Moving iPhotos and Photos libraries to new Mac

[scouser75]

Hi again guys,

I want to move my iPhotos and Photos libraries to my new Mac running Ventura and need guidance please.

I've read the instructions on this using Migration Assistance, but am still a little unclear on whether this would work for me as the Home Folder name on my new mac is different to the Home Folder name on my old mac.

If I use Migration Assistant, because the home folder names are different, will this mess up the process?

I read another method whereby I can copy iPhoto and Photos and drag and drop them to the Pictures folder on the new mac and then click the option key when opening Photos and directing it towards the iPhotos and Photos folder. Would this work?

This is the ONE part of the process I don't want to mess up!

 

[maverick100]

I move my photos Library using the drag and drop method all the time It has always worked without any problem. My setup is 2017 iMac, Ventura fully updated; 1tb SSD, 64gig ram.
I have moved it from my internal drive to sever different SSD's-2tb and to 18tb external HHD's. I have done that to do some editing and removal of duplicates. I have never had a problem holding down the option key and selecting the photos library I wanted to use. I would on occasions have as many as 5 different libraries that was working with.

 

[scouser75]

I move my photos Library using the drag and drop method all the time It has always worked without any problem. My setup is 2017 iMac, Ventura fully updated; 1tb SSD, 64gig ram.
I have moved it from my internal drive to sever different SSD's-2tb and to 18tb external HHD's. I have done that to do some editing and removal of duplicates. I have never had a problem holding down the option key and selecting the photos library I wanted to use. I would on occasions have as many as 5 different libraries that was working with.

Thanks Maverick. So, when you were using this method, the photos libraries had a different name?

So, if I were to move it from my old mac, which has a photos library name of "users/scouser/pictures", to a library name of "users/whoever/pictures', I can use the option key method without any issues? And when I next open up Photos on my new mac, all my pictures will open, including all their location details etc?

DO I need to carry out the same method for my old iPhotos library?

 

[maverick100]

On my setup I can move those photo libraries anyway where I want. I have moved them to desktop and worked on them till I had it the way I wanted it. For me it does not matter where the library is stored. I just hold the option key down and find the one I want to work on and away I go.

 

[scouser75]

Ideally, I want the library under my username so.i don't need to press the option key everytime I want to.open photos.

Can I possibly use migration assistant and then drag and drop the photos library under my user name?

 

[maverick100]

photos will open the last library you chose to open. It matters not what it is named or where it is located. If you wish to open another library is when you use the option key.

 

[scouser75]

Brilliant. Thanks for the help on this.I'll have a go later to move it across. Maybe I can try and change the username as well once it's moved across to the new mac. Is this possible?

Can the same process be done for the iTunes library?

 

[Mike Boreham]

Brilliant. Thanks for the help on this.I'll have a go later to move it across. Maybe I can try and change the username as well once it's moved across to the new mac. Is this possible?

Can the same process be done for the iTunes library?

You can change the name of Music and Photos libs willy-nilly but the username/account name is not so simple.

Instructions here:

Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder – Apple Support (UK)

You can rename your macOS user account and home folder, which were named when the account was created.

support.apple.com

 

[BotchQue]

Thank you guys from me too; I've got this task coming up myself, including some old iPhoto pics on my '07 iMac.

 

[scouser75]

You can change the name of Music and Photos libs willy-nilly but the username/account name is not so simple.

Instructions here:

Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder – Apple Support (UK)

You can rename your macOS user account and home folder, which were named when the account was created.

support.apple.com

I had a brainwave - what if I change the username on the old mac from which I'm transferring from to the username on the new mac, and then use Migration Assistant. That way both usernames on both machines will be the same. Would that work?

 

[Mike Boreham]

I had a brainwave - what if I change the username on the old mac from which I'm transferring from to the username on the new mac, and then use Migration Assistant. That way both usernames on both machines will be the same. Would that work?

I don't fully understand the problem. Why don't you just migrate the User on your old Mac to your new Mac. Then you would have the user name on each Mac the same on both Macs without the (somewhat risky imho) process of changing username and account name.

 

[scouser75]

I've started the setup on the new mac and my username and account is my first name.

On my old Mac, the username is my nickname.

How risky is it to change username on the old Mac?

Or maybe migrate the old username (with my nickname) from.old mac, and then change username on the new mac to my first name?

 

[scouser75]

Guys, firstly thank you for your help and advice on this. It's very much appreciated

I just tried a little something on getting photos across to my new Mac by dragging and dropping the photos file from my old Mac to my new one. And after about 3 hours it's all done and it looks as though it's worked, All my photos and albums seem to be there. The location details seem to be there. All I need to do now is cross check it against the photos on my old Mac to make sure all is as it should be.

Have to admit though, if it has worked properly and all my photos are there, I'm quite shocked this method has worked!