convert iPhoto to Photo after BigSur upgrade

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 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.

Thank you for this. I wish I would have found this solution five years ago. I did as you directed. I chose my Iphoto library and it immediately gave me a message that it was preparing the photos. After about 20 minutes, the prep was complete and Photos launched. When I view the thumbnails by "years", I can see all my photos. When I click to all photos, the photos show up only sporadically. The major portion of them have a black and blue horizontal bar where the picture should be. My Iphotos date to 2006. I first attempted the Iphoto Library Converter to make sure they were updated to the last Iphoto version. I received a message there that the operation was not needed because my Iphotos were updated. So while this was a partial success, I am still missing the majority of my Iphoto pictures from 2006-14.

I wish I would have found this solution five years ago.

I'm not sure what method you tried 5 years go, but this is the only method to migrate an iPhoto library to Photos.

When I view the thumbnails by "years", I can see all my photos. When I click to all photos, the photos show up only sporadically.

I'm not clear on what photographs are missing. Is it the thumbnail? Or the actual photographs?

Thank you. I had Apple support people walking me through this transfer for over two years. I've googled it and searched on your tube. Nothing make sense, nor worked.

My MAC is/was a OS High Sierra Version 10.13.6 I have both Iphoto and Photos on that system that mac. I recently bought a new MACOS Big Sur version 11.2.3. I cleaned some files up then migrated contents of my old mac to the new one. Naturally, no photos in the IPhoto file transferred. I wasn't ready to lose my photographs from 2006-2014, so I started looking and that when I found this thread. I was ecstatic when the process proceeded exactly as you said it would. A message appeared advising me that the Library was being prepared to transfer. The process took about 3 hours. I quit the Photos program and started it again. When a few pictures from 2006, popped up, I was thrilled. Then I saw that the majority of the Iphotos did not convert to Photos. Why would five or six pictures convert and the others not. When I viewing the thumbnail by years, I can see most of the 2006-14 pictures. There are few black spaces. When I click on a picture, it opens. But when I click to the next picture, it is either black or gray and blue.

I'm afraid I'm still not clear on what photographs are missing. Is it the thumbnail? Or the actual photographs?

When I click on a picture, it opens. But when I click to the next picture, it is either black or gray and blue.

What is black/grey/blue? The full-sized photo? or the thumbnail?

In a worst case scenario it will still be possible to recover the original files from the iPhoto Library package and start over.

I'm sorry. Both. When I open photos and group them by years, I see the thumbnails right? Looking closely, I can see that some pictures slots are black. If I look at these same thumbnails in IPHOTO, all the thumbnails are visible. There are no blank spaces.

When I open photos and the thumbnails are visible, I click on the picture to look at it or edit it. What appears on my screen when I'm attempting to look at the individual pictures is nothing but a gray and blue bars across where the photo should appear.

How exactly should I recover the original files from the iPhoto library package? Thanks again. I'm serious, you're the only one that has ever helped.

Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library package there (or wherever you store it). Right click on the package and select 'Show Package Contents' and in the resulting window check out the folder called Masters (or Originals in some versions). That contains your original files as copied from the camera.

Note: removing these files will trash that iPhoto Library and any Photos Library migrated from that. This is a start-over from scratch action.

Hold down the option key while opening the Photos app. It will then allow you to select the iPhoto library and it will convert it to Photos.