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How to Set Up Mylio Photos on a New Computer

Whether you're replacing an old computer or adding a second one to your setup, Mylio Photos makes the transition straightforward, as long as you follow a few key steps. This article covers how to prepare your vault, choose between a fresh install and a backup restore, and cleanly hand off from your old device to your new one.

Check Your Vault Before Migrating to a New Computer

A Vault is a device designated in Mylio Photos to store your complete library — full-resolution originals, XMP sidecar files, thumbnails, and the underlying database. Your vault is what allows Mylio Photos to sync your entire library to a new computer without any manual file transfer. It's the most important thing to have in place before any hardware transition.

We recommend having at least one vault that is not your computer — ideally two. External hard drives work well for this. Hard drives can and do fail, and a second vault means you have a complete backup to fall back on if something goes wrong.

Before you do anything else, confirm your vault is fully synced:

  1. Click the Dashboard icon (the speedometer) in the left sidebar.
  2. Go to Devices.
  3. Locate your vault device(s) and confirm they show a blue checkmark. This means they are fully synced and have a complete copy of your library.

If your vault(s) are not fully synced, wait auntil they are before proceeding.

Don't have a vault yet? Set one up before you go any further. Go to Dashboard > Devices > Add Vault to get started.

Only have one vault? Consider adding a second one now, before you begin the transition. Go to Dashboard > Devices > Add Vault and select an external hard drive.

Fresh Install vs. Restoring from a Backup: Which Should You Choose?

When setting up Mylio Photos on a new computer, you have two options: do a fresh installation, or restore from a backup such as Time Machine on Mac. For most people, a fresh install is the right choice.

Fresh Installation (Recommended)

A fresh install means setting up your new computer from scratch and installing Mylio Photos as a new app. Mylio Photos syncs everything from your vault automatically — no manual file transfer needed.

Pros:
  • Mylio Photos installs cleanly and predictably
  • Sync begins automatically from your vault
  • Each computer gets its own distinct identity in Mylio Photos, which prevents conflicts
  • No risk of carrying over clutter or outdated data from an older machine
Cons:
  • You'll need to reinstall your other apps and reconfigure settings manually
  • Takes more time upfront

If your computer is five or more years old, a fresh install is especially worthwhile. The extra setup time pays off in a cleaner, more stable system overall.

Restoring from a Backup

If your current computer is relatively new and you want to bring your full setup over, restoring from a backup is an option. However, there is one critical rule if you go this route:

Never open Mylio Photos on your old computer again after cloning it to a new one.

Mylio Photos is both software and a service. The service layer tracks the unique identity of each device. If you clone your old computer to a new one and then open Mylio Photos on both, the service sees two devices with the same identity and doesn't know how to handle it. This causes sync conflicts and duplicate device entries very quickly.

If you're keeping the old computer for any reason, make sure Mylio Photos is not running on it and that you never open it there again. If you want both computers to operate independently in Mylio Photos, do a fresh install on the new machine so each device has its own distinct identity.

Replacing Your Old Computer vs. Adding a New One

How you finish the transition depends on what you're doing with the old computer.

How to Replace Your Old Computer with a New One

  1. Do a fresh install of Mylio Photos on the new computer. Go to https://mylio.com/download to download the software.
  2. After installing, sign in with your Mylio account. Sync will begin automatically from your vault.
  3. Confirm the new computer is syncing correctly — look for the blue checkmark in Dashboard > Devices.
  4. Once everything is fully synced, unregister the old computer.

To unregister: go to Dashboard > Devices, locate the old computer, and select Unregister. Read the confirmation dialog carefully. Most people skip past it, and that's where things go wrong.

When you click Unregister, you'll see one of two messages:

  • "Type CONFIRM to unregister" — this means Mylio Photos has verified that your originals exist on at least one other device. You're safe to proceed.
  • "This device has originals that are nowhere else in your library" — this means some files on this computer have not synced to any other device. Do not unregister. If you proceed, those files will become Lost Originals — media that Mylio Photos knows about but can no longer access. Wait for sync to complete and confirm the blue checkmark appears before trying again.

Important: Unregistering is permanent. It doesn't delete files from the device, but it removes the device from Mylio Photos and sync will stop. If you ever want to use that computer with Mylio Photos again, you would need to add it as a brand new device.

How to Add a Second Computer to Mylio Photos

If you want both computers active in your Mylio Photos setup as separate, distinct devices:

  1. Do a fresh install of Mylio Photos on the new computer.
  2. Sign in with your Mylio account.
  3. Let sync run. Mylio Photos will recognize this as a new, distinct device automatically.

In Dashboard > Devices, you'll see both computers listed as separate entries. No additional steps are needed.

What to Do If You Have Linked Folders

If you've built a custom library structure using linked folders, your transition may need a few extra steps to make sure that structure is preserved correctly on the new computer. Linked folder configurations are unique to each setup and require special attention when replacing a device.

Before making any changes, contact Mylio Photos Support directly from within the app:

  1. Go to the Help menu.
  2. Select Contact Mylio Support.
  3. Make sure Attach Logs is checked. This gives the support team a complete picture of your device configuration so they can provide step-by-step guidance specific to your setup.

Ghost Devices: What They Are and How to Clean Them Up

A ghost device appears in your Mylio Photos device list when the same device ends up registered twice — most often because a computer was cloned or Mylio Photos was reinstalled without unregistering the original entry first. Ghost devices don't cause harm, but they add clutter and can be confusing.

You can usually identify a ghost device because it shares a name with an active device — for example, My MacBook Proand My MacBook Pro (1). When Mylio Photos is running on the active computer, that entry will show as online with white text. The ghost device will never come online.

Once you've confirmed which entry is the active device, you can safely unregister the ghost. If you're not sure which is which, leave it or contact Mylio Photos Support.

New Computer Migration Checklist

Use this checklist when moving Mylio Photos to a new computer.

Before you start:

  • Confirm your vault(s) shows a blue checkmark in Dashboard > Devices (fully synced)
  • Confirm you have at least one vault that is not your computer, ideally two
  • If you have linked folders, contact Mylio Photos Support before proceeding

Setting up the new computer:

  • Do a fresh install of Mylio Photos on the new computer
  • Sign in with your Mylio account
  • Let sync run and confirm the new computer shows a blue checkmark in Dashboard > Devices

Wrapping up:

  • If replacing your old computer, unregister it only after the new one is fully synced
  • If you cloned your old computer, do not open Mylio Photos on it again
  • Clean up any ghost devices from your device list