Preserve Image Folder Structure Independently of iPhoto / Photos

[Ostorius]

Apologies but I could not find this topic directly addressed in any other posts.

For various reasons, I want to manually manage my own photo library in my own folder structure.

Can I still use the Photos application as a viewing tool, without it taking ownership of or interfering with my folders in any way, and without it duplicating them?

(I have an old 2011 machine running High Sierra.)

Thanks!

 

[chscag]

Short answer is yes. You can continue to use Photos to view and edit. You can setup your own folders in any way you wish and at the same time ignore the Photos library. One note of caution though... you may run into duplicates as Photos tries to maintain its own data base structure.

 

[ferrarr]

Yes, you can manage the image files and folder structure in your Finder window, without using iPhoto or Photos.

In Photos, and iPhoto, you have the option to, "Copy images to Library", . This will save space. However, if you move image files after they have been added to either app, that may mess up the database structure for those apps?