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Simply exporting photos from one library to another in MacOS Photos will remove some of the features of the photos.

In MacOS Monterey, this feature has been added to Photos (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209528). How has this been done in previous MacOS versions?

I am looking for a solution that does not require purchasing software. And I am willing to do manual file or folder manipulation if this is the only way to do it. I do not have many photos to move.

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  • Why not push things to iCloud and have that unify your libraries?
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Nov 23, 2021 at 15:19
  • Thanks but I hoping to do this without uploading anything
    – Richard Wеrеzaк
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 2:21
  • Apple has invested the most engineering to solve your problem, then the two companies listed below as third party tools. Will be interesting to learn if anyone else has done the work on this (with fatcat focusing roe on the merge function than the others IMO)
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 10:06

2 Answers 2

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This functionality wasn't available in Big Sur and older versions of macOS, apparently (See here). If you had a lot of photos, albums and folders to transfer, I'd suggest 3rd party software like PowerPhoto or Photos Takeout (The latter exports all metadata including keywords). Since you have only a few photos, export them (Select photos, then File > Export > Export N photos > (select options, e.g. Include title, keywords, caption) > Export. Then import into the other library.

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    I have saved so much of my time with my purchase of power photos. It’s amazing - great support. I don’t use keywords much so I didn’t evaluate the other option but third party tools are needed for this IMO.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Nov 23, 2021 at 15:18
  • My understanding is that this will not preserve the photo features.
    – Richard Wеrеzaк
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 2:19
  • Richard, which features won't be preserved? (Apart from Faces)
    – MacEater
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 9:25
  • The Live preview for example. Or the high resolution format.
    – Richard Wеrеzaк
    Commented Nov 27, 2021 at 23:51
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As noted in your answer, this has been resolved in newer versions of macOS. These versions of macOS are free but features are not back ported.

This process does require you are not using Optimize Storage feature from iCloud Photos. You must download your entire library.

In Finder, duplicate the source photo library. Even if your photo library is huge, this operation will be allowed.

Open the duplicated photo library and confirm in Photos settings that you are not modifying your primary photo library. The path shown should be to the copy and the iCloud tab should be disabled even if you regularly use iCloud.

From the copy that you have open, delete all photos you don't want to import to the new library.

Empty the recently deleted section if necessary.

Re-open the photo library you wish to import the photos into. In the File menu, choose Import and select the copy that now only contains the photos you wish to import.

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