Com'on
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: New Photo app has fragmented my library.

After a half hour on the phone with support we've finally managed to import my iphoto library from my external picture drive. But Photos is still putting pictures in to its own photos library in my user folder. So today I try to open the migrated library with photos and it say the newly created library is corrupt. Its only been opened once the day tech support helped my migrated it.  They offered no way to migrate the two months of photos with the new library or any way to tell photos to use the new library. What mess.

OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 25, 2015 3:17 PM

Close
Com'on

Q: New Photo app has fragmented my library.

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN May 25, 2015 3:26 PM in response to Com'on
    Level 10 (85,678 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 25, 2015 3:26 PM in response to Com'on
    managed to import my iphoto library from my external picture drive.

    What exactly did you do? There is no importing involved - you NEVER import an iPhoto library or Photos library - you simply open them

    But Photos is still putting pictures in to its own photos library in my user folder.

    And what does this mean? Is the migration not complete yet?

     

    Basically the process is simple - open the iPhotos library in Photos and it will migrate it creating a new Photos library in the same disk folder using Hard links to share the originals so it uses very little space - see Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

     

    And please explain this? once the library is migrated you do not do additional migration - from then on you import tinto the library and imports go only into the Photos library (the iPhoto library is totally separate and independent

     

    any way to tell photos to use the new library.

     

    This should not be necessary since it always uses the last used library - but the way you tell Photos which library to use is exactly like you did in iPhoto - hold down the option key while launching Photos and select the library you want to open from the list

     

    LN

  • by Com'on,

    Com'on Com'on May 25, 2015 3:32 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 25, 2015 3:32 PM in response to LarryHN

    You can't open an IPhoto library in Photos. And IPhoto became invalid after the last OX 10.10.3 update, says it must be updated. But doesn't show up on the App store to update. So I have 150 gig of family history that I can't access.

  • by Com'on,

    Com'on Com'on May 25, 2015 4:01 PM in response to Com'on
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 25, 2015 4:01 PM in response to Com'on

    We'll I have two Photos libraries now one on external drive and one in user/pictures. And Photos didn't switch automatically to the new one it kept using the original one.  Which is good I guess since the migrated one says its corrupt when trying to open it today.  So I will attempt the migration again. And then try to export the smaller library in to the larger one to consolidate.


    So if the Photos just points to I-Photos library then I have to keep both folders?

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN May 25, 2015 4:32 PM in response to Com'on
    Level 10 (85,678 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 25, 2015 4:32 PM in response to Com'on

    Yes you can open an iPhoto library with Photos exactly as I posted

    open the iPhotos library in Photos and it will migrate it creating a new Photos library in the same disk folder using Hard links to share the originals so it uses very little space - see Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

    When you do it is migrated to a new Photos library as I said

     

    iPhoto is still in your applications folder - if you did not update to version 9.6.1 prior to upgrading to OS X 10.10.3 see Can't Update iPhoto because it is not available in the App Store

     

     

    And Photos does not just point to the iPhoto library - it creates hard links to the original photos as I stated - you can delete either library without affecting the other  --  it is but to keep both since deleting one save very little space and you might want to use it - but that is up to you - do what you want

     

     

    and one more point - you can NOT export any library to another library - you can open a library and export to a desktop folder and then import from there although the best path is to use iPhoto Library Manager to merge the libraries in to a totally new library before upgrading

     

    LN

  • by Com'on,

    Com'on Com'on May 25, 2015 6:07 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 25, 2015 6:07 PM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks for your help.  So the migration of the Iphoto library worked, opened Photos was able to see all our photos. Switched to the new smaller Photos library exported a few pictures. Went back to the other photo library to import and bam library corrupt again.   Is there a known bug between switching between Photos libraries?

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN May 25, 2015 6:29 PM in response to Com'on
    Level 10 (85,678 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 25, 2015 6:29 PM in response to Com'on

    no

     

    where is the photos library stored?

     

    You are welcome

     

    LN

  • by Com'on,

    Com'on Com'on May 25, 2015 9:21 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 25, 2015 9:21 PM in response to LarryHN

    Photo library 2 is created from a Iphoto migration and stored on an external harddrive. Photo library 1 was created when Photos was installed with the OS update. Library 2 is corrupted each time I switch to Photo Library 1.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN May 25, 2015 9:48 PM in response to Com'on
    Level 10 (85,678 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 25, 2015 9:48 PM in response to Com'on

    And what format is the external drive?  --  it must be Mac OS extended (journaled)

     

    LN