User profile for user: snailingit
snailingit Author
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‘Format not supported’ when viewing photo library from external hard drive

About two years ago, I backed up my MacBook Pro to my Western Digital My Passport USB-C hard drive. I plugged it in yesterday and tried to access my photo library. The photo app would open but then a message popped up that said the photo format is not supported and I couldn't view my photos.


When I first backed it up, I could access everything just fine. Not sure what happened. Any advice would be super helpful! Thanks in advance!



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MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 16, 2025 9:58 AM

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User profile for user: Richard.Taylor
Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 7
23,378 points

Posted on Apr 16, 2025 10:15 AM

It might be that format of the hard drive doesn't support the sort of stuff that Photos does, now.  Are you still running High Sierra?


To avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support


If this drive is in a an incompatible format, stop running Photos with it immediately!  A Photos Library can sit on an incompatible drive, but running it may corrupt the database.


If you can copy the Library to your internal drive, you can see if it opens from there.


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User profile for user: Richard.Taylor
Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 7
23,378 points

Apr 16, 2025 10:15 AM in response to snailingit

It might be that format of the hard drive doesn't support the sort of stuff that Photos does, now.  Are you still running High Sierra?


To avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support


If this drive is in a an incompatible format, stop running Photos with it immediately!  A Photos Library can sit on an incompatible drive, but running it may corrupt the database.


If you can copy the Library to your internal drive, you can see if it opens from there.


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‘Format not supported’ when viewing photo library from external hard drive

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