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I'm trying to view an old iPhotos library on an external drive. I do NOT want to import it into my Photos Library. I opened Photos and selected the iPhotos library. The screen currently says "Updating Library ... 64% complete" ... I don't understand what this means; i.e., what is actually happening. Please tell me I'm not somehow messing up my existing Photos library.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15
When you say "an old iPhotos library," do you mean a library created by the old iPhoto (no "s") application or just one created by a previous version of the new Photos (no "i") application?
Photos has no view-only access to an iPhoto library. It can migrate one into a new Photos library if there is enough room on the same volume (external drive in your case). I would expect to see a message like "Migrating Library" rather than "Updating Library".
The "Updating Library" phrasing suggests you were actually opening an old-format Photos library. (Apple changes the internal format of Photos libraries from time to time.) Again, Photos has no view-only access to a library from a previous version of Photos and must update it to the format it considers current.
When you say "an old iPhotos library," do you mean a library created by the old iPhoto (no "s") application or just one created by a previous version of the new Photos (no "i") application?
Photos has no view-only access to an iPhoto library. It can migrate one into a new Photos library if there is enough room on the same volume (external drive in your case). I would expect to see a message like "Migrating Library" rather than "Updating Library".
The "Updating Library" phrasing suggests you were actually opening an old-format Photos library. (Apple changes the internal format of Photos libraries from time to time.) Again, Photos has no view-only access to a library from a previous version of Photos and must update it to the format it considers current.
That's what Photos should do when you tell it to open an iPhoto library, assuming the library is from one of the last few releases of iPhoto and assuming the external drive is in a format compatible with Photos libraries.
However, the "Updating Library" message doesn't match that situation. I don't know what that's about.
Thanks for staying with me on this. Here's where I am now: the iPhoto library is now open as a Photos library. And I'm delighted because I thought I had lost these photos of my deceased brother. But I don't know "where" this Photos library is residing. I see no evidence of it on the external drive where the iPhoto library is. And I'm afraid to close it 'cause I don't want to lose these photos. Any idea how I might discover where this Photos library actually is?
Go to the Preferences in Photos (Photos | Preferences or Command and comma keys). In the General tab the location is show at the top.
Stephen
Thanks for your response.
Yes, it's a library created by the old iPhoto. So Photos is migrating that old iPhoto library into a new Photos library that then would be stored on the external drive?
view iphoto external drive
