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If you do command-i (for info) on one of those same photos in iPhoto what date does it show? None of this exporting should change the date at all.

Now if you had a bunch or masters that were that date, then changed them in iPhoto, then export the masters, you will still see the old date since you gave not exported the edited version. Could that be what happened?

Yes those photos had their correct dates in iPhoto.

I carried on on with exporting and found other photos lost different metadata too - location, lens information, keyword, etc. a few photos appeared earlier in the day on Photos than they do on iPhoto even though the time stamp is correct.

I deleted and tried again and they’d imported with the metadata or lose different metadata.

The majority of photos were fine.

I don’t know if I’m going something wrong or what but I’m going to try a different method . I’ll upgrade to larger iCloud storage later today, each library the system default one by one, and return to my main photos and let it download the new photos in iCloud.
 
It might be a good idea to turn off iCloud Photos for now until you get this Photos library all setup like you want, then turn it back on. Otherwise you will be uploading things over and over needlessly. Just an idea. :)
 
It might be a good idea to turn off iCloud Photos for now until you get this Photos library all setup like you want, then turn it back on. Otherwise you will be uploading things over and over needlessly. Just an idea. :)

Sorry for not responding as I haven't been online since then.

In the end I decided it is best to make each library the System Library in turn and upload the photos to iCloud. Eventually all the photos will be in the cloud and I can add them to my main library.

However I have now hit a new problem.
 
Sorry for not responding as I haven't been online since then.

In the end I decided it is best to make each library the System Library in turn and upload the photos to iCloud. Eventually all the photos will be in the cloud and I can add them to my main library.

However I have now hit a new problem.

I have just gone through this entire process on a Mac Mini running Mojave. I had hundreds of GB of photos spread across 4 different library files from various years. My goal was simple, put them all in one library. Here are my thoughts on your situation and this thread so far.

1) Photos Export option - For me, the export option from Photos app was by far the worst option. It does not retain original quality, and it takes ten times longer than simply copying, because it is essentially creating brand new versions of all your photos as JPEGS (or whichever format you choose). This is processor intensive, time-consuming, destroys any high-quality RAW format files you may have, and I have also found is unreliable for retaining metadata. It's odd that metadata is only sometimes preserved, but ultimately too unreliable for me. NOTE: If you really want to use photos to manage data transfer, there is an option to "export unmodified originals" in the Photos menu. This option is VERY fast, as it simply copies originals for you, as if copying files in finder. If you have done a lot of edits within the Photos app, may want to also export those edits. You can isolate only edited photos in the main Photos section, and Photos tab, and on the top-right side change "Showing: All Photos" to "Showing: Edited". Then you can select all of these, and export normally, preserving originals & edits.

2) Power Photos - This was my preferred solution because it automates and preserves the MOST POSSIBLE metadata, albums, etc. I chose to copy originals and not edited versions (as you must choose one or the other). While, I have edited many photos, it's not enough for me to care to preserve ALL edits. If I ever want to use or print an old photo, I can always edit it to my liking if needed. That said, I did preserve MANY edits by setting my largest existing library as the destination library, with all other libraries being merged into the largest one. As I chose to copy originals only, all is not lost, as I can still open the smaller source libraries and use the method above to export specific edited files directly from Photos if I really want to.

Major caveats!
1 - Always perform operations with COPIES of libraries. Never your originals - because ometimes there are errors. I've had a couple instances in the past where libraries got stuck in an infinite "repairing library" screen, and after days of waiting, I had to just force-quit Photos app, delete the Photoslibrary and start again from a backup. Always keep backups, especially before attempting merging, or other major management tasks.
2 - I have disabled ALL iCloud options for photos, so all of my process considers local files only. I have no idea how having iCloud options enabled would mess with this process or Power Photos.

I'm not sure which new snag you have run into, but I hope it works out! Good luck!

~j
 
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