
These subfolders contain files with what looks like random filenames. For some reason this nice, easily understood file organization was abandoned and what we now have in the Photos library is this:Īll the photos are stored in the originals folder in subfolders named 0 to F.

Then along came macOS Catalina and changed everything. You could easily find photos if you knew when they were taken. If months were missing, it just means that you didn't take any photos that month. This is how it used to look in macOS Mojave, all nicely organised into separate files by year and month. Once that folder is open in Finder, you can then access to the photos in your Photos library. Double clicking it just opens the Photos app, so you must Ctrl+click it and select Show Package Contents. It does not look like it, but this is actually a folder on the drive. You’ll see an item called Photos Library.photoslibrary. Open a Finder window and go to your home folder and then open the Pictures folder.

This ensures that the photos are on the disk somewhere and we just have to find them.
#Xnviewmp menu download#
If you store photos in iCloud make sure to select the option to Download Originals to this Mac. Open the Photos app and then open Preferences. Photos can occupy many gigabytes of disk space and if you have a lot of them, so bear this in mind. Photographs could be stored on iCloud or on the Mac, so the first thing you need to do is to make sure they are on the Mac. Related: Recover lost photos on your Mac's disk, external drives, cameras, devices Store photographs on the Mac
#Xnviewmp menu how to#
You might want to access your photos with another app instead of Photos. It can be useful to know where photos are stored and how to access them. You can export a photo from the Photos app, but you might want to copy your whole photo collection to an external drive to make a backup.

Perhaps you want to upload some photos to a website, or incorporate them into other software. GIMP is a great free photo editor, but it cannot access the Photos library in the Mac way, it only has access to the disk.Īnother reason is to make a copy of an image. One reason is to use an alternative photo editor. How do you access your photos outside of the Photos app? Mac apps can usually access the photos library without problems, but for various reasons you might want to access photos directly on the disk. They sync, but where does Photos store them? Photos does a great job of organising your digital photos and thanks to iCloud on the Mac and iPhone, you don't need to transfer them anymore.
