I am trying to open a backup file from my external hd on my macbook. I am getting a pop up that says "These items cannot be added to your Photo library because the file format is not supported by Photos." The format extension of the photos library in question says Photos Library.photoslibrary. Now I didn't give it this extension. When I backed up my macbook to the external hd, it was given this file extention. Please help me recover my old wedding photos.
You cannot add one library to another. You have to open it as a separate library. Quit Photos, then relaunch it while holding down the "option" key. You should see a list of libraries visible to your Mac (all of which are likely to be .photoslibrary files). Select the one on the external drive. Repeat when you want to return to the library on your internal drive.
All of this assumes that the backup copy is on an appropriately formatted external drive (a modern Mac format and NOT a drive that is or has been a Time Machine target).
You cannot add one library to another. You have to open it as a separate library. Quit Photos, then relaunch it while holding down the "option" key. You should see a list of libraries visible to your Mac (all of which are likely to be .photoslibrary files). Select the one on the external drive. Repeat when you want to return to the library on your internal drive.
All of this assumes that the backup copy is on an appropriately formatted external drive (a modern Mac format and NOT a drive that is or has been a Time Machine target).
If the library is in a Time Machine backup it must be restored from Time Machine to your boot drive before it can be opened by Photos. Rename your existing library before restoring the backup as you don't want to overwrite the library.
Did you manually drag your library to the TM external HD to back it up? The permissions on a TM drive are such that one can't run a library off of it. So you must restore the library to your boot drive before you and open it
If you let TM back-up; all of your files including your Photos Library give this method of restoring a try:
Any other answers to this Q? I've had the same pop-up error (above) in Mojave recently, now in Catalina I get this pop-up: "Photos was unable to open the library 'Photos Library'. (5406)"
I'm trying to open backed up photos to a Seagate Backup Plus Hub for Mac. My photos are auto backed up via Time Machine to the external drive. I didn't have this problem in the past? Thanks for any input!
Thanks OT,
As far as I'm aware my photos on my ex hd are not "in" a Time Machine backup; TM is just the auto program that backs up all my files and photos to my ex hd. What seems different to me as of late, than previously when I had no problems (late 2016-more recently), was that the Photos App on Mac was not trying to open my backed up photos on my ex hd. Or, if it was it was not trying to import them to view them? I don't recall the Photos App being involved like this? Is there another App or manner to open my backed up photos? Perhaps, it is the format that they are automatically being backed up in that has changed now too?
I'm not sure; I just can't access them. I have two older Macs (2009 and 2010 models) on the ex hd with photos files that I cannot access now, nor can I access a 2016 model from itself nor from a new 2018 model. Previously, I could access them; I'm uncertain at what time I could no longer, but it came to my attention recently when I was setting up the new 2018.
Thanks for any input!
Unable to open backed up photos
