How to use Lightroom with the Apple Photos app - EASY Photo transfer

Do you use both Lightroom and Apple Photos like me?
Then perhaps you are looking for a way to use them both. Stunning edits in Lightroom, transferred seamlessly to the Apple Photos app when done, so available on your mobile devices.
#lightroomtips #applephotoscanning
Note, this is a re-recording of my video on my Travel Channel, which will be taken down soon.

[@jpbananaman]

Can't even begin to express how helpful this was. I love having my photos within easy reach instead of deep in my iCloud Drive folder structure and this gives me the best of both worlds. Can't believe I couldn't find any other resources on the subject. Your shots are pretty sick, too.

[@brianbecnel852]

Mind Blown!!! When the student is ready, the teacher appears! Why have I never thought to research this?!? Well done, You!! Thank you.

[@teresababer5310]

what about going the other way??? From apple photos or iphone to LrC?

[@milailoria]

Thank you Richard! Useful.

[@mrskarshsphotos]

So helpful! Thanks!

[@johnperrone209]

Thank you for this excellent video. I use ON1 Photo Raw but it should also work for that as well.

[@lluttrell1913]

Thank you, very helpful video. I’ve been searching for a simpler method of getting many of my older photos from LR to Photos, and this looks good. Also picked up a tip for using folders in Apple Photos.

[@richardchubbUK]

Awesome! Glad it was useful, and thank you for watching.

[@marketerhayden]

Thanks for this, this is really great. I really enjoyed this workflow - I will be experimenting with it soon. My workflow has been a bit chaotic and i have duplicates everywhere.

[@jerometerry26]

Excellent video!!!

[@philwhyte4]

Thank you Richard, I have always struggled with this but now am going to give it a shot. Enjoyed your content and have now subscribed too 🙂

[@richardchubbUK]

Awesome, glad it was useful! Thanks for watching and of course for subscribing...have a great day!

[@antondymkovych6150]

Cool 👍Thanks a lot!

[@bertabbel7476]

Many thanks, that’s what I’m looking for for years

[@richardchubbUK]

Amazing, so pleased it was helpful, and thanks for watching!!

[@PL-im4mg]

Great video. Thanks. How do you manage the Photos library ? It gets bigger and bigger with all the photos of a lifetime. Do you put it on a cloud? Do you keep buying iCloud space ?

[@CaptChaos1964]

This is brilliant!!! Really helpful, thank you!

[@richardchubbUK]

Pleasure.....thanks for watching....

[@rogerwalton8160]

Very useful - thank you.

[@richardchubbUK]

Glad it was helpful!, and thanks for the comment..

[@avichaisegal]

Hi. how do you the reverse? meaning - how to import from apple photos to lightroom classic? thanks

[@mattiasbacklund5617]

Same here. I import from camera into Apple Photo´s as I am ok with 90% of all photos with this app. For the other 10% I need LR or perhaps I should look into NX Studio.

[@mattiasbacklund5617]

I do not have LR, but did you try just select images in Photos then drag into LR?

[@dennislee3367]

Sure sounds just like Paul Tillich's Courage to Be and his views of anxiety. Almost verbatim. I mean, it is so much Kierkegaard as well. You can see where he's getting his ideas from. I love what you've done here. So good.

[@richardchubbUK]

Thanks...I think (assuming this comment was not meant for someone else!) 😀👍

[@ellynbender5593]

Thank you very much for this information - I am very new to LrC and am quite confused as to how to use and manage it using Photos as well. The size of the file exported to Photos from LrC is much smaller than the original. Why is that and does one need for example, a 13MB file in Photos?

[@phil9498]

great , thank you !

[@richardchubbUK]

You are welcome!

[@tizer1028]

Brilliant video. Like the last comment, how to do reverse this ie Apple/ Google photos into Lightroom. Does this work the same for Google photos?

[@tomcain671]

Thanks

[@221100Rafa]

Richard, thank you so much for posting this tutorial. It is straightforward to follow for someone new to LRC like myself. I do have one question. I exported pictures from iPhotos to a folder on my computer and then to LRC to edit them. Now that I'm done editing, I will follow your steps to get the edited pictures to my iPhoto album. What do I do with the first set of images that went from iPhotos to a specific folder on my computer? Can I delete them, or LRC needs the pictures to stay in that folder since they are the originals? I'm asking because I accidentally deleted one from the folder, and LRC gave me a message that it couldn't locate the file. Again, this is me trying to delete the first folder where I transfer pics from iPhoto to a folder on the computer so they can be uploaded on LRC for editing. I hope I didn't confuse you!

[@richardchubbUK]

Thanks for the question, sorry it has taken a while to reply, and I hope you may find this useful still. When you exported from Photos to your hard drive, that gave you two 'originals' (ie photos with no edits assuming no tweaks were made in Photos). One in Photos, one on your hard drive (and subsequently into LrC) It sounds like you have edited and added into Photos again, which means you now have three copies of the same photos? 1 - Originals in iPhoto 2. Exports of those Photos on your hard drive and viewing through LrC 3. LrC edited photos added back into iPhoto If you delete the ones in the folder that is connected to LR, you will lose the 2nd originals, and the ability to re-edit your edits. But you will have copied 1 and 3 (1 being the master originals and 3 being those originals with LR edits. If not clear, or you have another question, please don't hesitate to ask! Cheers. (BTW, if not too late, you should be able to restore the one photo you deleted from the Bin/Trash and if added back to the same folder, it should resync)

[@oldhollywoodbriar]

I needed photos to lightroom lol

[@sueketteridge1939]

Hi Richard, do you have a video that shows how to do this in reverse? I have many thousands of photos in Apple photos, stored either on my hard drive or in iCloud. I am completely new to the Adobe creative cloud, and have just installed LRC on my new desktop, and LR on my MacBook and mobile devices so that I can edit on the go and sync back to my desktop. I understand how to import from my camera to Lightroom, and now, thanks to this video, how to get things from Lightroom to Apple photos (which will be a backup of my final images), but I really haven't a clue how to go about accessing some - but not all- of the photos held in Photos so that I can organise and process them. Any advice gratefully received!.

[@richardchubbUK]

This is a real tough question to answer. If you can find where your Apple photos library is stored on your hard drive, you can right click it, and select Show Package Contents. This should then give you a list of folders, one of which, if like mine, is called 'originals' In here will be a number of folders, but from what I can tell, there is no logical explanation as to what is in each folder. For example, I have a folder called simply '0', that has images in from 2019 to 2024. ***I would strongly recommend not deleting anything from here incase it corrupts the ApplePhotos Library*** This doesn't help, as there is no easy way of telling what is in what folder. I don't know how many images you are talking about, (I have over 30,000 in mine) My only suggestion at this stage would be to try and isolate the images you are adding from LR now, and create a smart Album to show you all photos that are not from LR. For example, every image you add to Apple Photos from LR could have the letters in the file name LR. You then know that anything with LR in it are what you want in Apple Photos. (check the LR is not in a filename in Apple Photos before you start again, by using a smart album. If it is, choose other letters. Your initials, etc) Assuming you can use the letters LR - You can then change the smart album to say "Show me photos that do not have LR in the filename". This will then give you all the photos that do not have LR in the filename and therefore, not come from Lightroom, and start working on those. If you have thousands like me, you could add another criteria in the same Smart Album: "Show me photos that do not have LR in the filename" and "Show me photos older than 2020" (pick a suitable date) You may then be able to export these to your hard drive, and then import into LR. Delete from ApplePhotos and put them back in once you have done what you need to in LR. The only thing that would need testing is what date is maintained. AAA - Alternatively, you could set up another Apple Photos Library, Start a fresh with your LR exports, and work on clearing the current ApplePhotos Library, potentially from Copying and pasting from Show Package contents folders to your LR? Please note I have not tried any of the above, but the last option, from AAA is something I am considering, but carefully. All I can say is....good luck, and if you have any other questions feel free to ask.

[@mattiasbacklund5617]

@@richardchubbUK if only a portion from Apple Photos, able just to select & drag from Photos to LR? (I do not have LR)

[@JeffBaynham]

Nice, but this looks to only work in Lightroom Classic.

[@joed7185]

how do I do the opposite? Need to get photos from apple photos into Lightroom

[@richardchubbUK]

Hi Joe, thanks for watching. Do you mean the whole library? Adobe may be best to help - helpx.adobe.com/uk/lightroom-cc/using/migrate-apple-photos-library.html Or do you mean photos you snap on your phone, you want to automatically enter lightroom? If so, check out kzbin.info/www/bejne/goavnoSVZ7yta6M Or do you mean something else? If something else, let me know which as there could be many ways. Thanks

[@kbstabs5982]

Hi. I do this to be able to edit photos in Lightroom on my IPad or laptop. In short, photos taken on my cameras (in my case a Fuji X100V and a Ricoh GR III) are imported wirelessly into Photos on my IPhone using the respective Fuji or Ricoh apps. Then I select the ones in Photos I want to put into Lightroom mobile using Select and move the selected files to the desired destination, in this case Lightroom, which shows up as a destination option along with email, airdrop, messages, etc. From there I can edit it on my Ipad or desktop/laptop since are synced automatically into the LIghtroom Ecosystem.

[@oldhollywoodbriar]

Same. I want to take just the select raw images to Lightroom.

[@teresababer5310]

@@joed7185 Same question but I want to take only “select” images from iPhone to LRC??? Struggling with this😞

[@JorgeFAguila]

Y desde ahí ya se guardan directamente en iCloud?

[@kellygentile15]

Very helpful! Thank you!

[@richardchubbUK]

Glad it was helpful!, my pleasure and thanks for watching!!