move photo library from Monterey back to Mojave.

[waiser]

Hi there. I have a main photo library on my Mac Pro 5.1 running Mojave. I have a macbook pro running Monterey with a 60GB photo library too. Im trying to move my photos on the macbook to the mac pro so they are all on the mac pro. When i choose import and select the Macbook photos library its greyed out.
I assume its becuase the macbook photo library is formatted for Monterey.

any suggestions how to get around this?

Thanks
J

 

[gilby101]

I assume its becuase the macbook photo library is formatted for Monterey.

Yes.

Suggestions:
1. Use iCloud synchronisation? Will be slow if not already configured and you would need a new library on the Mac Pro to avoid messing with what is already there.

2. With Photos on Monterey, select all photos > File > Export > Export Unmodified Originals. Save them somewhere. Import with Photos on Mojave. This is what I would do. Test with just a few photos and/or do it in batches.

Thoughts:
3. Will you be wanting to view the photos from the MBP even though photos are stored on MP? Will you want to edit the photos? If yes to either question, you may want to ask yourself if Apple Photos is the appropriate way to store and manage photos.

4. Mojave doesn't have the indexing features of Monterey (which are better yet with Ventura).

 

[flynz4]

I would do the following:

1. Turn on iCloud synchronization on both machines.
2. On the MacPro, I would select the option to keep a copy of the originals on that machine.
3. I would additionally ensure the MacPro was getting double backed up locally and to an internet backup service. I don’t consider iCloud to be a backup service, it is a syncing service similar to Dropbox, MS Onedrive, Google Drive (or whatever they call it).