Mac Photos How-To’s
Photos for Mac — How to Change the System Photo Library
Choose which Photos library syncs with iCloud Photos
When you only have one Photos library, the Photos app automatically designates it as the System Photo Library. If you create additional Photos libraries, you need to pick one as the system library. This will be the only library that syncs with your iCloud Photos library.
Step 1: Open the Desired Library
When you have more than one Photos library and want to use one different from the one that Photos opens, you can open it in one of these ways:
Method 1
Use this method if the Photos app is not yet open. Holding down the Option key, click open Photos app. The following dialog box will appear:
Select the library you want to use, and click Choose Library. Photos will open it. Note, however, that this won’t change the System Photo library. Changing it requires one more step that we’ll come to in a bit.
Method 2
Use this method if the Photos app is already open. In the menu bar, click Photos > Settings > General > click the current library’s name next to Library Location. In the screenshot below, it’s named Photos Library:
The Finder window will open > Navigate to the library you want to use and select it. Photos will reload, displaying newly selected library.
Method 3
Navigate to where the desired Photos library is located (Usually in the Pictures folder), select and double-click it:
Step 2: Change the System Photo Library
To designate the selected library as the System Photo Library, click the Use as System Photos Library button (Greyed out in the screenshot above, but will become clickable after Step 1 above.)
On attempting to change the System Photo Library, you may get this alert:
You’ll get this alert only if you use iCloud Photos. Furthermore, if Optimize Mac Storage is ON, full resolution photos from the previous library will be in iCloud, with smaller versions of all or most of the photos stored in the library. Changing the System Photo Library will: (a) turn OFF iCloud Photos, (b) remove the optimized photos from the previous library, keeping only the locally-stored full resolution photos.
Turning iCloud Photos ON at this time will sync the photos stored in iCloud and the new System Photo Library — effectively merging the two libraries. If you only want to set the new library as the System Photo Library but don’t want to merge the two libraries, do not turn iCloud Photos ON.
Do you know where Photos app actually works? Unlock the secrets of your Mac Photos library here.
