Photos App will not import from iPhoto

Question

Photos App will not import from iPhoto

I have a Macbook Pro. Upgraded Yosemite recently and it disabled iPhoto (gee, thanks for letting me know, Apple). Tried to import photos from iPhoto but Photo said it needed 250GB of space to do that. I only had 25GB (thanks again for the heads up, Apple). So, I transfer my Photo library to another drive, trash the original, thereby giving myself 280 or so GB of free space on my Mac. Still, Photo says there is not enough space to import from iPhoto.

So how much bleeping space do I need to get my photo library back?? Anyone have any ideas how to solve this with having to buy a new hard drive for my Mac?

Many thanks.

Richard

MBP, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on May 26, 2015 10:21 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Old Toad

Level 10

207,445 points

May 26, 2015 10:50 AM in response to Richard Weston-Smith1

Tried to import photos from iPhoto but Photo said it needed 250GB of space to do that.

You don't import the iPhoto library into Photos. The correct way is to drag the iPhoto library onto the Photos icon in the Dock and let Photos convert the library over to the new format. That will not require that kind of space.

Do you have a backup copy of your iPhoto library created just prior to upgrading to Yosemite? Restore it to your Pictures folder and drop on the Photos icon.

Actually iPhoto was not deleted from your hard drive, only removed from the Dock. If you have iPhoto 9.6.1 you can still use your iPhoto library. If you don't have that version but some earlier version of 9.x try following Terence Devlin's iinstructions in this post to obtain iPhoto 9.6.1 from the App Store:

Terence Devlin

Apr 14, 2015 11:21 AM

Re: Is Iphoto gone ? i want it back!

in response to Johannes666

Recommended

Go to the App Store and check out the Purchases List. If iPhoto is there then it will be v9.6.1

If it is there, then drag your existing iPhoto app (not the library, just the app) to the trash

Install the App from the App Store.

Sometimes iPhoto is not visible on the Purchases List. it may be hidden. See this article for details on how to unhide it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928

One question often asked: Will I lose my Photos if I reinstall?iPhoto the application and the iPhoto Library are two different parts of the iPhoto programme. So, reinstalling the app should not affect the Library. BUT you should always have a back up before doing this kind of work. Always.

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Answer 2

May 26, 2015 11:52 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks Old Toad, this was helpful, but did not solve it. Photo has now created a new library and works fine. However, the Photo library is on the separate hard drive and is 255 gb. When I try to drag it onto the macBook (with 282gb free) it says there is not enough space. So I am still stuck with my photos on a separate drive. Any more thoughts on this?

Thanks for your help. I see you all over the forum dishing out words of wisdom and it's great to have someone like you so actively invested in helping people. Thank you.

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Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

May 26, 2015 1:09 PM in response to Richard Weston-Smith1

Where is the iPhoto library?

The Photos library should have been created on the same volume as the iPhoto library - was it?

LN

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Answer 4

May 26, 2015 1:14 PM in response to LarryHN

I tried to create the photos library on the same volume, but it said there was not enough space. So I moved the iPhoto library to a separate hard drive and deleted the original, freeing up more than enough space. I then opened Photos and pulled in the iPhoto library, but it created the new Photos library on the separate hard drive, not on the macbook pro. So then I tried to copy the Photos library onto the Macbook and it said there was not enough space, even though there was 30gb more than the size of the library.

Does this help explain?

Many thanks,

Richard

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