# Mac Photos export to Lightroom Classic



## Ennoch (Jan 31, 2006)

So this is a pretty specific question. Basically I swapped to Mac from PC around 18 months ago, and in doing so started using Mac Photos to organise photos and actually started setting up proper albums within it categorised by events and subjects rather than just date. I was running this off a 1TB SSD but this is now more than full and so I decided to move to a 6TB non-SSD. This is where the problem started as for some reason Mac Photos really struggles with this different drive to work from and so frequently needs the photos re-pointed which is rather frustrating, particularly as a normal drive isn't as fast as an SSD. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that Mac Photos while great for an average used with 5GB of photos on the cloud is far from great when you start having large libraries. So I started looking at options. 

I do dislike subscription services, particularly when none of the stated options really cater to what I want. Previously you could purchase Lightroom Classic as a standalone for a fiver a month but the options are now either cloud with 1TB for £10 a month, but which doesn't support non-cloud storage, or a Lightroom/Photoshop package for £10 a month that includes Classic, the desktop version of Lightroom. Now the downside here is that the last year's effort of going through all my photos and properly databasing them within Mac Photos would seem to have been rendered a complete and utter waste of time as from searching I haven't found any way of simply importing the album structure from photos into Lightroom.

Am I missing something, either in terms of Mac Photos having suddenly become really flaky with the changing to a non-SSD drive, or indeed with Lightroom not being able to preserve a Mac Photos album structure? Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Mac's are great until you want to do something that's not what they want you to do, in which case you're humped. A tad frustrating to say the least!!


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## Simonrev (Nov 26, 2012)

I suspect that it isn't the correct tool for the job with such large numbers

Have you looked at Adobe Bridge which is free to download and use ?

https://prodesigntools.com/free-adobe-bridge-cc.html

Have a look at this regarding migrating https://discussions.apple.com/thread/465032


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## Ennoch (Jan 31, 2006)

Thanks - unfortunately I think that the apple link is talking about keeping the file structure the same, rather than the database albums you create in the programme itself which is what I am very keen to keep for the obvious reason of having spent 18 months cataloguing everything!

In terms of large numbers, you mean Mac Photos right, rather than Lightroom? My understanding was that Bridge was pretty out of date and rather basic with the ultimate intention being you would then do any editing in PS? Lightroom appeals in the way it's got some editing available, much the same as Mac Photos, but equally if I want to use drives then I have to go with Classic rather than Cloud and Classic definitely doesn't seem as neat as the Cloud version.


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