Managing picture files ... how to best organize and store???

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We have a 27" Mac desktop, with 1tB drive. We also use Dropbox.
Our problem is we have a ton of digital pictures, mostly family photos, which we want to organize efficiently.
So far we just have a number of folders on the HD and just plop them in there.
I want to organize them all better and make them easier to share, probably using Dropbox.

What approach to other folks use?

Store them on a local HD? .. a NAS?
organize by year (separate folder by year)?


Would love to hear good ideas.

Thx
 

IWT


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Why not import all these scattered pictures into Photos and let it do the organising for you?

At the very least, Photos will organise by date and, depending on the amount of metadata associated with each picture, do a lot more than that.

As well as being a photo library, Photos comes with a commendable suite of editing tools.

Ian
 
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I'm a big fan of Photos too and currently have over 36,000 images on my MBP. I've used the app (and its predecessor iPhotos) from first having a Mac and have a system where I file images into folders and albums and as soon as they are on the machine. But starting from scratch you will have datal order plus the ability to search for subject matter - eg flowers, clouds, cats, cars - and then drag into an album you create. From dates (automatically stored in 'Years') you will be able to identify events and do the same. The app also sorts images automatically into Moments and Collections from the dates.

Have a look around the support pages and judge what it may be able to do for you. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/photos

What confused me initially was that the hierarchy of the library goes Albums > Folder > (Folder) Album. So I have a Folder called 'UK Visits' containing second tier folders for Scotland, Yorkshire etc, and named albums (Edinburgh, Whitby etc) in those folders. Screen Shot 2018-04-18 at 22.17.35.png

In contrast Events (eg concerts, exhibitions) is single tier.
Screen Shot 2018-04-18 at 22.18.46.png

As for storage, I do regular back ups but keep my total photo library on my MBP because I am always dipping into albums.
 
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Hi Sue,
Thx. What is a MBP??
I am unsophisticated Mac user and have used it only basically.

I'd like to share photo albums across the internet with other family. We have Dropbox and my original plan was to share using DB shared folders.
Is there any easy way to move pics up into DB from Photos?
 
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MacBook Pro....

I'm not a Dropbox user but found this thread on the Apple community support pages. Scroll down for All Replies where there is an evolving thread of suggestions https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7372953

resulting in this:

Eureka !!!

I have found a way to transfer photos from my MacBookPro Photo Files directly to Dropbox !!!

Sign in to Dropbox.

Create and open a New Folder (or open old one).

At the top of the page, click on the UPLOAD icon. Your FINDER will open. Scroll down to PHOTOS and click. You will see your photos as small thumbnails and you just choose the ones you want. If you want to choose multiple photos, just hold down the COMMAND key while you are choosing multiple photos. Then when you are ready, click on the CHOOSE button. The photos will then begin uploading into the Dropbox folder.
 

IWT


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Brilliant find and answer, Sue. Can't give thumbs up till I spread it around etc...

Ian
 

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