Keep photo edits when migrating from Apple Photos

[gguilli]

Hello. I just became LR user (LR CC version 3.2) and went through the Apple Photos to LR migration process. I used the corrsponding button in LR under File > Migrate From > Apple Photo Library. I followed instructions as per below Adobe webpage. That instructions webpage does indicate what gets migrated and what does not. But it does not mention anything about "Edits" that were made to original photos. It seems that only the 'originals' are migrated while none of the 'edits' are migrated. Is that correct? Is that the intend of the migration function in LR? Is there another/better way to migrate in order to keep the edits (as well as album structure, faces, keywors, location...)? Here is the adobe instructions I followed: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/lightroom-cc/using/migrate-apple-photos-library.html

I do not understand why this built-in migration functionality would migrate originals instead of edited photos.

Thanks to any of you who could advise on how to migrate without loosing stuff.

[JohanElzenga]

RAW edits are proprietary for every raw converter, including Apple Photos. That means that raw edits will not come over if you switch from one raw editor to another one. If you want to migrate edited photos, then you will have to export them from Apple Photos as TIFFs. A TIFF is no longer a raw file, of course, but it has the edits 'baked into its pixels'.

[Bob Somrak]

To add to what Johan said, you might want to export the TIFF files using 16 bit so you dont lose as much editing ability as you would with 8 bit TIFFS

[gguilli]

Hi Johan,

Thanks for your reply. However, my issue is not related to RAW pictures. The majority of my photos are ".JPG" and those are the ones for which the edits were not migrated over from Apple Photos to LR CC. Does your recommendation (i.e. "export as .TIFFs") also apply to non-RAW photos?

I am guessing my issue is related to the fact that Apple Photos stores the edits in a sort of file separated from the original photo, and that the migration assistant from LR CC only takes the original, not the associated edits file... but this is just a guess.

Thanks again for your help.

Georges

[JohanElzenga]

Yes, Apple Photos (and Lightroom as well) uses the same type of non-destructive editing for raw and jepg. You'll have to export a copy to get a new image with the edits applied.