MacMost Q&A Forum • View All Forum QuestionsAsk a Question

How Do I Organize My Photos On macOS?

Like many of you, I have an iPhone and take a lot of pictures on it. But like many millennials I download lots of videos from the internet such as wallpapers from google images and other photos such images for my album art. I was wondering how you guys sort these files (iPhone camera roll and internet downloads). Do you have your iPhone photos only stored in the photos app and the internet images only on your finder explorer? Or do you guys just merge the two and move them in the photos app? I was wondering as I’m using macOS for the first time and am used to the Windows method of combining the two sources into the pictures section of file explorer. And I just learned that it’s difficult to organise iPhone photos in finder by year-month-day and that people just use the photos app only for their iPhone camera roll.
—–
Anthony

Comments: 4 Responses to “How Do I Organize My Photos On macOS?”

    4 years ago

    Well, ultimately it is up to you. There is no wrong answer. If you want to keep all of your photos and any images you download in the Photos app library, you can. Or, you can separate them.

    Personally, I try to keep only my photos in the Photos library. If I have something else, like an image I downloaded or clipart or something, I put those in folders in the Finder. I just organize them in what way seems best.

    Like, for instance, if someone sends me photos from their camera from a trip we took together, I don't put those in my Photos library since I didn't take those pictures. I just have a folder of Photos elsewhere. I would create a folder for those photos and put them all together in there.

    To access these miscellaneous photos on my iPhone I would just make sure this folder was on iCloud Drive. Then I could find it in the Files app on my iPhone as well as my Mac. But usually I don't care whether I can get to these particular miscellaneous photos on my iPhone.

    Anthony Kolak
    4 years ago

    Thanks for the advice Gary on how you organize your photos library. I think what I'll do is use the Photos App only for my iPhone camera roll and not store them in finder pictures section. As for the miscellaneous files, Ill just store them only in finder section and not in the Photos App. I don't want my photos I use for work to get blended in with my photos on the Photos App. That way, hopefully these two categories of images will be separated when I use Time Machine. Thanks again Gary.

    Richard Benison
    4 years ago

    After reading the above... How do I transfer items from my iPhoto library to the Finder "Pictures" file? Thanks!

    4 years ago

    Richard: You can just drag and drop photos from the Photos app to a folder. You can also choose File, Export.

Comments Closed.