We take a lot of photos with our iPhones and even DSLRs and other cameras. Photos are great for capturing memories with others, or when you just want to get a snapshot of something beautiful. Photos on Mac can help you keep all of your photos in one place, and even help you organize them.
How to add pictures and videos to albums
If you have a lot of photos and videos, one of the simplest and easiest ways to start organizing everything is to make use of albums, especially when you give them good names. And if you use iCloud Photo Library, all of your albums in Photos for Mac get synced to your iOS devices too.
Nov 09, 2012 Did you know that you will find Library folders in three locations on your Mac? There’s a Library folder at the root-level of your hard drive, there’s a second Library folder inside the root-level System folder and another Library folder in each User’s Home folder. Another way to access the Library Folder on your Mac is by using the Folder Option on your Mac. Left-click your mouse anywhere on the screen of your Mac to reveal the Go Option in the top menu bar. You can also click on the Finder Icon in the Dock of your Mac to activate the Go option.
- Launch Photos on your Mac.
- Click on Photos in the sidebar, under the Library section.
- Pick out the photos you want to add to an album, either new or existing.
- Hold down the command key on your Mac and click to select multiple photos.
- Right-click on your chosen photos and videos.
- Move the cursor to Add to.
- You can choose an existing album, or create new album.
- If making a new album, give it a good, easy-to-remember name.
Optionally, you can make a new album at any time by clicking the + button that appears in the sidebar next to My Albums. Drag-and-drop the albums in whatever order you want to rearrange them in the sidebar.
How to organize albums and folders
When you have a lot of albums, it may be better to clean it all up by organizing albums into folders, which are like collections of albums. It's easy to do.
- Launch Photos on your Mac.
- Either right-click on My Albums in the sidebar, or hover above and then click on the + button that appears next to My Albums.
- Click New Folder.
- Give your folder a name.
- Drag the albums that you want into that folder.
How to use Smart Albums
Smart Albums are like regular albums, but smarter, obviously. They're great for helping you quickly organize images without the need of manually adding each one to an album because it's all automated.
- Launch Photos on your Mac.
- Right-click on My Albums or click the + button that appears next to My Albums.
- Select New Smart Album.
- Give your Smart Album a name.
- Choose the parameters for your Smart Album.
- Click OK to confirm.
Smart Albums have a large number of different parameters, such as photos, faces, aperture, ISO, Live Photo, RAW, Portrait, and more. With all of these options, you can create many different Smart Albums to suit whatever it is you need.
If you're not satisfied with the Smart Album, you can always tweak the settings by clicking on the gear icon that's next to the Smart Album's title, then re-select the parameters you want to use.
Unfortunately, Smart Albums do not sync to your other devices through iCloud Photo Library, as they're only available on your Mac.
How to navigate Photos for Mac faster with the sidebar
The Sidebar in Photos is a great way to quickly jump between various areas in Photos quickly and easily. Plus, it helps you find albums that may otherwise be hidden, so this was a design choice made by Apple.
However, if you are running macOS Sierra and older, you can actually hide or unhide the sidebar as you wish.
- Launch Photos on your Mac.
- Click on View in the menu bar.
- Select Show Sidebar in the menu.
- The sidebar will appear on the left side of the screen.
- Follow the steps above to hide it (make sure Show Sidebar is unchecked).
How to navigate moments, collections, and year views in macOS Mojave and earlier
One of the coolest things about Photos is that it intelligently groups all of your photos and videos into moments, collections, and years.
This means that your photos appear in a timeline and are grouped by things like location, or even event. It's a great way to take a look back at your memories and relive those specific moments in time.
The Moments, Collections, and Year views are only available in macOS Mojave and older.
- Launch Photos on your Mac.
- Make sure that you're in the Photos view from the sidebar.
- Click on Photos, Moments, Collections, or Years buttons at the top of the window.
- Click on a section of a Year to move to that Collection, or a section of a Collection to drill down into that Moment, or an item in a Moment to view that image or video in closer detail.
- You can also use your keyboard's arrow keys to move between photos and videos in a Moment.
- A single click on an item selects it, while a double click takes you to view it.
In the Year and Collections views, thumbnails can be small. You can click-and-hold and then drag the cursor in any direction over the thumbnails to get a larger preview. Letting go will take you directly to the image that the cursor was last on.
How to navigate through Years, Months, and Days in macOS Catalina
To replace the previous Moments/Collections/Years view, Catalina changed it to Years, Months, and Days for simplicity.
- Launch Photos on your Mac.
- Make sure you're in the Photos section in the sidebar.Source: iMore
- Click the Years, Months, or Days buttons at the top of the window. The default view is All Photos.
- Clicking on Years lets you see each year as a block. Double-clicking the year takes you into Months.
- When you double-click on a Month, you'll drill down into the Days view.
How to create a new library with Photos for Mac
You can create a new library for your photos at any time with Photos for Mac. To do so, make sure that you quit Photos and reopen it with the following method to get the Library options.
- Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
- Double-click on Photos on your Mac.
- Click on the Create New button in the Choose Library window.
- Name your Library.
- Click OK.
You've now created a brand new Photos Library. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to migrate over photos and video, so you will need to export the content you want, and then import it back into the new library.
How to switch between Libraries in Photos for Mac
When you create a new library, you may still want to go back to a previous library for something. Fortunately, it's easy to switch between multiple libraries.
- Make sure that Photos is not open (quit if it is).
- Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
- Double-click on Photos.
- Click on the name of the library you want to open.
Voilá! Just make sure to repeat this process each time you want to switch to a different Photo library.
How to move your Photos library to an external hard drive
If you're low on storage space on your Mac, you can just move your Photos Library to an external hard drive. Keep in mind though, that you will need to have this external drive plugged in to access your Photos Library, even if you have iCloud Photo Library enabled. And you aren't able to create a second Photos Library that has iCloud Photo Library enabled on your Mac, so be wary.
- Launch a Finder window on your Mac.
- Click on the Mac hard drive (Macintosh HD) in the sidebar.
- Double-click on the Users folder.
- Double-click on your username.
- Double-click on your Pictures folder.
- Click on the Photos Library file and then drag it to your external hard drive in the sidebar.
![Find Libraries On Mac Find Libraries On Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133908091/139202517.jpg)
This process may take a while, depending on how big your Photos library is.
How To Find Libraries On Mac
A note on reference libraries
The Photos app technically supports the management of images that aren't locally stored within its library — that is, you can keep a set of images in a folder called 'October Trip' and manage them within Photos without having to make a separate copy of them. You can do this by navigating to Photos > Preferences from the menu bar, selecting the General tab, and unchecking the 'Copy items to the Photos library' box under Importing.
That said, reference libraries won't play nicely with iCloud Photo Library users; you may run into problems when syncing, or not be able to sync at all. So if you plan on using a reference library, you'll have to opt out of iCloud Photo Library.
I also didn't have any luck getting referenced files to sync properly with Photos — I'd delete a photo, but the reference file would stay in its original location, even after deleting it from the 'Recently Deleted' folder. Not sure if that's a bug or just not how Photos wants us managing referenced photos, but worth noting.
Questions?
Sound off in the comments below!
October 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.
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If you want to find out where iTunes stores your library files, the following guide should help you find the iTunes library location on both your Windows and Mac machines. Read on to even learn how to change the locations on your computer.
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iTunes provides you an easy way to add new files and organize existing files on its interface on your computer. The interface lets you view your files, their dates, and other information about your files. However, what you do not see in the list is where exactly your files are stored. iTunes has been quite confidential about it and it does not directly let users view the location of the stored files.
If you are curious and you would like to find out the iTunes library location on Windows or Mac, we have you covered. The following guide shows you the locations of the folders where iTunes stores your music and other media files on your computer’s storage. Once you have found where your files are actually located, you can play around with them just like any other files on your computer.
How to Find iTunes Library Locations on Computer
Finding the iTunes files location on a computer is extremely easy. This section should teach you how you find the folder on your PC or Mac computer.
Find iTunes Library Locations on Mac:
- Get to the desktop of your Mac so you are inside a Finder window.
- Click on the “Go” button at the top in your menu bar.
- Select the option that says “Home”. It will take you to your home directory.
- When the Home directory launches in Finder, open the folder named “Music” followed by iTunes.
- What you now see on your screen is the folder where the iTunes app stores your media files.
Find iTunes Library Locations on PC:
- All you need to do is open the File Explorer utility.
- Head to the C:Users[username]My MusiciTunes path.
- Once you are there, you should be able to see all of your iTunes media content.
How to Change iTunes Library Location
While the default iTunes storage folders are not that bad, you can change the locations on your computer if you would like. Once you change the location, iTunes will begin to store your newly imported files into your new location on your computer.
1. How to Change iTunes Library Location on Mac
Changing the iTunes files location on a Mac is pretty easy as you can do the task from within the iTunes app on your machine. You just need to modify an option in the settings and your task will be done. Here’s how you do it:
Step 1. Launch the iTunes app from Launchpad on your Mac.
How to Change iTunes Library Location on Mac – Step 1
Step 2. When the iTunes app launches, click on the iTunes menu at the top and select the option that says Preferences. It will open the iTunes settings screen on your Mac.
How to Change iTunes Library Location on Mac – Step 2
Step 3. When the settings menu opens, click on the last tab that says Advanced. Once you are there, click on the Change button given next to the iTunes Media folder location. You should be able to specify a new location for iTunes media files on your Mac.
How to Change iTunes Library Location on Mac – Step 3
2. How to Change iTunes Library Location on PC
Windows users can also easily change the iTunes storage location and that too from within the iTunes app. The following is how you do it.
Step 1. Launch the iTunes app and click on Edit followed by Preferences.
Step 2. Head to the Advanced tab and click on the Change button to change your iTunes media folder.
That’s how you change the iTunes media folder location on your Windows PC.
The Bottom Line
Find Library On Mac
If you have not been able to find the iTunes media folder on your Windows PC or Mac, the above guide should help you find the folder very easily on your computer. It also teaches how you can change the default iTunes folder if you would like to do it.
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