Well, I have been parked at the frustration parking lot all day. I have a Seagate external hard drive. I have used it for years on my iMac. When I went looking into it I saw that none of the photo library was there. Found out how to put the library on there, after changing the formatting so that it would be compatable with my Ubuntu laptop. So, now the pics are all gone from the iMac, but I can view them if I plug in the external hard drive, but, I wanted to place some of those photos on the laptop, but, I do not have any way to read the files on Ubuntu. Sigh. Also, I cannot get my Canon Rebel to download pics on Ubuntu, I get a message that says that the camera is locked. I have no idea how to unlock it. Would it be a good idea to put the camera install disk into the Ubuntu lap top?? I don’t want to fumble this.
Hello @KathyB!
If you can still see your photos though the - well - Photos app on your iMac, evan via having the external drive connected, then you can select them all and use the export function. Then you can select them as JPG (maximum quality) and select a place for their export. A new folder on a drive that has space is ideal.
Also, if you have iCloud with enough capacity, I would recommend you compress the exported photos’ folder (into a ZIP) and upload it to your iCloud area. Then you can go to your Ubuntu, open up a browser and visit iCloud.com. Once you login, you will be able to visit your iCloud Drive, select your ZIP file and download it.
The moment the download finishes on your Ubuntu, go to the folder, right-click on the ZIP file and select “Extract Here.” Then simply drag and drop the extracted folder to your Pictures Folder.
Last, but not least, open up your software manager on Ubuntu and install Shot Well. That’s a photo management application, which will detect your photos and organize them.
I hope this helps!
Thank you so much. I already have Shot well on the laptop, just need to do the rest! Thanks again!!
Hi there, I have put the photos into a zip drive. The icloud only allows the upload of 10GB, my zip drive is 33.27GB. Is there another way I could get this onto my Ubuntu laptop?
A Zip Drive! I had completely forgotten about those! Back in the day they had only 250MB.
Oh, wait, it’s a different Zip drive, isn’t it?!
https://www.zipdrive.com
You could grab a USB stick which holds 128GB and can server you quite nicely. They cost around $20 like the one below:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandisk-ultra-128gb-usb-3-0-flash-drive-black/9044257.p?skuId=9044257
With that, you can just copy and keep everything in it as an additional backup. The moment you plug it into your Ubuntu, you can use Shot Well to scan it and select to copy pictures. It will then automatically build the database - time based - on your Pictures folder. 
Thank you, great ideas! I found zipdrive.com boy did my laptop become slow! Unfortunately I can only download one pic at a time. I am going to try the USB instead. My husband has a saying: it is never easy, but it is simple. I am enjoying learning Ubuntu, and discovering the many things that I am free to do, what a sense of freedom! Thanks again!
Yeah, one picture a time is a nightmare! If you drop them on the USB, it will be a single drag and drop for all of them.
And you’re very welcome, @KathyB! Enjoy this new experience in freedom! 