I have a MacBook Air running 26.2. I copied my Photos library to a thumb drive and tried to open it on an iMac running 13.7.8, but am told it cannot open unless I upgrade the OS, but this OS is the highest for this iMac. Any solutions? Thanks in advance.
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.7
What Yer_Man said, and
EddieT wrote: I copied my Photos library to a thumb drive and tried to open it on an iMac
If the "thumb drive" is not formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, then it can not be used to run a Photos Library. Attempting to run a Photos Library from an improperly formatted drive can corrupt the Library. See this:
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
All the information about the pictures in a Library, including edits, comments, locations, etc, is stored in a database that's sort of like a spreadsheet. A new OS adds more attributes like scanning for new things, so that means more columns in the database. And an older system just can't make sense of those new columns. To make an older database readable on a newer OS, Photos has to add those new columns, so you can't go back.
The only way to use a Library from two different OSs is to use iCloud. iCloud Photos will keep the newest level of data, but it can feed other versions just what's needed, even on iPhones, iPads, TVs, and so on.
PowerPhotos ($40) can read an older Library, but it doesn't edit and do the stuff that Photos does. And it first updates the Library to the system it's on. I'm not sure, but I doubt that PowerPhotos running on an older system would read a newer Library. It would be worthwhile to check with FatCat Software to see.
What Yer_Man said, and
EddieT wrote: I copied my Photos library to a thumb drive and tried to open it on an iMac
If the "thumb drive" is not formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, then it can not be used to run a Photos Library. Attempting to run a Photos Library from an improperly formatted drive can corrupt the Library. See this:
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
All the information about the pictures in a Library, including edits, comments, locations, etc, is stored in a database that's sort of like a spreadsheet. A new OS adds more attributes like scanning for new things, so that means more columns in the database. And an older system just can't make sense of those new columns. To make an older database readable on a newer OS, Photos has to add those new columns, so you can't go back.
The only way to use a Library from two different OSs is to use iCloud. iCloud Photos will keep the newest level of data, but it can feed other versions just what's needed, even on iPhones, iPads, TVs, and so on.
PowerPhotos ($40) can read an older Library, but it doesn't edit and do the stuff that Photos does. And it first updates the Library to the system it's on. I'm not sure, but I doubt that PowerPhotos running on an older system would read a newer Library. It would be worthwhile to check with FatCat Software to see.
No early version of Photos can open a later version's library.
You may be able to interact with the library using PowerPhotos:
You might be able to view the photos on the Ventura system iMac with the free version of PowerPhotos. It can open and view Photos without the Photos app add albums and folders, move photos and albums, and rename albums and folders. It can't edit photos or add text to titles and add keywords to photos. All without having to open Photos.
You may need to get an older version of PowerPhotos to work on Ventura. Try the current one first. If it works you can get the paid version to merge.
Thanks.
Trying to view Photos library created in Tahoe on my Ventura Mac
