Down grade to Catalina problems with Photos from Big Sur

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Level 1

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Down grade to Catalina problems with Photos from Big Sur

With a 'new' (for me) 2013 MBP I successfully transferred all my files from the 2009 MBP. I used it for several weeks before I realised I hadn't done any SuperDuper backups. I then discovered that Big Sur had broken all the usual backup apps and having found TimeMachine to be unreliable, opted to downgrade to Catalina which had worked just fine.

Alas, I then discovered that Big Sur had moved the goalposts and I could not access my collection of photos as Photos v5 can't open the Big Sur photoslibrary. Older images are still present in the '09 MBP but the images saved after the upgrade to the '13 MBP are trapped in limbo.

Any suggestions, apart from trawling through 9GB of images accessible by opening the package contents to find the more recent items. The cataloguing process is seriously weird!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 23, 2021 11:03 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,954 points

Mar 23, 2021 11:09 PM in response to kiwiiano

Pretty much the only way to downgrade a photos library from a later version of Macos/Photos to an earlier one is using iCloud. You will need to have access to a machine with Big Sur on it to sync your library with iCloud. (This means you may need to upgrade back to Big Sur if you don't have access to any other machine). You will also need to pay for a month of enough iCloud space to hold your entire library. You can then sync this iCloud library with a new empty library in Catalina. For more details, see this user tip from Leonie...

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000297

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Answer 2

kiwiiano Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 24, 2021 12:36 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Then in theory, if I can get hold of a Big Sur Mac, open <Photos Library.photoslibrary> then select the images that would be obviously recent and "Export Unmodified originals" to a flash drive then import them back to Photos v5 I should be clear.

That just leaves the challenge of borrowing a Big Sur Mac. . . .

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

197,279 points

Mar 24, 2021 1:38 AM in response to kiwiiano

and having found TimeMachine to be unreliable,

What does not work for you with Time Machine? Time Machine is working very well for me with Big Sur, including the backup of my Photos Library. What kind of external drive are you using with Time Machine?

To switch back to Big Sur, temporarily, you could make a bootable clone of your current system on an external volume or in a separate partition, then upgrade your Mac again to Big Sur and upload your library to iCloud. Then clone the Catalina version back, when you are done.

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Answer 4

kiwiiano Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 29, 2021 1:47 PM in response to léonie

The Time Machine is an Apple Airport Time Capsule that is on the other side of a concrete fire wall, so out of reach for reliable WiFi. It is ether-netted to the network that includes an AirPort Extreme that is 12m away line-of-sight. It let me down again yesterday, simply "Not available", even to the iMac that is in the same room.

I finally sorted out the suggestion to reinstall BigSur on an external drive, a 2TB partitioned into 2 x 1TB, one for SuperDuper, the other cleared so I could install BigSur. A harrowing experience!! When I booted off the extHD, the Desktop showed 3 HDs, with no sign of the SuperDuper volume, and 2 versions of 'MacHD'......confusion reigned!

I finally got it sussed out and exported the now accessible photos to the elderly iMac that grumbled that it didn't recognised over 250 images out of the 1500 copied. Even that was un-nerving as the numbers didn't match, far more images appearing on the iMac (El Capitan) than were in the Big Sur photolibrary. Turned out (I think) that all the many Live photos copy as however many individual images that make them Live.

While we're on this subject, the Catalina installation has 3 HD icons on the Desktop "MacHD", "MacDisc-Data" & "Update" all supposedly 250.66GB. Should I just leave them alone or can they be merged or deleted?

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Down grade to Catalina problems with Photos from Big Sur

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