You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

EDRider Author

Level 1

0 points

Lost photos and albums on upgrade to catalina from mavericks. Can't restore as time machine says photo library "can't bemodified or deleted because of Mac (OS)

Lost photos and albums on upgrade to catalina from mavericks. Can't restore as time machine says photo library "can't be modified or deleted because of Mac (OS)"

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 11, 2020 1:13 PM

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,321 points

Posted on Jan 11, 2020 1:32 PM

EDRider wrote:

Can't restore as time machine says photo library "can't be modified or deleted because of Mac (OS)"

Things you could try:

Restart your Mac, so the Photos Library is no longer in use.
Then open your Pictures folder in the Finder (or the folder where you are storing your Photos Library).
Now enter Time Machine and find your the backup of your Photos Library you want to restore by clicking into the Timeline to the right.
Select the Photos Library in the Time tunnel, Control - click or right click it, then select "Restore to...". With "restore to" you can restore the Photos Library to a different folder or with a new name, so you will not overwrite the existing Photos Library.

Once the library has been restored, double click it to open it in Photos and check , if all albums and photos are there.

View in context

Lost photos and albums on upgrade to catalina from mavericks. Can't restore as time machine says photo library "can't bemodified or deleted because of Mac (OS)

Similar questions