How to restore Photos from an old iPhoto library in Photos with macOS Sonoma on iMac

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How to restore Photos from an old iPhoto library in Photos with macOS Sonoma on iMac

I am trying to import an old iPhoto library (I think it was version 6) stored on a hard drive (made under OS 10.6 if I remember correctly) from a backup made prior to getting my newer Mac in 2019. My Mac (iMac 2019) is running macOS Sonoma 14.5 (23F79). When I press Option and open Photos I select the old iPhoto library I want to import and I get this message:

"The library “iPhoto Library ” could not be recognised."

What can I do to rescue these old Photos in iPhoto? I can see many folk have asked this question in the past but they don't seem to get clear answers for what to do.

Posted on Feb 4, 2026 7:34 AM

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Answer 1

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Old Toad

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Feb 4, 2026 10:25 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Richard.Taylor wrote:

iPhoto support ended years ago, so you can't open an iPhoto Library in Photos. Nonetheless, you may be able to use the Photos' menu "File>Import" to bring in the iPhoto Library's pictures into Photos. You will lose the Event organization, however.

To keep the organization and import the most detail in an iPhoto Library, you can use the trusted 3rd party app PowerPhotos ($40.) I'm not sure if the free trial version will do it, though. But PowerPhotos adds lots of great utilities for Photos.

Let us know how this goes…

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Answer 2

Feb 4, 2026 7:47 AM in response to LesOlives

iPhoto support ended years ago, so you can't open an iPhoto Library in Photos. Nonetheless, you may be able to use the Photos' menu "File>Import" to bring in the iPhoto Library's pictures into Photos. You will lose the Event organization, however.

To keep the organization and import the most detail in an iPhoto Library, you can use the trusted 3rd party app PowerPhotos ($40.) I'm not sure if the free trial version will do it, though. But PowerPhotos adds lots of great utilities for Photos.

Let us know how this goes…

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Answer 3

Feb 4, 2026 8:50 AM in response to LesOlives

Yeah, this comes up from time to time. It's good to know the trial version works for this. You should look at the PowerPhotos site and see if buying the app would be worthwhile for you.

I don't know what is meant by "transfer the iPhotos library to a different external ssd." Dragging or copying and pasting won't do it. We are happy that "transferring" files doesn't change them. iPhoto and Photos Libraries are pretty complicated on the inside, and the structure changes with each new OS, so it takes a smart app like Photos itself or PowerPhotos to make the change. I would not trust any other method.

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Answer 4

LesOlives Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 4, 2026 8:38 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks Richard - I saw a post by BLB23 which had a response from Old Toad about PP app. Have just been trying it out and it does display the iPhoto library. BLB23 indicated he found a free trick to get the conversion by saving to a drive but I'm not able to replicate that as yet.

BLB23 Wrote: (I don't know how to do quotes)

This worked! The free version actually took care of it for me so no need to purchase the full version. I was able to transfer the iPhotos library to a different external ssd and in the process it converted the library to a Photos library. Thank you so much!

Editing to add that the old drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) just in case that helps someone else in the future!

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How to restore Photos from an old iPhoto library in Photos with macOS Sonoma on iMac

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