You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: danielauto
danielauto Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Newly modified photo library on old imac

Hello, I was repairing one of my imacs, a 2013 a1418 model running catalina. During the process I wanted to check the hard drive while I had it open with another, newer mac also under apfs formatting but running monterey. The only issue is that when I looked through the photos on it, I assume the photo library became modified. Now, that I finished working on the 2013 imac, the photo library cannot open showing "The library is from a newer version of Photos and cannot be opened". I was wondering if I can convert this library back to its original form or force boot it since I never added or removed data, simply opened it with a newer mac. Keep in mind I am NOT trying to open an old iphotos library, that I can do, rather I am trying to open the original photos library that is now "modified". Thanks for any help. I can back it up before doing anything but would like to access it how photos would regularly prompt itself and rather not nit pick through folders and files to see what I have like you would on iphotos.

iMac

Posted on Jan 6, 2023 4:51 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: MartinR
MartinR
User level: Level 7
21,853 points

Posted on Jan 6, 2023 6:04 PM

There is no way I know of to downgrade a Photos library.


You have a couple of options.


  1. Open the Photos Library on the newer iMac. Export all your photos to a folder. Copy that folder to your Catalina iMac and re-import the images into a fresh Photos Library on the Catalina iMac.
  2. Extract your photos manually. The Photos library is a package and if you right-click on it and click Show Package Contents you will find a folder called Originals that contains all your unmodified images. You can use the Finder to copy these files to another folder outside the Photos library. Of course, you still have to copy the resulting folder to your Catalina iMac and re-import the images into a fresh Photos Library on the Catalina iMac.


And of course if you have a backup of your Catalina iMac prior to the work you did, you may be able to just restore the orginal Photos Library to your Catalina iMac.

View in context

Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: MartinR
MartinR
User level: Level 7
21,853 points

Jan 6, 2023 6:04 PM in response to danielauto

There is no way I know of to downgrade a Photos library.


You have a couple of options.


  1. Open the Photos Library on the newer iMac. Export all your photos to a folder. Copy that folder to your Catalina iMac and re-import the images into a fresh Photos Library on the Catalina iMac.
  2. Extract your photos manually. The Photos library is a package and if you right-click on it and click Show Package Contents you will find a folder called Originals that contains all your unmodified images. You can use the Finder to copy these files to another folder outside the Photos library. Of course, you still have to copy the resulting folder to your Catalina iMac and re-import the images into a fresh Photos Library on the Catalina iMac.


And of course if you have a backup of your Catalina iMac prior to the work you did, you may be able to just restore the orginal Photos Library to your Catalina iMac.

Reply

Newly modified photo library on old imac

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up