Restoring Your Photos Library to Your New Computer

If you have previously backed up your Photos Library to Google Drive as a ZIP file, follow these steps to restore your photos to your MacBook. If you need to back up your Photos Library, refer to this Knowledgebase Article.

Locate your “Photos Library.photoslibrary.zip” file in Google Drive and copy it to the Desktop of your new computer.

Double-click the “Photos Library.photoslibrary.zip” file to uncompress it.
When the process is complete, you will see a file named “Photos Library.photoslibrary” on your Desktop.

Open a new Finder window and select the Pictures folder. f you do not see the Pictures folder, go to Finder > Settings > Sidebar and check the box next to “Pictures.”

Drag the uncompressed "Photos Library.photoslibrary" file (not the .zip file) into your Pictures folder. You will see a prompt to replace the existing (empty) "Photos Library.photoslibrary" file. Choose "Replace."

Open the Photos app and confirm that your photos appear correctly.

Once you confirm that your Photos appear correctly, you can delete "Photos Library.photoslibrary.zip" file (the compressed file) from your Desktop.