How to restore photos from a time machine backup

Ok. I think I have the photos restored as I can now access them in my Photos App without the Time machine plugged in. Thank you for helping me work through this and thank you for the your patience.

There is still, however, a problem. I cannot do anything with the pictures other than view them. On my old computer, I was able to edit them, move them, print them. Now when I try to do anything I get the following error:

Thank you again for all of your help and patience.

James

Thanks Old Toad,

The Pictures folder you refer to is on the Time Machine, so in order to access the Time Machine from the Pictures folder, I am already in the Time Machine.

When I click the Photos App, I get an error that says "Photos does not have permission to access to the library 'PhotosLibrary'. Please grant access to the library by double-clicking it in Finder or selecting it in 'Open Other.'" It then gives me the option to quit or 'Open Other'."

Presumable what you are suggesting is the same as what these instructions are telling me. Open the folder in Finder, but again, to do that, I am already in Time Machine.

If I click "Open other," in the Photos App, I have a Photos Library.photolibrary, but this is only the photos taken on my iPhone.

If I open Finder and go into the Time Machine->Backups.backupdb->MacBook Air->2020-04-20->Macintosh HD->Users->myname->pictures->photolibrary this is when I have to "repair" the library and the Time machine has to be connected in order to access the library.

James

Okay, but as I responded to Stephen, I do not have the clock-type icon available when the Time Machine is plugged in. Without the clock-type icon, I cannot enter the Time Machine per your instructions. The only icons I have in the menu are my wi-fi connection, my battery icon, the day/time, a magnifying glass, and an icon that looks like a bar graph. The bar graph icon brings up notifications when I click on it.

When I pug the external hard drive that I use for backing up into my laptop, the Time Machine icon comes up on the desktop. I have to either enter the Time Machine through that icon or through the Time Machine icon in the System Preferences. In either case, I never get the clock-type icon in the menu and I never get the stacked windows when I access the Time Machine.

Ok. I now have the Time Machine icon in my menu bar. When I click it an enter time machine, I get the stacked window with the stack disappearing into the background. However, the when I navigate to the picture folder, the restore button remains greyed out. The only dates listed down the right side are "now," "today," and "yesterday." It does not seem to recognize the backup from the previous computer, only the back up from the new one.

Based on the other discussions I have read about Photos in Catalina, there appears to be a bug or library has been damaged. I am able to double click on the photo and use the "Edit" menu at the top to copy the photo to the desktop. At that point, I think I will be able to do what I need to do with the photo in terms of editing and printing. It essentially makes the photo app completely worthless, but the issue can be worked around.

Thank you again for all of your help.

Thanks Stephen,

This is good information except that when my backup external drive (which I have set as the Time Machine back up) there is no clock-type icon in the header.

James