how to fix a migrated iphoto library that says Cannot open
Spare us all a lot of guess work and give us some information: Migrated from where to where, or what to what? What version of iPhoto? Anything else that you think could be useful, when you recall that we can't see your machine or read your mind.
Thanks for replying Yer_Man.
I have an iPhoto library ( approximately 1275 images) from late December 2014 and early 2015. It was stored on a portable hard drive.
I opened it using control/command found the 2014 individual photos and copied the 150 or so individual images to a Dropbox folder.
when I came back to do the same for the images in 2015, the “show packages contents” no longer allows me to see. “Originals” instead the only folder that contains 2014 and 2015 is “Masters” and when I drill down through the folders the original individual images do not appear. The iPhoto library appears to have been converted to a photos library, and I get a message that it cannot be opened, nor can it be repaired.
The only way that library could have been migrated to a Photos library is if you opened it with Photos. There is no other way.
As you moved items within the Library package you have trashed it. It's not surprising it won't open.
If it has been converted, can you open it with Photos?
No, Photos gives the message “Cannot open”
Thanks for trying to help.
I had several separate iPhoto libraries on this hard drive. I was purposefully trying not to open them in Photos so as not to clog my current Photos library. However Photos has tried to open and convert all of them, what a mess. 42,000 images to sort, eliminate duplicates as well slowing everything. Stuffed them all into my system library and won’t let me open any of the originally separate iPhotos libraries.
Photos tries only to open the library that was last used. It has no ability to seek out and open other libraries. That takes user action.
If the iPhoto Libraries won't open then there are other reasons for that. Where are they stored?
Which version of macOS on the Mac where you are doing this? And what's the format of your portable hard drive, e.g. APFS, Extended Journaled, HFS+, MSDOS (fat 32)/ex FAT etc.? This info may provide a clue to your problems.
If you initiate conversion of an iPhoto library to Photos, and you have more than one iPhoto library, Photos automatically merges them as I recall.
Please also clarify " "show package contents" no longer allows me to see "Originals" instead the only folder that contains 2014 and 2015 is "Masters" and when I drill down through the folders the original individual images do not appear." In iPhoto and older versions of Photos (up to Mojave), the unedited photos were stored in "Masters" folder. In Catalina and Big Sur, they are in "Originals" folder. Are you checking this for the merged, converted Photos library or your old iPhoto ones? Do you still have all iPhoto libraries on the portable hard drive or not?
If you initiate conversion of an iPhoto library to Photos, and you have more than one iPhoto library, Photos automatically merges them as I recall
You don't recall correctly. Photos has no ability to seek out other iPhoto Libraries, nor has it any ability to merge them. Migrating an additional iPhoto library to Photos requires user action, and you get multiple Photos albums as a result.
I'm having a similar issue. I have a time machine back up from 2014/2015 that has within it two files-- one is an "iPhoto Library" that is 5gb. The other is a "Photos Library" file that is 6 gb. When I try and open the Photos Library, I get prompted to "switch" libraries. When I say ok, the program just closes and nothing happens. When I try and open the iPhoto Library, I get a message that says cannot open migrated library, but it does say I can use iPhoto to open. I'm trying to download iPhoto as my Mac is a 2017/2018 iMac so it doesn't have iPhoto. I'm very distressed and not sure how I'm going retrieve these photos. I can't even tell what photos are included there as there are no thumbs or view, just the two files above. Can someone help me please?
What OS are you running?
The latest, Big Sur, 11.5.2
And again, where are the Libraries stored? If on an external, what format is that?
They were on an external drive. Yesterday I moved one to my desktop and it opened.
Beats me why it took me so long to try this!
Thanks fir your help.
On July 27 I asked you
Where are they stored?
My guess now is that the external disk is inappropriately formatted. The drive should be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or apfs.
Thanks, will check to see and make sure for any further external drives are.
how to fix a migrated iphoto library that says Cannot open
