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User profile for user: linnea51
linnea51 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

I cant open my pichtures in an external hard drive from a back up from an other computer

I have bought an external hard drive and a new computer (macbook air), but I have a problem that may be some of you could help me with. 


I have done a back up of my old compute (macbook pro from 2013) to the external hard drive, and there is no problem. I can open all the files and pictures, from the external har drive on my old computer. But when I connect the hard drive to the new computer I can’t open my pictures. However, I can open some files on the drive, but when I try to open the folder with the fotos I get this error; “The folder Pictures can not be opened since you don’t have access to it” 


It seems to be some kind of access problem, and I have tried to change the access setting, but I can’t get it to work. 

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 25, 2019 11:29 AM

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User profile for user: Johnb-one
Johnb-one
User level: Level 6
9,180 points

Posted on Dec 25, 2019 12:24 PM

Yup, maybe I can help you......believe it or not, the default for hard drives on your Mac, any mac, really, is read only. so you'd have to do a Get Info on your hard drive (Apple/Command+ I) or left click on it. In the window that comes up, towards the bottom, you should see something about users and permissions. click on the lock at the bottom to unlock it (*you'll need your login name and password*) then change it, then click on OK/Continue. then lock it up again. That should help. I think you have to open up Photos, then go to Preferences/Setting, and point it to your backup, and tell it to use that as the Photo Library. You may also have to do the "Get Info" and change permissions on the external hard drive as well.


that's just a guess though


happy holidays


john b

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User profile for user: Johnb-one
Johnb-one
User level: Level 6
9,180 points

Dec 25, 2019 12:24 PM in response to linnea51

Yup, maybe I can help you......believe it or not, the default for hard drives on your Mac, any mac, really, is read only. so you'd have to do a Get Info on your hard drive (Apple/Command+ I) or left click on it. In the window that comes up, towards the bottom, you should see something about users and permissions. click on the lock at the bottom to unlock it (*you'll need your login name and password*) then change it, then click on OK/Continue. then lock it up again. That should help. I think you have to open up Photos, then go to Preferences/Setting, and point it to your backup, and tell it to use that as the Photo Library. You may also have to do the "Get Info" and change permissions on the external hard drive as well.


that's just a guess though


happy holidays


john b

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I cant open my pichtures in an external hard drive from a back up from an other computer

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