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SAN2010 Author

Level 1

25 points

Photos Library question after upgrade to MacOS Catalina

I am currently running mac OS High Sierra. Planning to upgrade to HDD to SSD and install MacOS Catalina on the brand new SSD.

If I restore my photos library from Time Machine after the clean install of Catalina, will it open fine? I am thinking unlike iphoto to Photos, with a MacOS upgrade the prior version of the photos library file should be compatible and will be able to open. I am hoping to bypass the upgrade to MacOS Catalina on the existing HDD and just go directly to Catalina on the new SSD.

Thanks for any input.

Posted on Aug 24, 2020 7:45 PM

Top-ranking reply

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,620 points

Posted on Aug 24, 2020 9:26 PM

If you want to preserve your photos library for use on your High Sierra HDD then make a copy of it and

move that over to your Catalina SSD. When you open Photos on the Catalina SSD it will upgrade the

photos library that you copied over to a Catalina friendly version, this will also mean that you will not

be able to use it on any older version of OS. But you will still be able to use the original photo library with

High Sierra.

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Photos Library question after upgrade to MacOS Catalina

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