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Photos Library did not Migrate over to new Mac.

My old MacBook Pro died a watery death the other day. Happily I had done my due diligence by backing up the day before. Today I used Migration Assistant to transfer to my new MacBook Pro (latest model. OS 11.3.1. All went well until opening Photos app. Photos could not locate my Photos Library. I tried looking in all the right (and unlikely places.) I looked in Time Machine but was not there, only the current stuff that had been migrated over today. No past record of anything (is that normal?). My photos are still in iCloud and being a cautious person, I have them backed up in other cloud locations as well, so that is good. But downloading 37,000 photos would be quite to undertaking! Any thoughts on where my original Library might be would be appreciated!!

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Jul 3, 2021 2:04 PM

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Posted on Jul 4, 2021 2:52 AM

Did you really use the Migration Assistent and not the Setup Assistent? One problem with the Time Machine backup of your old Mac is, that you need to inherit the backup when you set up your Mac from the backup. You cannot inherit the backup, if you are using Migration Assistant later, at least, I don't know how. When a new Mac is starting up the first time, use the Setup Assistant, as soon as you are prompted to migrate the data. Do not fall for the trap when it suggest you can migrate the data later using Migration Assistant. If you first make a clean install and set up a new user account, you will have lost the opportunity to set up the Mac completely with all user access rights from the old Mac and can no longer inherit the old Time Machine backup for easy browsing. If you use the same drive as before, Time Machine will create a new Time Machine backup, without the history from your old Mac. You may need the "Browse other backups" option to be able to see the files from your old Mac. Hold down the options key while entering Time Machine and select the backup of your old Mac.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 4, 2021 2:52 AM in response to Zodama

Did you really use the Migration Assistent and not the Setup Assistent? One problem with the Time Machine backup of your old Mac is, that you need to inherit the backup when you set up your Mac from the backup. You cannot inherit the backup, if you are using Migration Assistant later, at least, I don't know how. When a new Mac is starting up the first time, use the Setup Assistant, as soon as you are prompted to migrate the data. Do not fall for the trap when it suggest you can migrate the data later using Migration Assistant. If you first make a clean install and set up a new user account, you will have lost the opportunity to set up the Mac completely with all user access rights from the old Mac and can no longer inherit the old Time Machine backup for easy browsing. If you use the same drive as before, Time Machine will create a new Time Machine backup, without the history from your old Mac. You may need the "Browse other backups" option to be able to see the files from your old Mac. Hold down the options key while entering Time Machine and select the backup of your old Mac.


Jul 4, 2021 2:14 AM in response to Zodama

So when you look in time machine, and it is not there, how are you looking in time machine?


you need to be entering time machine (use the icon in the menu bar or open the app), then navigate to the date (go back in time to the date you want to restore from) then find the library in the pictures folder.


By default when you first go into time machine it shows the files you have on your mac today - which doesn't include the library since you don't have it.

Jul 4, 2021 1:35 PM in response to léonie

I really don't know. I opened the laptop. It immediately asked from where would I like to do a backup. I indicated my old Time Machine drive. All went well. No other glitches except no photo library. Time Machine drive now only has the current set up on new laptop. No past backups. All else runs as before. Thank you.


Photos Library did not Migrate over to new Mac.

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