JPEG files to iPhoto

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My husband has scanned lots of our family photos onto his PC. I have successfully copied them onto the desktop of my MacBook Air using an external hard drive.
He has them all organised in folders such as Travel ( JPEG 1.95 GB). What is the easiest way to transfer them all to iPhotos.
Can I transfer whole folders, or do I have to open each folder within bigger folder and then do each photo individually?
 
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My husband has scanned lots of our family photos onto his PC. I have successfully copied them onto the desktop of my MacBook Air using an external hard drive.
He has them all organised in folders such as Travel ( JPEG 1.95 GB). What is the easiest way to transfer them all to iPhotos.
Can I transfer whole folders, or do I have to open each folder within bigger folder and then do each photo individually?

Hello Mungo. - welcome to the forum! :) You need to provide some more information: 1) Assume the 'images' were put on an external HD from the PC and then you copied the files to your MBAir - correct; 2) What MBAir (year) do you own; 3) What macOS is installed; 4) iPhotos has been D/C and replaced by Photos - which one is on your laptop; and 4) How are the files organized on your desktop? Answers to these questions will help to provide more specific advice. Dave
 
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Hello Mungo. - welcome to the forum! :) You need to provide some more information: 1) Assume the 'images' were put on an external HD from the PC and then you copied the files to your MBAir - correct; 2) What MBAir (year) do you own; 3) What macOS is installed; 4) iPhotos has been D/C and replaced by Photos - which one is on your laptop; and 4) How are the files organized on your desktop?

Answers to these questions will help to provide more specific advice. Dave[/

2. My MacBook Air is macOS Sierra ( 13 inch, Early 2015).
3. Yes, you are right, of course. It is photos.
4. There are 5 folders currently on my desktop.
For example, the "Travel" folder contains 6 sub folders for different countries. Within each sub folder there many photos:

This sub folder "Albania" within the folder travel is one of the smaller ones, with about 100 JPEG images.

So, you can imagine I am keen to find a way that doesn't require me to process each photo individually.
 
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IWT


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Hi MungoB and a very warm welcome to Mac-Forums.

I don't believe the Folder/Subfolder structure will be maintained on import to Photos.

I carried out a little experiment just now. I took a bunch of screen shots and added them to some others that were taken over the last few days. I put them all into a Folder called "Screenshots" and created subfolders within the main Folder.

I dragged the Folder on to the Photos Icon in the Dock. All the photos were imported - the folder structure was gone - the photos were arranged by date taken.

Someone else may know a workaround for your problem, but I doubt the structure you have will be retained. Obviously, after Import, you can create your own Albums and Folders, but that is tedious.

Sorry to be so unhelpful.

Ian
 
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What I would do is make similar titled folders and albums in Photos then drag the corresponding images from the desktop into the correct albums. I've created this 'New Folder' to show how this works.

Screen Shot 2017-03-19 at 12.26.39 copy.jpg

I have a Folder called Travel then Albums for different countries/trips; another UK Visits, etc, etc. Ditto Pets and other subjects.

Screen Shot 2017-03-19 at 12.29.28.jpg


Remember that the Photos library structure is Folders > Albums, or Smart Albums (where you set parameters, such as RAW, panorama etc and the app brings all relevant images into that folder).

Screen Shot 2017-03-19 at 12.24.18.jpg
 
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Hi MungoB and a very warm welcome to Mac-Forums.

I don't believe the Folder/Subfolder structure will be maintained on import to Photos.

I carried out a little experiment just now. I took a bunch of screen shots and added them to some others that were taken over the last few days. I put them all into a Folder called "Screenshots" and created subfolders within the main Folder.

I dragged the Folder on to the Photos Icon in the Dock. All the photos were imported - the folder structure was gone - the photos were arranged by date taken.

Someone else may know a workaround for your problem, but I doubt the structure you have will be retained. Obviously, after Import, you can create your own Albums and Folders, but that is tedious.

Sorry to be so unhelpful.

Ian


iPhoto used to keep folder structures. Hence the main reason why I haven't downgraded to Photos.

I always COPY the images to iPhoto not MOVE them, that way I've always got the originals (but not any edits obviously) in a format outside of a application that 'may' go belly-up at some future time.
 

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Good idea, Sue. I knew you'd come to the rescue:Mischievous:

It creates more work, but much easier doing it your way than after import.

Thank you.

Ian
 
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I always COPY the images to iPhoto not MOVE them, that way I've always got the originals (but not any edits obviously) in a format outside of a application that 'may' go belly-up at some future time.

Moot point. Some people think that prints are the only way to ensure your images are preserved as any technology can become obsolete. Look at floppy disks, even DVDs. I have photos stashed away which are more than 150 years old.
 
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Thank you very much for your efforts, Ian. It is pretty much as I expected. I will follow your process and experiment a bit.
Cheers.
 

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Hey MungoB

Very kind of you, but any thanks should be directed towards Sue. Her idea's better than mine.

Ian
 
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Thank you very much for your efforts, Ian. It is pretty much as I expected. I will follow your process and experiment a bit.
Cheers.

Hey MungoB

Very kind of you, but any thanks should be directed towards Sue. Her idea's better than mine.

Hi MungoB - I dislike Photos, especially the extra efforts demanded to import and then reorganized your images & folders - BUT, fortunately I don't really need the app for my needs. If you feel that this is the app for you, then I have found the Kindle book below rather good - bought a year ago on my iPad - just $10; now, there are plenty of other options explaining this Apple offering including their own.

Now, another consideration is to use Finder - as an example, in the second pic below, I made a new folder in my 'Pictures' and then drag it to the sidebar - called 'My Photos' - your current pics/folders could be put into that folder exactly as arranged by your husband - the images can be viewed in the many ways offered by Finder - image editing can be easily done using Preview - just a suggestion. Dave :)
.
Screen Shot 2017-03-19 at 7.00.35 PM.png Screen Shot 2017-03-19 at 6.58.05 PM.png
 

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