Move Photos library on High Sierra to Catalina

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Level 1

8 points

Move Photos library on High Sierra to Catalina

I have a Carbon Copy Cloner back up of my old iMac (now dead) that was running High Sierra. I want to move the photos library over

to a new iMac 2020, running Catalina.

Does anybody know for sure how I should proceed to do this?

I have tried a few suggestions but nothing is working and it doesn't look right. I need expert advice before I go ahead.

I am hoping that I can get this done my getting photos on Catalina to import/open HS library. I tried straightforward to import into Catalina, it didn’t work.

How can I do this? Otherwise, I will literally have to dig down and drag over the folders manually. Surely not?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Oct 27, 2020 7:21 PM

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Answer 1

markwmsn

Level 6

16,745 points

Oct 27, 2020 10:24 PM in response to Daniel_Boon

Are you trying to OPEN or IMPORT the old library? IMPORT does not handle libraries, just photos and videos.

If you have the space to spare, I suggest making a copy of the old library before you try opening it. (That keeps one copy safe if something goes wrong.)

To OPEN a different library, first quit Photos, then launch it with the option key held down. That should give you a list of libraries that Photos can open. Select the High Sierra library. Photos should upgrade the library to Catalina library format.

Once Photos has upgraded the High Sierra library to Catalina format, you will have two separate libraries. You can go back and forth with the same quit/option-open process.

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Answer 2

markwmsn

Level 6

16,745 points

Oct 28, 2020 9:44 PM in response to Daniel_Boon

Apple does not provide a function to merge local Photos libraries. One can use iCloud Photos to merge Photos libraries by connecting them serially to the same iCloud Photos library and allowing each to sync fully; the last one connected will wind up with every photo and video that was in any of them.

The normal system upgrade process within a single computer upgrades the libraries in place. The migration function usually also handles the transition in a reasonable way. I'm not sure why it did not work well in your case. Part of the problem is having a library already in use on the new system before trying the migration.

There are several ways to merge two or more libraries, each with advantages and disadvantages.

You can export photos and videos from one and import them into the other. The only extra cost would be your time and perhaps the temporary need for extra disk space. If you do a lot of editing in Photos, you would have to choose to export the originals (losing the edits), export the edited versions (losing the ability to revert to originals), or export both (losing the connection between them. You would have to recreate any albums or folder structures.
You can use iCloud Photos to merge the libraries by synching them sequentially with the same iCloud Photos library. That can keep the original/edits together and maintain the album/folder structures (if they don't conflict). It can be slow and costly, depending on the size of your libraries, the speed of your internet connection, the speed of your computer and drive, and other factors.
You can use a third-party application. The latest version of PowerPhotos for example, when running on Catalina, can do a credible job of merging one Photos library into another. The main downside is the cost of the application.

I know some of the other regular contributors here have more comprehensive comparisons. Perhaps one of them will chiefdoms in here.

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Answer 3

Daniel_Boon Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2020 8:50 AM in response to markwmsn

Ok, I will try this.

my objective was simply to get my old library onto my new iMac and continue on as normal. If I understand you correctly Photos on Catalina will open/convert my old HS library, but treat it as a separate library. Is there any way to merge the old library after it’s converted?

One would think that Apple engineers thought about the pathway available for taking old photos libraries across to the next OS update. I tried to do this as past of “set up” didn’t work. Then I tried Apple migration assistant, also didn’t work, perhaps because it was off a bootable back up volume as opposed to another Mac, I don’t know.

I’ll investigate further as suggested.

thanks.

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Answer 4

Daniel_Boon Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2020 10:23 PM in response to markwmsn

Thank you Markwmsn,

for that excellent info. I have paused to study all options thus far, and I’m learning from each contribution here.

I guess exporting/importing is a reasonable pathway for what I want to do. I do struggle a bit with the context of how everything should be set up.

To recap, I have the photos library I want on a bootable external drive from a high Sierra back up. Can a new 2020 iMac running Catalina boot up from a HS bootable back up? I’m guessing permissions and other driver issues may prevent that. If not I could sync the library with iCloud then go back to Catalina and sync everything. I think the library is 182gig and it’s all unedited images/videos.

On the other hand it’s probably faster to export/import. I guess I connect the External and import the images by selecting folder by folder?

If I had all the images in one folder on a drive and connected that drive to a Catalina iMac, I could import everything just like connecting a SD card full of images.

In some ways I’m surprised how tricky it is to do this, but of course photos is a database catalog of images nested by creation date etc, so I suppose it has to be expected.

thanks to everyone.

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Move Photos library on High Sierra to Catalina

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