duncanmug

Q: copy an photo library from a macbook pro to my Macbook (2015)

I am trying to copy an photo library from my time machine back up from a macbook pro running El Capitan to my Macbook (2015) running Yosemite but it tells me the file cannot be repaired when I open on the macbook?

MacBook, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Mar 20, 2016 10:07 AM

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Q: copy an photo library from a macbook pro to my Macbook (2015)

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  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Mar 21, 2016 9:42 AM in response to duncanmug
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    Mar 21, 2016 9:42 AM in response to duncanmug

    duncanmug wrote:

     

    Thanks giving that a go and will let you know.

    Hey, that rhymes.

     

    k, waiting…

  • by duncanmug,

    duncanmug duncanmug Mar 21, 2016 10:06 AM in response to dialabrain
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    Mar 21, 2016 10:06 AM in response to dialabrain

    So good news and bad news. It appears to be importing the photos over however it has lost all the sub folders/albums they were in.

    so I now have 10000 work photos that are not

    in there separate albums anymore. Are any of the other files in contents the folder files That would sort them into albums again?

    Thank you so much for this.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Mar 21, 2016 10:26 AM in response to duncanmug
    Level 5 (6,372 points)
    Mac App Store
    Mar 21, 2016 10:26 AM in response to duncanmug

    well, my thought was the reason you were getting the error message about repairing was because something was corrupted with the structure of the Library. If you want to try and import the library directly from the Time Machine backup rather than restore you could try that. It's hard to try to work out what's going on at a distance.

     

    You do still have the Time Machine backup in case someone else has another idea.

  • by duncanmug,

    duncanmug duncanmug Mar 21, 2016 10:43 AM in response to dialabrain
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    Mar 21, 2016 10:43 AM in response to dialabrain

    Ok, thanks very much for your help! Much appreciated

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Mar 21, 2016 10:51 AM in response to duncanmug
    Level 5 (6,372 points)
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    Mar 21, 2016 10:51 AM in response to duncanmug

    Welcome. On other thing I thought of. I don't know if all your photos were contained in the photo library on your MBP or some were links to the actual files in other folders. If the latter is true, that would explain the problems with repairing I suppose.

     

    You could try Target Disk Mode and try to directly import the library. from the MBP to your MacBook.

    Share files between two computers with target disk mode - Apple Support

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Mar 21, 2016 1:13 PM in response to duncanmug
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    Mar 21, 2016 1:13 PM in response to duncanmug

    So good news and bad news. It appears to be importing the photos over however it has lost all the sub folders/albums they were in.

    so I now have 10000 work photos that are not in there separate albums anymore

     

    When you imported the masters that's exactly what you asked it to do. This is not migrating a Library, it's just starting over from scratch, and so results in significant data loss. You lost all your Albums, any metadata you added and any edits you did. The poster who suggested this should have warned you about dataloss.

     

    Further the Finder permissions on the Library are of no relevance. iPhoto is responsible for the permissions within the Library. it's a feature of the iPhoto repair set.

     

    Try copy over the Library again. If you still have the issue then try repair the Library. To do this

     

    Hold down the command and option keys when launching iPhoto. Choose the option to rebuild the Library.

     

    If that fails:

     

    Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)

     

    This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.

     

    Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

  • by duncanmug,

    duncanmug duncanmug Mar 21, 2016 1:50 PM in response to Terence Devlin
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    Mar 21, 2016 1:50 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Thank you, I will give that a try. The 10000 photos are all work photos and pictures from all round the world so the thought of spending days trying to work out where they all were is horrendous.

  • by duncanmug,

    duncanmug duncanmug Mar 21, 2016 1:54 PM in response to dialabrain
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    Mar 21, 2016 1:54 PM in response to dialabrain

    They are all contained in my MacBook Pro library. No links.

    it was a 2nd photos library that I created pure for work and is not the main default system photos library which contains all my personal photos.

    I Only wanted my work photos on this new MacBook.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Mar 21, 2016 2:26 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 5 (6,372 points)
    Mac App Store
    Mar 21, 2016 2:26 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Terence Devlin wrote:

     

     

    When you imported the masters that's exactly what you asked it to do. This is not migrating a Library, it's just starting over from scratch, and so results in significant data loss. You lost all your Albums, any metadata you added and any edits you did. The poster who suggested this should have warned you about dataloss.

    in my defense because the OP was having no luck importing the library I believed getting all the photos back was of more importance than the structure of the library. Plus the library was backed up with Time Machine and was still on his MBP in case someone with a better solution came along.

     

    I was also unaware of the existence of the third-party App, iPhoto Library Manager. 

     

    @duncanmug, I probably should have said something about losing the folder structure. Sorry.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Mar 21, 2016 3:38 PM in response to dialabrain
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    Mar 21, 2016 3:38 PM in response to dialabrain
    in my defense because the OP was having no luck importing the library I believed getting all the photos back was of more importance than the structure of the library

     

    Sure, but... and I hope you won’t take this as criticism but just as something I learned early on on this forum - but what you or I believe is better doesn't actually matter, it's what the OP chooses is important. So, say this is an option but this or that is the possible outcome, then the OP can decide if they want to go forward or not. It's just a forum etiquette that I learned here from other users.

  • by duncanmug,

    duncanmug duncanmug Mar 21, 2016 3:49 PM in response to dialabrain
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    Mar 21, 2016 3:49 PM in response to dialabrain

    Hey no worries. As you say I still have the library on my time machine and on my mbp. My new small MacBook is for travelling and in this case the structure and Albums are just as important as the pictures. I am grateful for both of your help. I'm a Newbie to the forum.

    I Will try Terence's suggestion though as I really need those pictures in the correct albums or they are as good as no use to me,

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Mar 21, 2016 3:54 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 5 (6,372 points)
    Mac App Store
    Mar 21, 2016 3:54 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Terence Devlin wrote:

     

    Sure, but... and I hope you won’t take this as criticism…

    I don't and I agree. Which is what I told duncan.

  • by duncanmug,

    duncanmug duncanmug Mar 22, 2016 1:33 AM in response to Terence Devlin
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    Mar 22, 2016 1:33 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Hi, sorry neither of these options are working either.

    When i try the command option repair- it just gets to 95% and say unable to repair.

    The iPhoto Library Manager seems to be for iPhoto and not Photos. It asks me to install a new version of iPhoto.

    My macbook runs photos though not the old iPhoto.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Mar 22, 2016 1:51 AM in response to duncanmug
    Level 10 (139,572 points)
    iLife
    Mar 22, 2016 1:51 AM in response to duncanmug

    So can you clarify:

     

    What exactly are you restoring from Time Machine? A Photos Library? or an iPhoto Library?

  • by duncanmug,

    duncanmug duncanmug Mar 22, 2016 2:00 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 22, 2016 2:00 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    A Photos library. Don't think I ever said iPhoto.

    i Have noticed my MBP is running v1.3 on El Capitan which is what the time machine back up is.

    my MacBook is running v1.0.1 on Yosemite. Should I just upgrade to El Capitan?

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