HT204259: If Photos won't open a library that you already migrated

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hudd from santa clarita

Q: I need to Re-migrate my photo library

My Mac Mini was running slow so I decided to do a factory restore. I pulled off all the files worth saving onto an external HD. For my photo's I clicked and dragged my iPhoto library onto the external HD. What I didn't realize was that this was actually a "migrated photo library". So now that I have restored my computer, my photos have just the photos from my photo stream and I am trying to move all my other photos from the external drive over but it won't let me do anything with the migrated photo library. It's over 100GB, so I'm fairly confident that my photos are still there, I just can't access them. Any ideas on how to re-migrate my already migrated library?

 

Thanks!

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 8, 2015 3:39 PM

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Q: I need to Re-migrate my photo library

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jul 8, 2015 3:49 PM in response to hudd from santa clarita
    Level 10 (84,530 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jul 8, 2015 3:49 PM in response to hudd from santa clarita

    I believe you can simply drag the migrated iPhoto library to Photos to remigrate - you might have to open it in iPhoto to remove the migrated title and restore it to just an iphoto library

     

    But of course the newly migrated library will not have any activity since the initial migration so if you have things in the Photo library since then you will have to export them and migrate to the newly migrated library - and  you will have to set the newly migrated library as the system library

     

    LN

  • by hudd from santa clarita,

    hudd from santa clarita hudd from santa clarita Jul 8, 2015 4:19 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 4:19 PM in response to LarryHN

    When I drag the file into the Photos app in the doc the message it gives me is that I "cannot open migrated version of iPhoto" Should I download an old version of iPhoto and try and open the already migrated iPhoto library in that?

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jul 8, 2015 4:30 PM in response to hudd from santa clarita
    Level 10 (84,530 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jul 8, 2015 4:30 PM in response to hudd from santa clarita

    No

     

    You need to open it with iPhoto 9.6.1 - iPhoto is in your applications folder - if you were not up to date see Can't Update iPhoto because it is not available in the App Store

     

    and You may be able to simply change the iPhoto library extension to .photoslibrary and then migrate it ( I have no way to test that so be sure your backup is current and good before doing that)

     

    LN