How to Access Photos on Your Mac

Photo by MWLS Graphics

It's very difficult to locate photos on your Mac because:

• they are stored in what appears to be random locations and
• they also have different file names to those shown when you edit them.

It used to be easier - and I have written several articles on how to locate photos. Unfortunately, I've had to revise these articles every time Apple released a new Mac OS.

If you want to have a look at your photos, you can:

• Go to your User folder
• Click 'Pictures'
• Right-click 'Photos Library.photoslibrary'
• Select 'Show Package Contents'
• Click 'originals' and
• Browse the folders that store your photos

It will take a very long time to find a particular photo.

Work rounds

However, I've found a few work rounds that will help you edit, copy, move and upload your photos.

Editing photos
You can edit your photo with Photo's built-in editor, but you can also use your preferred editor:

• Open Photos
• Right-click the photo you want to edit
• Select 'Edit With >'
• Select your preferred editor

Copying photos

• Open Photos and make sure that the photo you want to move is visible
• Open the Finder
• Choose a destination folder
• Drag the photo from Photos to your chosen Finder folder

Moving photos

• Open Photos and make sure that the photo you want to move is visible
• Open the Finder
• Choose a destination folder
• Drag the photo from Photos to your chosen Finder folder
• Delete the photo on Photos

Uploading photos

• Open the website's upload page
• Drag the photo from Photos to the upload page

If the website doesn't provide this option, move or copy the photo to Finder. You can then upload by browsing to and selecting the photo.

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