Getting Started with Apple Photos: How to Add and Import Pictures on Your Mac
Adding photos to your Mac doesn’t have to be confusing. Apple Photos supports importing pictures from many different sources, including CDs, flash drives, cameras, and memory cards. This guide walks through the most common ways to bring photos into Apple Photos while explaining important safety tips to avoid losing your images.
🎓 What You’ll Learn
The different ways to import photos into Apple Photos
How to import pictures from a CD or flash drive
How to drag photos directly into the Photos app
How Photos detects and handles duplicate images
How to import photos from a camera or memory card
How to select only specific photos to import
Why ejecting storage devices safely matters
💿 Importing Photos from a CD
Although newer Macs no longer include optical drives, you can still import photos from CDs using an external drive such as the Apple SuperDrive.
After inserting the CD:
It appears on the desktop
Photos can be dragged directly into the Photos app
Imported photos are copied into the Photos Library
This method is slower than modern storage but works reliably for older photo collections.
🔌 Importing Photos from a Flash Drive
Flash drives behave similarly to CDs but are much faster.
You can:
Open the drive in Finder and drag photos into Photos
Let Photos detect duplicates automatically
Choose whether to import or skip duplicate files
Photos compares metadata to avoid unnecessary duplicates.
🖱️ Dragging Photos Directly into Photos
Photos does not need to be open to import images.
You can:
Drag files from Finder directly onto the Photos icon in the Dock
Choose whether to import all photos or only new ones
Select an album or import directly into the library
This is one of the fastest import methods.
📷 Importing from a Camera or Memory Card
When a camera or memory card is connected:
Photos automatically detects the device
The device appears in the sidebar
Photos can auto-launch if enabled
You can import everything or select individual photos before importing.
⚠️ Import Safety Tips
When importing photos:
Avoid enabling “Delete items after import”
Always eject memory cards and flash drives properly
Never unplug storage devices while importing
These steps help prevent corrupted or lost files.