Uploading photos

Everything you upload is stored exactly as it is — the file you download or export later is byte for byte the one you uploaded. For viewing, Media Moana makes a preview of each photo, so a RAW or HEIC file opens in any browser like a JPEG.

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Three ways in

A library with no photos yet opens on an upload panel with the same three choices: Choose Files, Choose Folder, or drop them on it.

Photos land in the folder you have open on the left — from All photos, or anywhere else that isn't a folder, in Unfiled. From an album, they are also added to that album.

Folders come in as folders

An uploaded or dropped folder becomes a folder inside the one you have open — from All photos, a folder of its own at the top of your tree — with its subfolders inside it, as many levels deep as on your disk, and every photo in the folder it was in. Upload 2026 Japan with Day 1 and Day 2 in it, and that is what your library shows. Files you pick or drop on their own still go straight into the open folder.

• A folder that is already there is used, not doubled. Upload the same folder again — a card you import a second time, say — and its photos go into the folders the first upload made; the ones already in your library are skipped as always, so only what is new is added.
• No empty folders. A folder is made for the photos that go into it, so a subfolder holding only videos, or only photos already in your library, is not created.
• Hidden files are left behind — names starting with a dot, like .DS_Store or the ._IMG_0001.JPG copies a Mac adds, and the __MACOSX folder an unzipped archive carries. They are not your photos, so they are neither uploaded nor counted as refused.
• Names are kept as they are, with two exceptions: control characters (a tab, a line break) become spaces, and a name with nothing else left in it becomes Untitled folder.
• If a folder can't be created, the upload carries on: that folder's photos, and those of the folders inside it, go into the folder above it, and the report at the end lists the folder under Folders couldn't be created.

While it uploads

A panel in the bottom-right corner counts the files as they go; Stop All stops the rest. You can keep browsing; the photos appear in the library as they finish, and each one gets its preview a moment later.

When the batch is done, a message says how it went — "12 photos uploaded, 3 already in your library." Two kinds of file are skipped, and neither counts as a failure:

• Already in your library — the same file is already there, and stays in the folder it is in. Each file is fingerprinted in your browser before it is sent, so re-importing a card never fills your storage with copies. A photo that is only in the trash counts as gone and is uploaded again.
• Not a photo — a file that isn't one of the supported formats, such as the .xmp sidecars and video clips on a camera's card. The message names them, or counts them by type: "8 files skipped, not photos: 6 .xmp, 2 .mov." The rest of the batch keeps going.

If something fails

When a file couldn't be uploaded, the panel stays open as a report, Upload finished, until you close it. It lists what went wrong in groups, one per cause, each file with the folder it was in and why:

• Retry N files sends again the files worth another try, into the folder they were meant for — and the album, if you uploaded from one. Files over the size limit, refused, or turned away because your storage is full are not retried.
• Copy list copies what failed, one file per line. Each group shows its first 20 files; Download CSV saves every file of the upload and what became of it.
• Done closes the report. Until your next upload starts, Last upload report beside Upload opens it again.

Uploading the same folder again works as a retry too: only what isn't in your library yet is sent.

Upload into an album

With an album open, Upload at the top is Add photos, and its Upload photos and Upload a folder add what you upload to that album; dropping files or folders onto the album does the same. The photos go into your library as they would from All photos — files into Unfiled, a folder as a folder of its own at the top of your tree — and once every one is in, they are added to the end of the album. A photo that was already in your library isn't uploaded again, but it is added to the album all the same.

The message at the end says how many were added: "Added 12 photos to “Kyoto”." If the album can't take them — it was deleted meanwhile, or they would take it past its 2,000 photos — none is added, the photos stay in your library, and the message says so.

Storage

Your plan's storage counts the original files you upload, at their full size — photos in the trash included. Photos you save from someone else's shared album count toward your own storage too, like anything you upload. The previews and viewing copies are on us.

From nine-tenths full, the library and the upload panel warn you. A selection that would not fit is refused before anything is sent, never half-way through. When the library is full it turns read-only: uploads wait until you upgrade or empty the trash, while browsing, sharing, downloading and exporting keep working.

After the upload

• The camera's own record — make, model, lens, exposure, date taken — is read from each file and becomes searchable, and a GPS position is turned into a place: country, state, county and the nearest city. So are the star rating, flag, color label and keywords your editing app wrote into a JPEG, HEIC or DNG.
• Each photo is analyzed — the scene, objects, any text in it, landmarks and events, how many people, a star rating — so search can find it by what is in it, unless you have turned photo analysis off.