How to move photos between users?

[mrbiggles]

I purchased a new MacBook and used the Migration Assistant to transfer some of my documents from a Time Machine Backup. I don't want to use my old user account and I have like 60GB of photos.

What is the easiest way to move the photos to my other account? I don't want to copy to shared and then copy to my user account.

 

[talmy]

Don't copy to shared, move to shared. Then copy to the new system from shared. The move operation is instantaneous because the files themselves stay in the same position on the disk.

 

[BaldiMac]

If the Photos are in iPhoto, you can turn on sharing in iPhoto preferences in the old account. Leaving iPhoto open, switch to the new account using fast user switching. Open iPhoto in the new account and make sure sharing is turned on in iPhoto preferences. The old account's library with show up as a shared library in the sidebar. Drag any pictures you want to your new library.

 

[mrbiggles]

talmy, if I move them, what about the ownership?

BaldiMac, will this create duplicates of the 60GB of photos (i.e. copy the photos for both users) when I drag them to my new library?

 

[BaldiMac]

BaldiMac, will this create duplicates of the 60GB of photos (i.e. copy the photos for both users) when I drag them to my new library?

It will copy the photos from the old library, so you would have two sets of the photos until you delete the old library.

 

[r0k]

I believe you can move them to shared, then fast user switch to your own account and move them to your folder. Do you have any photos in your new account yet? If not, you can simply replace the iphoto library in your new account with the one from your old account. You can then option click and set permissions for yourself on the iphoto library, remember to select "apply to items beneath the current directory" (sorry I can't remember the wording of the option.)

Be very very careful. I lost an entire iphoto library by deleting it after copying only to find out it was corrupted. By coincidence, mine had just over 60 Gig of photos. Happily none of my originals were stored there. When I created a new iPhoto library, I turned off the option to copy the photos to iPhoto Library. Now I have an iPhoto library that is only 1.5 gig that includes over 100 gig of photos I keep on a firewire drive. Of course I can't go moving the originals around but that's not a big price to pay. Temporarily having an "extra" 60 gig of disk space used up is not such a big price to pay if it saves you from losing all your photos.

If you want to back everything up before you begin, you can log in as the old user, option-click/right-click iPhoto Library and pick "show package contents". From there you can navigate around inside and copy your files out to a safe location. Of course this doesn't back up all your metadata including events, faces and places but it does allow you to make backup copies of all your jpg image files before you go moving/copying or otherwise messing around with your iPhoto library if it happens to be your last copy of those pictures. I really don't want to have to come back here tomorrow to see some thread called "HELP I LOST ALL MY PICTURES!"

 

[talmy]

talmy, if I move them, what about the ownership?

In the move to Shared they will still be owned by the original account, but will be readable. If you copy to the new account the new copies will be owned by the new account. Probably also the case if you move them to the new account, although I haven't attempted that. Not at a Mac now to test.