how to revert back to iPhoto from photos

Don't like Photos? Simple just continue to use iPhoto 9.6.1 - in your applications folder

LN

@Heiko Haller

I'm also in the process of trying to figure out how to revert back to iPhotos ... yes, because Photos is a steaming pile of FAIL.

So far:

0) Tried Photos ... it migrated/cloned my iPhoto Library (which at over 1TB in size, it took awhile)

0a) TIME MACHINE failing now ... no remaining space on drives (both). Another headache; thanks Apple.

1) On the disabled-by-Yosemite iPhotos application ... did a ZIP on it and then copied it to another drive ... just in case.

2) As has been advised here, went to the App Store, looked under 'purchased'.

2a) I initially found iPhoto there, but when I clicked to download, the App Store promoted for a password. The username was already autofilled, with an old (...@mac.com) account ---> I gave it this password and as the App Store happily reloaded, but all of the 'Purchased' stuff on the list ... disappeared!

2b) I signed out of the (...@mac.com) account that I had just signed in on):
App Store ... /STORE/ menu --> "Sign Out"

2c) I then signed in using my my (preferred) iTunes account (...@mydomain). This restored the list of 'purchased' apps and allowed me to download.

NOTE: what apparently happened here is that even though it was properly showing my 'purchases' from my (...@mydomain), when it asked me to log in, it didn't auto-fill the {User/PW} box with the correct user account (...@mydomain), but instead used the ancient Apple-issued (...@mac.com) account that it had found from wherever within the system. -- I suspect that this might have been the problem you were experiencing.

2d) Download worked.

Next step, get my iPhoto library back

3) Started iPhoto ... it now prompts for which library to use - - and the migrated one is not a selectable option. Now what, Batman?

3a) FINDER ... Did a 'Get Info' (Control-I) on the target 'Photos Library' file

3b) Navigated down to the 'Open with' portion, changed this from Photos to iPhoto

4) Launched iPhoto again ... it still did not recognize the Library (greyed out) as an option

5) FINDER ... navigated to the Library, double-clicked to launch it ... it did launch iPhoto,

--> which brought up a dialog box "VERIFYING {name}" status bar.

5a) iPhoto 'Verifying' of migrated library -- fails. Error message is:
"Photos Library" is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash.

Screenshot: http://www.huntzinger.com/gallery/index.php/Gear/iPhoto-Photos-Library_FAIL

Note also the grey text: Photo Library Migration Utility created this file on an unknown date.

5b) cancel.

5c) Tried steps (3a) through (5) again, but this time on the 'original' Library file (see step (0)).

Got the same dialog bar in (5a) and the same error of (5b).

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Not sure where to go from here to recover my data, hence why I'm searching the Support Communities.

SOrry - we need reverent details - your history of the world has far too much editorial content and useless information and not eough revelevent information

If you have iPhoto 9.6.1 it works and that is all we need to know - the path you took to get it has no bering on its use

As to the iphoto library nothing done during the upgrade and migration to Photos affects it so if it is damaged that was caused by something you did and the solution is to restore a backup from when it was good

LN

The relevant details are all already listed above, Larry.

FYI: I did say that I re-downloaded iPhoto from the App Store, so it most certainly is version 9.6.1

In regards to your suggestion that "Nothing was done to" the existing Library, this is patently false:

its icon was changed and its Creator data was changed from iPhoto to Photos. Plus since it was

touched by the Migration app, there's no way to know what _additional_ changes it made.

To reiterate:

a) 2012 Mac Pro updated from Mavericks OS to Yosemite OS (& Photos was part of that update).

Zero exceptions or errors.

b) Photos launched; migration tool runs on the existing iPhoto Library (1.07 TB);

- it created a new "Photos Library" file

- it kept the old iPhoto Library, but changed the Icon, Creator from iPhoto to Photos, (+unknown)

c) The new Library opens fine in Photos.

Added ~100GB of work in Photos

Noted that only the new "Photos Library" file increased in size - the old (but changed) Library did not increase in size.

"Editorial comments". Decided to revert to iPhotos.

d) Noted that the old (existing) version of iPhotos killed by Yosemite ...

e) Went to App Store & re-installed iPhotos (yes, version 9.6.1)

f) Some headaches here were documented for people who may run into the same problem.

g) Launched iPhotos 9.6.1 - dialog asks which library to use. It lists some old Aperture & iPhotos libraries, but the

dialog did not list either of the Photos Libraries from (b): neither the new 'Photos Library' nor the allegedly "Nothing

was done to" legacy iPhoto library.

h) Tried the manual select option .. could not do so. FYI, both Libraries were greyed-out in directory listing.

i) Quit iPhoto. In Finder, did 'Get Info' and changed the 'Open by' on the Library from Photos to iPhoto

j) Tried (g) again - same result (h) (i.e., still not recognized by iPhoto as being a valid library)

k) Tried double-clicking on the Library, which did launch iPhotos, which then proceeded with the 'Verifying' library dialog

l) 'Verifying' fails with the aforementioned error message:

"Photos Library" is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash.

Screenshot: http://www.huntzinger.com/gallery/index.php/Gear/iPhoto-Photos-Library_FAIL

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Okay, so I'll restore the Library and lose a week's worth of work. Now the safest path is to revert back to before Photos (and/or the Migration tool) somehow adulterated it, breaking backwards-compatibility.

But because the Photos migration created a "new" library (and kept the "old", as per (b)), this has doubled the local storage demand (and invariably why Time Machine blew up - see original step "0a"): with only 700GB remaining on my data drive, there's insufficient space to restore the old 1.07 TB size file from Time Machine.

So...here's now the question:

just which of the two Photo Libraries can I safely delete (& empty trash) to free up disk space prior to going back into Time Machine to restore my clean (pre-Photos) version?

Is it:

(a) the new one,

(b) the it-wasn't-changed-except-for-where-it-was old one, or

(c) both?

1 - Not having a current backup is your choice but a very poor one and guarantees that you will lose data sooner or later

2 - I have neither the time nor the energy to try to decipher your massive rambling post - but the answer is to delete any library that you are positive you do not need - I have no idea what that is for you or if there even is one since you do not keep current backups

LN

1 - I do have backups and made that quite clear from the start.

The bottom line here is AFAIC that the Photos Migration tool corrupts some versions of iPhoto libraries. If it helps with anyone's sincere debugging attempts, this particular library instance is an old one - - its been around since iPhoto 2 (iLife 1), shipping in 2003 with OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)

<Edited By Host>

Good luck - you will see nothing more form me - your attitude is WAY out of line and name calling is not a good thing especially when volunteers are trying to help you

Good Bye

LN

At best, the only 'help' received was noting that things weren't broken, but that the Library had

been corrupted - -

- - but with a malicious insinuation that it must have been the user's fault was far from helpful or truthful,

as the unambiguous facts are that the Migration tool does indeed alter the file's contents.

Since it couldn't be repaired, needed to be replaced in its entirety from a backup. So done.

No important data lost - - mostly just $1000 worth of touch labor that had gone into adding ~100GB

worth of new images into the master library (organization, tagging, adjustments, etc).

For the Time Machine failures, the obvious cause was the 1TB data "bubble" from Photos adding its own

library. My plan is to just freeze the existing 4TB drives & add them to off-site storage, and start new TM

backups with brand new drives, but if anyone has any other suggestions, I'm open to hearing them.