I am going to import my photos from my Apple Mac. I assume I have to export them from the Apple app first? what format is best to export to in order to optimize the import into tonfotos? Is there an optimial method for getting this done?

    longphee I am not sure I understand what you are planning to do.

    In any case, Tonfotos can work with plenty of different image formats, so I would not recommend converting you photos just for Tonfotos. I believe it is best to leave images as is, this way you won’t lose any useful metadata or degrade your images quality due to over-compression.

    Also, you can install Tonfotos to your Mac and work with your images right where they are now, without any extra export/import. Unlike Apple Photos, Tonfotos does move your photos into separate library, hiding it from everyone else. It work with your images right where they are, and does not move it anywhere, unless you specifically ask for that.

      I have 86,000 pictures in Apple Photos but this is one photo library file on my computer. Like i said earlier, I assume these have to be exported into individual files first before they can be imported into tonfotos? Or can the single apple photo library be imported into tonfotos to get all 86,000 photos? They can be exported from the photo library as the original files, or they can be exported as jpeg, tiif, png or heic. I was wondering if someone else had done this and knew the most efficient way of exporting them and then importing them into tonfotos.

        longphee Technically, Apple Photos library is not a single file, even though Finder shows it you you that way. It is actually a folder with complicated structure. I know that some users were adding this folder to Tonfotos library, however I don’t know much about their experience. My guess is that this is not optimal solution, since this folder is not supposed to be accessed from other applications directly, it has very strange subfolder names (not human readable) and not very well structured. Also, If you will change photo metadata in some of the photos, who knows if this will break anything.

        Tonfotos is designed to help you to organise your photos in your archive, and that includes folder structure. You will definitely have better experience if you have full access to your files, will be able to shuffle them around, edit GPS tags, add comments and so on.

        Unfortunately, we don’t yet have user guide for migration from Apple Photos to Tonfotos, though it is good idea to have one. Probably, we will invest some time in additional research and create this guide in the future.

            a month later

            Andrey
            Apparently I bought Tonfotos without fully understanding it. I definitely did not understand it would not be including the Mac Photos app images in the search and resolution of duplicate photos. I am frustrated because I have been searching for a user guide, unsuccessfully. From reading this forum I now understand that it is for wrangling photos scattered elsewhere, not in the Photos app. Unfortunately there are a lot of duplicates in my 44,000 Images there and I’ve not been happy with Apple’s duplicate resolution solution.

            So now I have spent 2 days and $40 processing images from two drives, (while naming people to pass the time) with admittedly tons of duplicates, but they are essentially old backup directories that I’ve only kept out of fear since I’ve had many external drives die on me. I was hoping to compare those to what’s in my Photo app. I was even considering downloading all of my Flickr photos to capture any stray images I may have lost locally. Admittedly I am a file hoarder. Now it appears I am not your intended audience. Am I missing something about this?

            Could I at least safely and reliably yank a full set of the images from the various old backups, with no duplicates, into a single directory and safely delete those backups (which would each then theoretically be empty after the duplicates have been deleted and the Highlander: There-Can-Be-Only-One images have been relocated to one directory organized by yyymmdd? Does that even sound like a worthwhile idea? I am thinking maybe it would let me whittle them down to a single reassuring backup that may or may not have everything I have currently, but will have everything I have backed up in the past, just only in one backup instead of several. (they are mostly panic backups from when hard drives were making death rattles)

            Sorry this is confusing. I write how I think, and that’s not great.

                a year later

                Is it not possible to specify the ‘originals’ folder within the Photos library?

                  levivel Is it not possible to specify the ‘originals’ folder within the Photos library?

                  I am afraid I don’t understand the question. Can you please make a separate thread and describe your idea in details?

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