A glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Manages and performs actions on multiple Photo Libraries
- De-duplication images
- In separate windows, open multiple libraries simultaneously
- Merges libraries
- Libraries can copy and move media
- Export options with advanced features
- Works with iCloud Photos-stored videos and images
Our Verdict
PowerPhotos adds the missing management features to the Photos app and powerful de-duplication, alternative search approaches, and a list view.
Apple has made significant improvements to its Photos app on macOS in the years since it discontinued iPhoto support and declared Photos its new approach. Although the current version looks similar to the one that was introduced, everything works most of the times. Photos has some missing parts for managing libraries. Fat Cat Software’s PowerPhotos has filled that role since 2015, and the company released a major update in 2022 to version 2 that offers even more refinement.
This app solves many problems that users have with Photos and is frequently referred to by Mac 911. The program lets you merge Photos libraries, view multiple libraries without quitting Photos and re-selecting them (including in separate windows simultaneously), create libraries on external files, and move or copy images and videos among libraries without losing information you’ve added or edits you’ve made.
PowerPhotos could be considered a sidecar to Photos, as the two are not in complete overlap. PowerPhotos uses Photos to drive its management, search and export options. You can also choose between a list- or thumbnail-based view, as opposed to Photos, which displays only thumbnails. But you’ll turn to Photos for making and managing albums, viewing and applying metadata, and editing images and videos.
PowerPhotos v2.0 offers export options that go beyond what is available in Photos. PowerPhotos now has a core de-duplication feature that allows visual matches. These can be filtered or refined based on data such as dimensions or embedded timestamps. (macOS Ventura, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16 include a machine-learning-assisted Duplicates album, but as with most things Apple, it’s automatic, quite useful, and cannot be configured. Apple also doesn’t expose its logic so you can understand why it selected some images as duplicates and others not.)
Version 2 fixes a problem that rendered the app inoperable for people who used iCloud Photos with optimization disabled. With version 1, PowerPhotos couldn’t access media stored in iCloud; version 2 takes care of that. It allows previewing and other actions, and downloads any images or videos to your Mac when they’re needed, just like Photos.
PowerPhotos’s search controls offer an alternative to those in Photos. Apple lets you search in one field and refine it from a popup list of matching results. Or, you can use a smart directory to add criteria to make your search more complex. PowerPhotos allows you to start with one search field. You have the option to search against the entire library, favorites, albums or other subsets. PowerPhotos makes it easy to restrict your search to a specific filename, caption or keyword.
Bottom line
Not everyone needs PowerPhotos. It’s well worth the price if you routinely experience frustration within Photos for tasks it lacks or is poor at, such as library management and searches. It’s the only reasonable solution in several circumstances: if you’ve created multiple Photos libraries for different purposes, broken up a huge collection into smaller pieces, or work with libraries stored in a combination of internal and external drives, particularly volumes you may generally keep offline.
You might also find the price tag worthwhile for a single merge of Photos libraries as there’s no other way to accomplish the task. PowerPhotos 2 costs $29.95 for new users, and $14.95 for an upgrade to PowerPhotos 1 or any other version of its discontinued app, iPhoto Library Manager. It is compatible with macOS 11 Big Sur and later. Version 2.1 can be used for macOS 13 Ventura.
