Photo re-location

There appear to be 84 photos on my hard drive (see screenshot) that I'd like to move so that all my photos are in my photo library. Can anyone give me step-by-step instructions to achieve this, please?


MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Jun 29, 2023 10:59 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 29, 2023 11:22 AM

When you are seeing "On this Mac only" you are having items in your Photos Library, that have not been imported into your Photos Library but are references in their original location. You can find them with a smart album, that is searching for referenced files. See this knowledge base article on how to create this smart album and how to consolidate these images into your Photos Library, so they can be synced to iCloud: Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support


The relevant paragraph is the second one "If you see "Items on This Mac Only":


If you set up Photos to allow referenced files, which are photos and videos stored outside of your library, Photos counts those as “Items on This Mac Only.” If you want to consolidate those items into your library so that they can be uploaded to iCloud Photos and available to your other devices, follow these steps:

  1. From the menu bar in Photos, choose File > New Smart Album.
  2. Name the Smart Album “Referenced” and set the conditions to “Photo is referenced.” Click OK.
  3. Select the Referenced album in the sidebar.
  4. Press Command-A to select all items in the album, then choose File > Consolidate.




3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 29, 2023 11:22 AM in response to bronstaf

When you are seeing "On this Mac only" you are having items in your Photos Library, that have not been imported into your Photos Library but are references in their original location. You can find them with a smart album, that is searching for referenced files. See this knowledge base article on how to create this smart album and how to consolidate these images into your Photos Library, so they can be synced to iCloud: Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support


The relevant paragraph is the second one "If you see "Items on This Mac Only":


If you set up Photos to allow referenced files, which are photos and videos stored outside of your library, Photos counts those as “Items on This Mac Only.” If you want to consolidate those items into your library so that they can be uploaded to iCloud Photos and available to your other devices, follow these steps:

  1. From the menu bar in Photos, choose File > New Smart Album.
  2. Name the Smart Album “Referenced” and set the conditions to “Photo is referenced.” Click OK.
  3. Select the Referenced album in the sidebar.
  4. Press Command-A to select all items in the album, then choose File > Consolidate.




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Photo re-location

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