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PHOTOGRAPHS OPENING ON NEW IMAC

I have just up graded my computer to an iMac. I have iPhotos library on my old MacBook Pro, it is about 130GB in size.

I need to get iPhoto for my new iMac, how do I do this?


The Photo Library does not open in Photos. I can't see where to buy it or anything that will help me open the file in Photos. What I have seen, opening the Photos through Preferences does not work.


Best yours Andrew Carnie

iMac 27″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 8, 2021 5:06 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 8, 2021 5:19 AM

iPhoto was discontinued 5 years ago. It is no longer developed or sold. It was replaced by the more powerful (and free) Photos.app that comes with the OS. You can migrate to that app very simply:


Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch Photos. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and point at your iPhoto Library. It will do the rest.


If this is not working for you, can you give us any details of where it goes wrong, or any error messages you get?



If you prefer not to use Photos there are several 3rd party apps that you can use. Which to choose depends on the kind of photographer you are and your budget.

3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jan 8, 2021 5:19 AM in response to ARTCARNIE

iPhoto was discontinued 5 years ago. It is no longer developed or sold. It was replaced by the more powerful (and free) Photos.app that comes with the OS. You can migrate to that app very simply:


Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch Photos. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and point at your iPhoto Library. It will do the rest.


If this is not working for you, can you give us any details of where it goes wrong, or any error messages you get?



If you prefer not to use Photos there are several 3rd party apps that you can use. Which to choose depends on the kind of photographer you are and your budget.

Jan 8, 2021 6:50 AM in response to ARTCARNIE

The Photo Library does not open in Photos.

Which version of iPhoto have you been using on the old MacBook Pro?

Photos can only open iPhoto libraries, that have been used by iPhoto 8.x.x or newer.

If the iPhoto version on the old Mac is iPhoto 7.x.x. or older, you need to run the iPhoto Library upgrader tool to prepare the library for the migration to Photos. Do still have your old Mac? The iPhoto Library upgrader tool cannot run on a Mac with macOS 10.15 or macOS 11.


How did you transfer the iPhoto Library to the new Mac? If it is on an external volume the file system format of the external volume should be MacOS Extended (Journaled) and the volume must not have been used for Time Machine backups. Enable the "Ignore Ownership on this Volume" flag to prevent problems with the file ownership.

See: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support



PHOTOGRAPHS OPENING ON NEW IMAC

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