If you have two or more Macs that you use regularly, it can be tempting to share your Photos library with them. iCloud Photos is the preferred method, syncing images and videos and also offering optimized storage so you don’t fill your Mac’s drives with media if you prefer to keep it in the cloud.
However, iCloud Photos requires a paid iCloud+ subscription if you use more than the truly inadequate and utterly ridiculous 5 GB that Apple includes for free with every iCloud account. Some people don’t want cloud storage and don’t want to pay for it: they just want to sync between their Macs or use a single library file that they can open on one machine at a time.
If you don’t want to spend money on the extra iCloud storage, there’s no good way to get iCloud’s Photos to work. The best option I can suggest is using an external drive to store the photo library:
- Exit Photos.
- Copy the photo library by dragging it from the boot volume to your external volume.
- Once done, hold down the Option key and launch Photos.
- Select in Photos Photos > Preferencesand in the General tab, click Use as system photo library.
When you want to switch Macs for the first time:
- Exit Photos.
- Eject the drive from your first Mac and mount it on the second.
- Hold down the Option key and launch Photos.
- Select as above Photos > Preferencesand in the General tab, click Use as system photo library.
When you want to switch Macs from now on:
- Quit Photos on your current Mac.
- Eject the drive and mount it on the other Mac.
- Launch Photos on the newly connected Mac.
To avoid issues with a newer version of Photos installed with a system update, make sure both Macs are up to date with the same release of macOS.
This Mac 911 article is an answer to a question from Macworld reader Jennifer.
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