Does the new Photo App replace my IPhoto Library?

Yes -hold down the option key while launching Photos and select the library you want to migrate in the resulting window

And I suggest that you start a new thread - this one is so convoluted and threaJacked that following g a single problem is not really possible - to the right of the "Apple Support Communities" banner at the to of the page click on New if yu need more help - and give full details -- Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question

LN

Hello, should we delete the iPhoto after migrating to Photos? What should we do? I would've thought that Apple would design the installation process to remove iPhoto automatically since Photos is a replacement app...

Thanks,

David.

Photos is an alternative not a replacement. It does not have the same features as iPhoto - it's stronger in some areas, not as flexible in others - and that, plus the faac that you paid for it, is why it's not removed. You can choose to trash it or not as you wish. I'd spend some time getting to know the new app before deciding.

as I understand it once photos has created it's revised database it will not see any changes you make in iPhoto if you keep using iPhoto, so it seems to me it's one or the other, not both...

What do you think?

as I understand it once photos has created it's revised database it will not see any changes you make in iPhoto if you keep using iPhoto, so it seems to me it's one or the other, not both...

And vice versa. Yes.

david.moody wrote:

as I understand it once photos has created it's revised database it will not see any changes you make in iPhoto if you keep using iPhoto, so it seems to me it's one or the other, not both...

What do you think?

You will not want to maintain two photo libraries with redundancies, that's right. You could keep your main library in iPhoto, to be able to use geo tagging and batch changing, and other features that are still missing in Photos, but use Photos for the features that are missing in iPhoto, like setting up a small iCloud Photo Library to share your best photos between devices. Once apple has released the first Photos updates, that hopefully will bring some of the missing features to Photos you can then migrate your main library to Photos, if you want. Upgrading from iPhoto to Photo is well supported, but not downgrading a Photos library to an iPhoto Library.

If you are already happy with what Photos can do for you now, upgrade, but compare the features before you do it:

Have you seen Old Toad's User Tip: Photos vs iPhoto: Features and Capabilities

It shows as using twice the space on the hard drive, even though supposedly it is not, though (the tech at Photos support I talked to on the phone told me this). I just built a new Yosemite drive (I fear this was a mistake), and then migrated everything to it. I migrated my iPhoto library (~240 GB) to Photos only to discover how awful Photos was (smart albums totally screwed up, no geotagging, etc, etc). I had not purchased iPhoto via the app store, ever, so there was no record of me having downloaded it from there, so I could not get the current version. I called support, and they gave me a code to unlock it.

Now I think that my Photos library might be the primary instead if iPhoto, and I plan to only use iPhoto unless they massively improve Photos. In that case I need to delete both, and move a backup back over (another few hours of copying), remove Photos from the dock, and forget about it.

Photos is not ready for Prime time, they should have waited.

Have you launched the unlocked iPhoto?

You will see a warning, that the library has been migrated. Click the "Open iPhoto" button in this panel.

If iPhoto is working with its original library, you can simply delete the new Photos Library. The iPhoto Library will continue to work.

i moved user data, including iPhoto library using migration assistant, then opened Photos, converting the iPhoto library. I only discovered my mistake in trusting Photos to not be a huge downgrade after using it, then installed the new iPhoto, then ran it, using the migrated library (since no others were available).

I just got off the phone with Apple.

You can delete the Iphoto library if it's migrated to your photos. It is a duplicate, and you no longer need it.

Thanks,

You can, but it would be burning all bridges back and gain you nothing. Deleting the iphoto Library will not free much space, since all photos inside are hard linked to the Photos Library. It just looks like the two libraries would use twice the space of one library, but that is not the case. The storage will only be released, when you delete the linked photos in both libraries. (Six Colors: The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto)

If you delete the iPhoto Library you cannot use iPhoto to repeat the migration, if you should discover problems in your Photos library, like missing photos, or incorrectly migrated projects. And sometimes a library corruption can only be fixed by repairing the library in iPhoto and migrating again.

The new Photos app is just a mess & confusing!

Feels like its not finished + you cannot change the appearance in any way like you can with iPhoto. It just feels like I'm using a rip off Samsung application.

The new features should have been migrated to iPhoto first then the name changed to only Photos. Or even better Photos & Videos with editing for both!

Photos suggests i can only keep Photos in the application & not Videos?

Just tried to migrate as above, but it states i don't have enough space?

Iv completely lost my confidence in Apple, & this inst an alternative application because iPhoto wont be updated anymore.

Im backing everything up on an external HD & deleting both iPhoto & Photos!

Thanks for sharing - do you have a technical question that the volunteer users here can assist with?

LN

I just purchased an external 1 TB hard drive to move all my photos and free up space on my MacBook Air.

Like everybody, I noticed two photo libraries - one from iPhoto and one from Photos.

So, I followed the original route of making a copy of my Photos library in my external hard drive and pointing Photos to default to it.

Next came the obvious question of the libraries I can delete from my Mac - whether I can delete both the Photos and iPhoto libraries?

So my solution was as follows:

1) Made a copy of both my iPhoto and Photos libraries on my external hard drive

2) Opened Photos app with my latest Photos library and exported every individual item in my library to my external hard drive into a separate folder.

3) Open Photos again and create a new Photos library (that resides on my external hard drive) to import all the individual items backed up in Step 2 above.

4) Delete both the Photos and iPhoto libraries on my MacBook Air.

I'm still in Step 2 and hope to see this through.

Thanks,

Vinod

Wrong

all you do is drag the Photos library to an external drive that is directly connected with a fast wired connection like USB, FireWire or ThunderBolt, is not being used as a TimeMachine backup volume and is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and then double click on it to open it - - no exporting or importing (that loses a lot of information) - just dragging and opening - one you have fully tested it then you can delete the old one (test one more time before emptying the trash) -- and you also need to delete the iPhoto library on the old drive to free up any space (be sure you have a good archive first)

LN