Need help with large Photos library and large import

[bdog1234]

About a month ago I had 26k pictures in my Photos library and 20k pictures just in folders that were taken with standalone digital cameras before iPhones were invented.

I have been manually weeding through them whenever I have down time at work waiting on things and literally have nothing else to do and I now have the Photos library down to 12k pictures and the folder down to 14k pictures.

I think I would like to load the folder into Photos so that all the pictures are in one place but are there any things I need to think about before doing such a large import? I guess my concern is when pictures from my iPhone magically wind up in the library they have all the appropriate information so they get organized chronologically, etc. I don't think all these 14k pictures have all that information. I guess I am just worried that I have my Photos app all tidy now and if I import all this and it doesn't go as planned things might get screwed up. Maybe I am worried about nothing I don't know.

I guess my next question is any tips on better organizing the Photos. Chronological is very useful but is there an easy way to tag the pictures or something like kids, pets, sports, holidays, vacations, or whatever?

 

[TorbenIbsen]

Read these guides. And be sure to understand that the ways to organize in Apple Photos is totally different from old-fashioned organizing in folders. All photos are in a database "All Photos" and only there. All the organizing is done by filtering and sorting by meta-data. And you can find your photos based on parts of a motive by searching for that. Apple Photos has analyzed all photos (takes a long time, hours/days) the first time, though. So you don't need to tag at all to find things. When you create folders and move photos into those folders you are doing the same as with music playlists. You are only working with links to the one and only photo in the All Photos folder.

Organize and find your photos on your Mac - Apple Support

Use Photos to keep your growing photo library organized and accessible.

support.apple.com

If your iCloud Photos are not syncing - Apple Support

If your photos or videos won't sync to iCloud Photos on your device, learn how to check the status of your photo library and what to do if you see a status message.

support.apple.com