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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.

To move an iMovie project to external drive, hold down the Command key as you drag the project to the connected hard drive and then choose 'Move project' or 'Move project and Events'. Now you have transferred the iMovie file from Mac to USB or external drive, and then you can hook up the disk to another Mac or PC to view or edit the project. Create App Previews for the App Store. Import iPhone and iPad screen recording videos captured with QuickTime Player. Highlight features with 11 animated titles designed to showcase apps in action. Export finished videos using the App Preview share option (1) 4K export requires a Mac from 2011 or later with at least 4 GB RAM.

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.

1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

2. Click on Photos in the sidebar, under the Library section.

3. 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.
4. Right-click on your chosen photos and videos.
5. Move the cursor to Add to.

6. 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.

1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

2. Either right-click on My Albums in the sidebar, or hover above and then click on the + button that appears next to My Albums.

3. Click New Folder.

4. Give your folder a name.

5. 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.

1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

2. Right-click on My Albums or click the + button that appears next to My Albums.

3. Select New Smart Album.
4. Give your Smart Album a name.

5. Choose the parameters for your Smart Album.

6. 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.

1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
2. Click on View in the menu bar.
3. Select Show Sidebar in the menu.
4. The sidebar will appear on the left side of the screen.

5. 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.

1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
2. Make sure that you're in the Photos view from the sidebar.

3. Click on Photos, Moments, Collections, or Years buttons at the top of the window.

4. 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.

5. You can also use your keyboard's arrow keys to move between photos and videos in a Moment.

6. 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.

1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

2. Make sure you're in the Photos section in the sidebar.

   Source: iMore

3. Click the Years, Months, or Days buttons at the top of the window. The default view is All Photos.

4. Clicking on Years lets you see each year as a block. Double-clicking the year takes you into Months.

5. 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.

1. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
2. Double-click on Photos on your Mac.
3. Click on the Create New button in the Choose Library window.
4. Name your Library.

5. 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.

1. Make sure that Photos is not open (quit if it is).
2. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
3. Double-click on Photos.

4. 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

Imovie App Download

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.

1. Launch a Finder window on your Mac.
2. Click on the Mac hard drive (Macintosh HD) in the sidebar.
3. Double-click on the Users folder.
4. Double-click on your username.
5. Double-click on your Pictures folder.

6. Click on the Photos Library file and then drag it to your external hard drive in the sidebar.

This process may take a while, depending on how big your Photos library is.

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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Share to a nearby device using AirDrop

You can use AirDrop to send your projects directly to another iPhone or iPad, or to a Mac.

AirDrop works with iOS and iPadOS devices that have a Lightning connector or Mac computers with OS X Yosemite 10.10 or later. AirDrop transfers information using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology. You must be on the same Wi-Fi network, or within approximately 30 feet (10 meters) of the other device. Transfers are encrypted for security.

1. Do one of the following:

   • From the Projects browser: Tap the movie or trailer you want to share.

   • If you’re editing a project: Tap Done (in the upper-left corner) to return to the project details screen.

2. Tap the Share button , tap Export Project, tap AirDrop, then tap the device you want to transfer to.

   Important: To share the project file (rather than a video file that you can play but not edit), make sure to tap Export Project before you tap AirDrop.

   If the other device doesn’t appear automatically, make sure AirDrop is turned on for both devices in Control Center (on an iPhone or iPad) or the Finder (on a Mac).

Share using Shared Albums

If you use iCloud, you can add your movies or trailers to shared albums that others can view.

To use this feature, you must have Shared Albums turned on in Settings > Photos on your device.

1. Do one of the following:

   • From the Projects browser: Tap the movie or trailer you want to share.

   • If you’re editing a project: Tap Done (in the upper-left corner) to return to the project details screen.

2. Tap the Share button , then tap Shared Albums.

3. Do any of the following:

   • Add a description to your movie: Type a description of the movie or trailer.

   • Share to an existing shared album: Tap Shared Album, tap the name of the album you want to share your movie or trailer to, then tap iCloud.

   • Create a new shared album: Tap Shared Album, tap New Shared Album, and type the name of the new album. Tap Next, choose the contacts you want to share the album with, then tap Create.

4. Tap Post.

Share to another app

You can send your video clips or finished movies to other supported apps.

1. Do one of the following:

   • From the Projects browser: Tap the movie or trailer you want to share.

   • If you’re editing a project: Tap Done (in the upper-left corner) to return to the project details screen.

2. Tap the Share button , then tap Other Application.

3. Tap the app you want to use.

For information about editing video clips in Photos using the iMovie video editing extension, see Make quick edits to clips in Photos.

Save video to the photo library

If you want to send your finished movie or trailer to your Mac so that you can view it there, save it to the photo library and then import it into an app on your Mac such as Photos. If you use iCloud, you can also save your movie or trailer to iCloud Drive and then download it to your computer.

Note: If you want to send any project to your Mac for backup or to edit it in iMovie for Mac, or if you want to edit the project further on another compatible iPhone or iPad, you should send the project to iCloud Drive, or use AirDrop to quickly transfer files between devices. See the instructions for those methods, covered elsewhere in this topic.

1. Do one of the following:

   • From the Projects browser: Tap the movie or trailer you want to share.

   • If you’re editing a project: Tap Done (in the upper-left corner) to return to the project details screen.

2. Tap the Share button , then tap Save Video.

3. If prompted, tap the size you want to export.

   Medium produces a smaller file that uploads to the web more quickly. HD produces a larger file that’s great for viewing on a Mac or on a high-definition television (HDTV) through Apple TV.

   Note: If you share a project using the HD 1080p option and more than 50 percent of your project media is 1080p video at 60 frames per second (fps), the movie is saved in the 1080p format at 60 fps. Otherwise, the movie is saved in 1080p at 30 fps.

When the export is complete, the finished movie appears in the photo library. You can access the photo library from the Photos app on your device. The next time you connect your device to your computer, you can import the movie file into a photos app, such as Photos, on your computer.

Save to iCloud Drive

If you use iCloud, you can save a movie or project file to iCloud Drive so that it can be stored in iCloud and accessed from another device.

iCloud Drive requires iOS 8 or later, iPadOS 13 or later, a Mac with OS X Yosemite 10.10 or later, or a PC with Windows 7 or later.

Transfer Imovie App To Another Mac Pro

1. Do one of the following:

   • From the Projects browser: Tap a movie or trailer.

   • If you’re editing a project: Tap Done (in the upper-left corner) to return to the project details screen.

2. Tap the Share button , then do one of the following:

   • Save a video file that you can play on all your devices: Tap Save to Files.

   • Save a project file that you can open and edit in iMovie on another iPhone or iPad: Tap Export Project, then tap Save to Files.

3. Choose the iCloud Drive folder where you want to save the file, then tap Add.