Photo Library from Time Machine backup not recognised in new MacBook Pro

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Level 1

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Photo Library from Time Machine backup not recognised in new MacBook Pro

I've been using a MacBook 12" for a year or so and decided to upgrade to a MacBook Pro. So as I've done in the past with all my MacBooks, I've used Time Machine to migrate everything over. This involved backing everything from my MacBook 12" up on an external hard drive (the same one i've used for all my backups prior), and plugging it into my new MacBook Pro to migrate everything over.

Then I erased the disk on my MacBook 12".

Now moving onto my MacBook Pro (using MacOS Mojave), I realised that none of my photos are in the Photos app. I even tried to migrate everything again a second time using Time Machine.

However when I plug in the hard drive where all my backups are, and navigate to the date where I last backed up on my MacBook 12", I can see that my photos library is still there. When I double-click on it, it gives me the message "Cannot Import Items. These items cannot be added to your Photo library because the file format is not supported by Photos."

I'm not sure what is going on. I've checked on Disk Utility, the external hard drive I'm using does say "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" whereas when I click on my internal Macintosh HD, it is listed as an "APFS Volume". Does this have anything to do with it?

MacBook, 10.14

Posted on Feb 4, 2019 3:33 AM

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Answer 1

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mulberry58

Level 6

10,436 points

Feb 7, 2019 2:45 AM in response to vkitan

I would try the following:

First on your MacBook Pro, make sure that the app photo's is closed completely. Then, in the folder Pictures, rename your Photolibrary, eg Photolibrary 2
On the external drive 'New Drive', click on the folder Backups.backupdb
Click on the folder MacBook
Click on the folder 2019-01-26-172756
Click on the folder Macintosh HD
Click on the folder Users
Click on the folder with your username (= vkitan I suppose)
Click on the folder 'Pictures'
Now you can see your photo-library you used on your old MacBook. When you right-click on it, you can make a copy and paste it in the folder Pictures on your MacBook Pro
When it's pasted, you can open it on your MacBook Pro

Good luck

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Answer 2

mulberry58

Level 6

10,436 points

Feb 4, 2019 4:25 AM in response to vkitan

Hello,

it has nothing to do with MacOs Extended (journaled) or APFS volume.

If you use iCloud-photo's and you've chosen for 'Optimize Mac-Storage', it is possible that Time Machine can't open the back-up of your photo's. Don't worry: normally you can find the originals in iCloud

Have you already tried this?

if photo's is opened on your MackBook, completely close the app (Menu: Photo's, Stop Photo's or cmd + Q)
Click in the menu-bar on the Time-Machine icon (if you can't find it: go to the apple-menu, choose preferences and choose TimeMachine)
Choose 'Activate TimeMachine'
Search for an appropriate date or time on the right side of your screen and click on it
Navigate on your screen to the backup copy of your photo library (in the map Pictures) and click on it to select
Click on 'set back'. It could take a while

Good luck

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Answer 3

mulberry58

Level 6

10,436 points

Feb 5, 2019 4:13 AM in response to vkitan

Can you post an image where I can see what is on the left side of the MacBook Folder?

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Answer 4

vkitan Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 6, 2019 4:07 AM in response to mulberry58

Yeah sure, attached.

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Answer 5

vkitan Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 5, 2019 3:30 AM in response to mulberry58

Thanks for your reply @ria36.

When I go into Time Machine, my timeline for the backups only start the first day that I backed up my new MacBook Pro. As in I can only access backups from this new machine, which has only been a week or so ago.

However when I go through Finder to check my hard drive with my Time Machine backups, it has 2 folders - MacBook and MacBook Pro. I'm assuming it's only accessing the backups for the new MacBook Pro, but not my old MacBook 12". I've attached an image, you can clearly see that in the MacBook 12" folder, there are definitely backups with the correct previous dates (even dating back to last year). I have no idea why Time Machine is not showing my prior backups.

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Photo Library from Time Machine backup not recognised in new MacBook Pro

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