dparker708

Hello all,

I recently took photos of a 4-year-old birthday party; edited 119 of them and tried to send them to the parents, but apparently, they are locked on my mac and I am unable to drag them to an eternal drive. Does anyone know how to unlock these photos?

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

Select them and use the File option as shown here. Select "all" may be available. I don't use Photos so I can't really go farther than this.

(Download)

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

You may find what you want here, too. I tried it and could not find the Masters folder but that might be because I don't use that app much.

https://www.switchingtomac.com/tutorials/osx/where-are-apple-photos-stored/

picsman Loc: Scotland

Use export in the file menu and send the selected photos to another folder, from there you can drag and drop. Alternatively use share in the file menu and send them to say email.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Just a suggestion, I just copy them to a flash drive and mail them out.

david vt Loc: Vermont

My spouse uses Mac Photos. This is a correct answer (may be others, but this works reliably). I keep a folder named “photo export” on her desktop. Export from Photos to it. Do what I need to (email, post to smugmug, etc). When done, I clear the folder.

this way I don’t mess with the native photos structure.

dparker708

Thank you for your help & responses. My niece told me the sd card was on lock which was why I couldn't export. So, it looks like I need to start over with the photo edits unless someone else has a suggestion?

GLSmith Loc: Tampa, Fl

Verify you have admin priviledges on the MAC.

applepie1951 Loc: Los Angeles,California

Select the photo then right click on the photo and go to get info and when the info window open at the bottom you will see a lock with a check box remove the check mark and now it’s unlocked, you’ll have to do that with each photo no way to batch do it.

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

Everyone is assuming you are using photos. Are you? Explain your workflow. Having a locked sd card just means you can’t write to it.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

What, exactly, do you mean by "locked on my Mac?" This statement could mean:

The file *properties* are locked, to prevent editing. Right-click or Control-click on the file. Choose "Get Info". Uncheck the "Locked" box, if it is locked.

The files are hidden somewhere where you can't get to them (i.e.; in Photos).

The files are on a drive that is locked.

If you are using Photos, follow the link someone else posted to find their location. Alternatively, EXPORT them from Photos. Photos is designed to hide and protect your originals, so they are always available for re-editing. So EXPORT is the better choice here.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Call Apple Tech Svs.

Manny Myers

I would love to know where you got your eternal drive from; I WANT ONE!

SandySea

First, I got my first Mac back in the late 80's and was hooked. Second, I currently use a late 2015 iMac, OS 11.2.3, Big Sur. It came with 16 MB memory, and I recently added another 16 MB for a total of 32MB. Third, I do not know all there is to know about Photos.

However much it helps, this is my editing workflow...I open Photos version 6.0, then take the card out of my camera and insert it in the card slot on my iMac. I now have the option of importing all new photos, or select only the ones I want to import. On the left side of the Photos window is a sidebar with a number of categories. The first is Photos under which are the following "folders:" Library, Memories, People, Places, Favorites, Recents, Imports, and Recently Deleted.

The imported photos are in the Imports folder. In the Imports folder, you can double click on any photo and you now will see buttons on the upper right side, one of which is Edit. When you click on Edit, all the editing tools are available to you.

If I want to share a photo, I select it and click the Share button (In System Preferences >Extentions I check the apps or methods I want to use to share stuff). Alternatively, I drag the photo to the desktop and then drag it into Pages, Mail, Messages, etc.

I have never experienced Photos being locked so I a bit flummoxed on how that happens. If you use the same workflow described above, your edited photos should still be in the Imports folder. If you don't see them there, check the Library folder. I am so sure of this method that I when I eject my SD card, I put it back in the camera and format it. I have never lost any photos.

I also don't leave that to chance. I use iCloud so my photos are available on all my devices, and use TimeMachine to back up multiple times a day. I also back up on another external 5 TB hard drive used exclusively for photos and movies.

I hope I'm not talking down to you, certainly not my intention. My goal is to give you something to compare to in hopes of finding a solution, if not for your immediate problem, hopefully to diminish future problems.

Good luck!

SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA

I haven't had problems with dragging files, including edited files in apple photo. But I have had problems transferring files from my macbook (MBP) to disks with incompatible file formats. For example, you can easily transfer files from MBP to an external disk formatted as fat32. But you can't transfer files from MBP to NTSF formatted drive (without additional drivers).

If your external drive is a flash drive, check to see if it has been write protected. It could have a physical switch on it or have the write protection set in software. This can be checked with a flash drive utility. I've run into this issue before also.

If you can load your edited images back into apple photo, there is no need to re-edit your images. If not, then you have a lot of rework to do.

Good luck
Mike