How can I transfer my photos from Time Machine?

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Level 1

26 points

How can I transfer my photos from Time Machine?

The Apple store replaced a fan and cable, they had to erase my hard drive and they updated me to Mavericks as well as iPhoto 9.5.1.

How do I bring my photos from a Time Machine-driven external drive into the new iPhoto?

I opened my backup, selected my "Pictures" folder, clicked on "iPhoto Library" and tried to use it as the basis for my library but got this warning:

"The iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library."

I'm unclear about what to choose as another library, if indeed that is what I should do.

Posted on Dec 12, 2013 10:03 PM

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Answer 1

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mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Dec 12, 2013 10:07 PM in response to phidgety

You cannot open the iPhoto library from a Time Machine backup. You need to copy the iPhoto library to the Mac's hard drive.

Just go to the same folder you go to open the iPhoto library you have on the Time Machine disk, highlight it and press Command and C keys to copy it. Then, go to the folder you want to copy your iPhoto library to (for example, Pictures; you can choose it in the Finder sidebar), and press Command and V keys to paste it. Finally, open the copied iPhoto library.

If you need to restore more files, consider the option of using Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities) or even the option of restoring the whole backup through OS X Recovery

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