everyday mac tools

Find the original of a photo inside the Photos library

· 5 min read

The original file for every photo you imported sits inside the Photos library package, in a folder called originals, under a name Photos assigned rather than the one the camera gave it. You can look in that folder, but the safe way to get an original out is from inside Photos: File, Export, Export Unmodified Original, which hands you the exact bytes with the original filename attached. Go into the package directly only to look, never to move or rename.

The safe way: export the unmodified original

Photos keeps your edits separately from the file you imported, so the original is always there to recover, and the export command is the clean way to reach it.

  1. In Photos, select the photo, or several.
  2. Choose File, Export, Export Unmodified Original. The menu item names the number of items selected.
  3. In the dialog, choose how to name the files. Use File Name gives you the camera’s filename; you can also export IPTC metadata as a sidecar file if you want your titles and keywords alongside.
  4. Choose a folder and click Export.

For a raw photo, or a raw plus JPEG pair, this gives you the raw file exactly as imported. For a Live Photo, it gives you the still and the movie. Nothing about the copy inside the library changes.

To check which file you are looking at before you export, press Cmd-I on the photo. The Info panel shows the filename, the camera, the date and the resolution. The Photos search field matches filenames too, so typing IMG_4021 finds a photo when that is all you remember.

If the original is not on this Mac

With iCloud Photos on and Optimize Mac Storage selected, many originals live only in iCloud. The Mac keeps a preview and downloads the full file on demand. Exporting still works; Photos fetches the original first, which needs a connection and can take a while for a raw file.

To keep every original on the Mac, open Photos, Settings, iCloud and choose Download Originals to this Mac. Photos then downloads the whole library, which can take days for a large one and needs the disk space to match. Check the free space in System Settings, General, Storage before you switch it.

Where the folder is and what is inside

The library is a package: a folder Finder shows as one item. By default it is at ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary. Right-click it and choose Show Package Contents to look inside.

  • originals holds the imported files, spread across sixteen subfolders named 0 to 9 and A to F. Each file keeps its extension but carries a long identifier as its name.
  • resources holds the rendered versions Photos shows you, including edited copies and thumbnails at several sizes.
  • database holds the catalog that ties everything together: which original belongs to which photo, its real filename, albums, faces, edits.

That last point is the catch. The mapping from IMG_4021.HEIC to the identifier in originals lives in the database, not in the filename, so browsing the folder in Finder tells you very little. Quick Look works in there (select a file and press Space), and you can copy a file out with drag-and-drop while holding Option, but do not rename, move or delete anything. Photos treats a library that has changed underneath it as damaged. If that ever happens, hold Option and Cmd while opening Photos to run the repair.

Libraries created before Catalina used a Masters folder organized by date; Photos converts these to the current layout the first time it opens them, so on a current Mac you will see originals.

Referenced files: when the original never went into the library

If you imported with Copy items to the Photos library switched off (Photos, Settings, General), the originals stayed wherever they were, on an external drive or in a folder of your own, and the library only holds a reference. In that case, select the photo and choose File, Show Referenced File in Finder. If the drive it lives on is unplugged, Photos tells you so, and the export command cannot fetch it until you reconnect the drive.

Finding originals in bulk

Finder search does not look inside packages, and neither does the Spotlight window, so you cannot search the library for all the DNG files or all the videos from Finder. Terminal can:

find ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary/originals -iname "*.dng"

Terminal will ask for permission to reach your Pictures folder the first time. The result is a list of identifier-named paths, useful for counting or for copying with cp to a folder outside the library. Do not use mv.

Everywhere catalogs the files inside the package along with everything else on the Mac, so ext:dng path:photoslibrary lists every raw original as you type, size: narrows to the large ones, and Space previews any of them. Be clear about what it cannot do: it searches names and paths, and the names inside the library are identifiers, so it cannot turn IMG_4021 into the right file. For that, the Photos search field and the export command remain the answer.

Questions

Can I delete the resources folder to free space? No. It contains the edited versions and the previews Photos displays. Removing it damages the library, and Photos would have to regenerate everything it could and lose what it could not. Manage space from inside Photos, or by moving the whole library to a larger drive.

Why does the original have a different name from my camera’s? Photos renames files on import to guarantee uniqueness. Two cameras can both produce an IMG_0001.JPG, and a library of tens of thousands of photos would collide constantly under camera names. The original filename is kept in the database and shown in the Info panel.

Does editing a photo change the original file? No. Edits are stored as instructions plus a rendered copy in resources; the file in originals is never rewritten. Revert to Original in the Edit view simply discards the instructions.

Can I move the whole library to an external drive? Yes. Quit Photos, drag the package to the drive (a Mac-formatted drive, not one formatted for Windows), then hold Option while opening Photos and choose the library at its new location. Set it as the System Photo Library in Photos, Settings, General if you use iCloud Photos.