Overview of importing photos and videos into Photos on Mac
Import your photos and videos into your photo library so you can organise and edit them with Photos. You can import photos and videos in a variety of ways:
Using iCloud: Turn on iCloud Photos on your Mac and iOS devices to access your entire library automatically. Or, you can turn on My Photo Stream to import only your most recent photos. (If you use iCloud Photos, you don’t need to use My Photo Stream.) See Use iCloud Photos to store photos.
From cameras or mobile devices: Connect a camera, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or other mobile device and import photos and videos from the device. See Import photos from a camera or phone.
From storage media: Import photos or videos saved on a hard disk or other storage device. See Import photos from hard disks, DVDs and other devices.
From other apps: Import photos and videos sent to you in an email or text message or downloaded from Safari. See Import photos from Mail, Safari and other apps.
By default, imported photos are copied into the Photos library. If you prefer, you can store photos and videos outside the Photos library — for example, in a folder on your Mac or on an external hard drive — and still view them in Photos. If you ever need to move content stored outside the library into your Photos library, you can do that, too. See Change where Photos stores your files.
Note: Photos and videos stored outside the Photos library aren’t stored in iCloud Photos.