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Lost photos

I installed Catalina and many, many of my photos from IPhoto did not transfer to Photos. How can I retrieve them?


iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 10, 2020 11:06 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 10, 2020 12:11 PM

Did you transition your iPhoto library to Photos?

Launch Photos with the option key held down. From the resulting dialog, choose your iPhoto Library. Photos will create a new Library with your iPhoto media.

5 replies

Jun 10, 2020 12:13 PM in response to audsquilts

iPhoto is a 32 bit app and will not run on Catalina. For about a year we would get this type of warning when we would launch a 32 bit app on Mojave or High Sierra:



When iPhoto Library Manage runs it has to have iPhoto open and close several times during the process. iPhoto doesn't work on Catalina.


If you have a Time Machine backup of your boot drive before the upgrade occurred or a cloned drive you can revert to your previous system by following this Apple document: Revert your Mac to a previous macOS version - Apple Support 


What you might be able to do is open the iPhoto library package and copy the Originals and Masters folders to the Desktop. Then import their contents into your new Photos library. You'll lose any edits or metadata added to the photos but should get the originals back.

Lost photos

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