Managing a huge gallery and organizing photos is a tricky business, even if you’re generally tidy, so it’s always a good idea to use some help. Especially when there’s software out there designed specifically to deal with an overload of pictures.
Apple Photos Review: Best Free Photo Editor for Mac Users Apple Photos is a free, fun and very-easy-to-use app for accessing, organizing and sharing your photos and videos. Photo: Cult of Mac For most of us, the best option is to use an app that strips the metadata from a photo as you send it. I use Metapho, an app for viewing and removing metadata from images.
The only trouble with professional photo organizing software is that, much like any photo equipment, it’s painfully expensive. In this article we’ll suggest tools that tame your giant photo gallery without leaving a hole in your pocket.
Best photo manager apps for Mac reviewed
1. Gemini 2: The duplicate photo finder![]()
The first step to getting your photos organized is to remove all of the duplicate or similar-looking images. Chances are when you take a picture, you don’t take just one; you take 15. All from different angles, maybe even with different poses. But rarely do you need or want all of them, so now they’re just taking up space on your Mac.
The easiest way to get rid of those files is to get a duplicate photo finder, Gemini 2. It scans your whole gallery and locates the duplicate or similar photos. Gemini 2 lets you quickly review and choose which pictures you want to delete. But the app also uses AI to select the best version of each image, and it will get rid of all of the copies with just one click of the Smart Cleanup button.
2. Photos: Best photo organizer on Mac
Here’s the biggest secret to good photo organization: master Photos. You might be thinking: seriously, is a native Apple app really any good? And you’d be surprised how much it is.
Since macOS Sierra, Photos has been getting makeovers and new features. In macOS Mojave, the app lets you organize content just by dragging-and-dropping it, and with Smart Albums, you can instantly group photos by date, camera, and even the person in them. At this point, it’s just a really good piece of photo management software.
3. Mylio: A free photo manager app
If you’ve been meaning to consolidate your photos in one place for years, Mylio will help you do just that. When you first start using the app, it offers to look for your photos on the current device, on an external drive, and even on your Facebook.
Once all the photos you’ve taken in your lifetime are imported, Mylio organizes into a variety of views. The coolest one is Calendar, showing you photo collections on an actual calendar. That way, you’ll quickly find the photos from your son’s first birthday, even if you forgot how you named the folder. Plus, Mylio offers a free mobile app, so you can access your photo library wherever you are.
4. Adobe Lightroom: Cloud-based photo editor and organizer
While Adobe Lightroom is probably best known as a powerful picture editor, it’s also loaded with tons of tools to help keep your photos organized. It stores your pics in the Adobe Cloud so you can access all of your albums and folders on another computer, phone, or even an internet browser.
One of the great things about Lightroom is that it makes non-destructive edits to your photos. So, you can revert back to the original image at any time, and you don’t need to create a duplicate just to preserve your picture.
5. Luminar: Organize and view pictures without importing them
If you have your pictures saved in various folders across your computer, then Luminar is the app you’ll want to check out. It shows you all of your photos without having to import any of them into a library. So you can start using Luminar in almost no time.
6. Adobe Bridge: Free photo library manager
You might be wondering why Adobe would make two separate photo managers. Aside from Adobe Bridge being free for everyone, it serves an entirely different purpose. Bridge is solely an image and asset manager. Unlike Lightroom, it doesn’t have any editing functionality.
So, what’s the point then? Where Bridge really shines is if you’re using other Adobe products, such as Photoshop or Illustrator. You can store and organize all of your pictures in Bridge and then open them in any Adobe program without creating a duplicate or searching through the thousands of files on your computer. Plus, Bridge offers a robust search tool making it a breeze to find the exact image you’re looking for.
Final word on photo management on Mac
There are basically two things you need to remember to bring order into your photographing life:
Now that you know all the secrets to photo organization, Mac photography shouldn’t be that hard or that expensive. Not when you’ve got the right tricks up your sleeve.
These might also interest you:What you need
You can use My Photo Stream with these devices after you set up iCloud on them:
If you recently created your Apple ID, My Photo Stream might not be available. If My Photo Stream isn't available, use iCloud Photos to keep your photos and videos in iCloud.
Amazon Photo App For MacHow My Photo Stream works with iCloud Photos
My Photo Stream uploads your most recent photos (except Live Photos) so that you can view and import them to all of your devices. Photos are stored in My Photo Stream for 30 days. iCloud Photos uploads all of your photos and videos to iCloud and keeps them up to date across your devices.
If you turn on both My Photo Stream and iCloud Photos on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, photos that you take with that device upload to both iCloud Photos and My Photo Stream.
Mac Photos App On Windows
If you use another device with the same Apple ID that has only My Photo Stream turned on, photos that you take on that device upload only to My Photo Stream. They don't appear on any devices that have only iCloud Photos enabled.
Learn more about the differences between iCloud Photos and My Photo Stream.
See your photos in My Photo StreamiPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
New Photos App For MacMacApple TV
Windows PC
When you turn on Photos, iCloud for Windows creates a Photos folder in File Explorer called iCloud Photos. My Photo Stream automatically downloads any new photos that you take on your iOS devices to the Downloads folder.
You can also use these steps to see your photos on your PC:
Photo formats that you can use with My Photo Stream
My Photo Stream supports JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and most RAW photo formats. My Photo Stream doesn't support video or Live Photos.
Delete photos from My Photo Stream
Select one or more photos from My Photo Stream on your iOS device or Mac, then tap or click Delete.
On your PC, select the photos that you want to remove from My Photo Stream. Right-click, then select Delete.
When you delete a photo from My Photo Stream on one device, the photo is removed from Photos and iCloud. The photos that you import from My Photo Stream to your other devices won’t be deleted.
![]() Frequently asked questions about My Photo StreamCan I use My Photo Stream to back up my photos instead of iCloud Backup or iTunes?
No. Photos in My Photo Stream are saved on the iCloud server for 30 days. After that, the photos are removed from iCloud. To save or back up these photos, you must save them from My Photo Stream to your iOS device. Here's how: On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, open Photos and tap Albums > My Photo Stream > Select. Tap the photos that you want to save, then tap > Save Image. Then you can back up your photos with iCloud or iTunes.
What resolution are My Photo Stream photos?
On a Mac or PC, your photos are downloaded and stored in full resolution. On iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV, your photos are delivered in a device-optimized resolution that speeds downloads and saves storage space.
Dimensions vary, but an optimized version of a photo taken by a standard point-and-shoot camera will have a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution when pushed to your devices. Panoramic photos can be up to 5400 pixels wide.
When do my photos upload to My Photo Stream?
Photos that you take on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch automatically upload to My Photo Stream when you leave the Camera app and connect to Wi-Fi. And new photos that you import on your Mac to the Photos app automatically upload when you connect to Wi-Fi or Ethernet. You can change your preferences so that only photos you manually add to My Photo Stream upload.
To upload photos to My Photo Stream on your PC, follow these steps:
You can also drag and drop photos from your PC into the Uploads folder in iCloud Photos.
How many photos can My Photo Stream store?
To save storage space, your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch keep your most recent 1000 photos in the My Photo Stream album. From My Photo Stream, you can browse your photos or move the ones you like to another album to keep them on your iOS device forever. And if your Apple TV has limited storage, you'll see only your most recent photos.
You can choose to download all of your photos from My Photo Stream to your Mac and PC automatically.
Open Photos and go to Preferences > General. Select Copy items to the Photos library.
Does My Photo Stream use my iCloud storage?
No. The photos you upload to My Photo Stream don't count against your iCloud storage.
Best Photo Apps For MacWhere are my burst mode photos in My Photo Stream?
When you take photos with burst mode, only your favorite photos import to your device. You can choose to save all photos you take with burst mode to My Photo Stream: tap Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos and turn on Upload Burst Photos.
Mac App Photo StripsWhat happens to your photos if you turn off My Photo StreamMac Photos App Download
Before you turn off My Photo Stream, save any photos that you want to keep on your device. If you sign out of iCloud or turn off My Photo Stream on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, all of the photos in the My Photo Stream album are removed from that device.
The photos from My Photo Stream on your other devices aren't affected. Photos from My Photo Stream stay on the iCloud server for 30 days from the date you upload them to My Photo Stream. If you sign in to iCloud with the same Apple ID and turn on My Photo Stream on another device, the photos automatically download.
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