are several labeled Aperture, and iPhoto, and the two I now see in Photos, but nothing else.  

So is "Systems Library" a permanent library that keeps all deleted photos, regardless of changes??? This is the library I started with, deleted from, and emptied the trash. And what happened to the library I spent hours culling and re-organizing? The name it was auto-assigned is now the name of something else (old Aperture). I am rather distraught at repeating the hours it took to delete 4, 000 photos, not to mention all the reorganizing of my albums. But even more concerned about future implications when I move to a new Mac in a few weeks. Can you tell me what is most likely going on here? Thankyou!

[conniechristenson]

Oh thank you! I am a digital hoarder and have a jillion images and feel the "Mac Shame". I guess I am not alone and now I know the month of "Neverovember" will never be here and I can simply do your few steps and accept my hoarding!! Great video!

[thephotomanagers]

Great tips! Those keyboard shortcuts for Apple Photos will save a ton of time! 👍

[walterreil]

Lucas, Hello again from Atascadero, California. I first met you via YouTube a few days ago. I had my first training session with Kadir this morning (2/19/24). It was very informative and productive, all about how to establish my computer data storage on external drives and setup backup routines. I will begin my Apple Photos app training with Kadir in the coming days / weeks. One question about this video --- you briefly mention sharing photos with family and friends by setting up a Shared Album (or I presume multiple Shared Albums). When you set up photo sharing, do the receivers of your album viewing invitations also have to be Apple computer users, having access to Apple Photos too? Thank you. 😃

[daniel.staten]

This is the reality check I needed! What a great strategy. Thank you for this!

[BrandingBuff]

How can I quickly select / filter only horizontal format videos in the app?

[quasiguy]

Brilliantly done. If your team is anything like you, you've got a busy, thriving business. I've been a Mac user since the original one came out in 1984...true story...but I find it harder to keep up with all the many innovations on my newer Macs. I'm going to be watching your videos and, hopefully, learning a ton...and remember at least a quarter ton of it. Keep up the good work!

[corteltube]

😂🤣😂. Really dreading that zombie apocalypse. Thanks…great video.

[automaticraccon]

Except I already did all that and it still is too much. 40.000+, a mix of memories and business. Drives me nuts. And I am out of space on my desktop HD despite using iCloud because not having copies on the desktop is a time killer and I hate it so much. I already tried to outsource the Library to a 2nd SSD drive but on that one iCloud won't work. It's tricky. I hate it atm.

[razorbackroar]

Can you batch favorite photos without pressing space bar?

[williammarks]

So so so SOOO on the mark. Thank you!

[MonsieurSchue]

What if you have way too many photos so the "Photos" app became buggy and slow to even open up or navigate?