If you are using a Mac, the Photos app is responsible for managing all images inside the application such as photos transferred from your iPhone or memory card as well as those that were imported. For the curious ones, you might be wondering where are photos stored on Mac.
Remember that this is specific to the Photos app. In case you do not use the app to manage your photos on your Mac, the photos are not stored inside the applications package library but you can easily find them using Finder in the generic Pictures folder or somewhere else in the Mac system.
Where Are Photos Stored on Mac?
The photo files are stored in this location on Mac: ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Masters/.
It is important to note that the ~ tilde indicates the users home directory, if you are going to utilize the “Go To Folder” command to move through that directory, do not skip the ~ prefix.
Part 1. How Does Photos Work on Mac?
Before talking about where are photos stored on Mac, let's have a close look at Photos app. The Photos app is a convenient tool that stores all your photos and videos. All photos taken are stored in it and even organized. When you open the app, you can find all your photos and reminisce on all the memories that you have collected.
Are Photos and iPhoto the Same?
Photos have been considered as the ideal tool in photo management for Mac users. Before Photos took the stage, Apple created 2 applications for managing photos and videos. iPhoto, specifically, is ideally for those who have less experience in photography while Aperture was the preferred choice for those who want to indulge in editing.
With the availability of the Photos app, it blurs the line between these two apps where it combines the best of the two along with the addition of new features such as iCloud Photo Library and the iCloud Photo Sharing.
For those who have used iPhoto before, it will be a breeze to use the Photos app. All photos, albums, and collections are found in the main window with a navigation sidebar on the left side and you can choose different viewing options at the top part of the interface.
The main difference between iPhoto and the Photos app is its performance. If you have big libraries, iPhoto tends to choke up or lag and it had arbitrary limitations that would restrain the sizes on the albums and collections.
It is a different case with the Photos app since these limitations are gone and capable of handling larger libraries. Although the general interface of the Photos apps might be the same, it is relatively faster and a powerful tool that its predecessor.
How to Store Photos on Mac?
Before knowing where are photos stored on Mac, you may also want to know how to store your photos. Your photos can be stored on your Mac or on iCloud. The initial step to make is to ensure that your photos are on your Mac. Generally, photos can take up disk space, especially if you have a lot. Since photos have been synced to iCloud, the original photos are purgeable files and can be removed from Mac to save space.
Simply open the Photos app and click on “Preferences” and choose the iCloud tab. If you want to store your photos in iCloud, you must select the option to “Download Originals to this Mac”. This will ensure that all your photos are on the disk and the next task for you is to find them.
Part 2. Where Are the Photos Stored on Mac OS?
Can't find photos on Mac? Where are pictures stored on Mac? The photo files are stored in this location in the Mac OS:
~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/resources/derivatives/masters
It is important to note that the ~ tilde indicates the users home directory, if you are going to utilize the “Go To Folder” command to move through that directory, do not skip the ~ prefix.
This essentially focuses on the local image files and not anything stored inside iCloud. For files on iCloud, you can access them through iCloud Photo Library or the Photos app.
How to Access the Location Where Photos Files Are Stored?
How to view photos in a folder on Mac? In case you decide to manually navigate to the file location of Photos using the Finder to find where are photos stored on Mac, there are steps that you should follow:
- Open Finder and proceed to the home directory
- Open the “Pictures” folder
- Search for the file labeled as “Photos Library photoslibrary”
- Right-click or Control+Click on the “Photos Library photoslibrary” and tap on the “Show Package Contents” option
- Access the folder labeled “Masters” to find the image files included within the Photos app
Generally, the “Masters” folder includes directories of photos that are categorized based on the date in day, month or year subfolders. In every folder, you will find the image files from each specific date.
Remember that if you delete a photo from the “Masters” directory, you can no longer access it in the Photos app. It is recommended to copy a file from the directory if you want to edit one. Furthermore, this package folder is not aimed to be easily accessed which is the reason why it is concealed. However, you can browse directly through your files if you want.
Another option if you want to find the original file from Photos apps is to utilize the “Show Referenced” option. This will access a Finder window that holds a file that was selected from Photos. Some Mac users will notice that the images in the Photos app are designated in the same package style containment as with other common Mac apps and in the same parent directory where you will find the iPhoto images and the Photo Booth files.
In case you only require the “Master” files to copy a few photos, simply move them out of Photos directly to the desktop. This action will create duplicates of your photos and will not move or delete the original files.
What to Do When Pictures Folder on Mac Missing?
If you have updated your Mac version to El Capitan or higher, the picture folder will disappear, then it's hard for you to find your photos. In this case, you might need an effective tool call PowerMyMac to help you quickly locate all the photos and clean them out if you don't need them anymore. You can free download this software below since it provides you with 500MB of free cleaning space, this means you can have a free try this software to see if it can solve your problems.
Do not forget to find and delete all the copies that you acquired later to prevent the files from taking up disk space on your Mac. In such cases, you can also use the Similar Photo tool in PowerMyMac to clean up unnecessary files after locating.