Photos library not importing from time machine backup - 'Nothing to import' message

Question

Level 1

4 points

Photos library not importing from time machine backup - 'Nothing to import' message

My iMac was having kernel panics and kept restarting, to cut a long story short a guy at the genius bar wiped my mac and installed El Capitan on my iMac (I was originally running Yosemite). I'm not fully restoring from backup to avoid any further kernel panics due to software, so I am only restoring iTunes and Photos manually by dragging and dropping. I've successfully imported my iTunes library, but the same cannot be said for Photos.

I located the photos library by going through to user>pictures on my time machine backup. However, when I go to import the file named Photos Library (Original), I get the message 'nothing to import'. If anyone could tell me what this means I would be very grateful!

Thanks

Jack

Posted on Oct 22, 2015 3:14 PM

Reply

Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,785 points

Oct 22, 2015 3:31 PM in response to jackp93

You cannot import an iPhoto library to iPhoto, you have to open the library in iPhoto. And for that it needs to be restored from Time Machine.

If you do not want to restore the iPhoto Library to your System drive, restore the iPhoto Library to another external drive.

See: iPhoto '11: Restoring from Time Machine with iPhoto '11 (9.2 or later) and OS X Lion 10.7.2 (or later)

Reply

Answer 2

jackp93 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 22, 2015 3:33 PM in response to léonie

It's not an iPhoto library, it's Photos!

Reply

Answer 3

jackp93 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 22, 2015 3:34 PM in response to léonie

I can't actually import it. I am going into Photos, clicking import and then onto the Photos Library file which is on an external drive

Reply

Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,785 points

Oct 22, 2015 3:49 PM in response to jackp93

A Photos library cannot be imported to Photos either. You open it in Photos by double clicking it or dragging it onto the Photos icon in the Dock. Or hold down the options key while double-clicking the Photos icon to open. Then select the library from the library chooser panel.

But you cannot open a Photos library as part of a Time Machine backup or on a Time Machine volume. That is not supported. You need to restore the library from Time Machine first. Then openthe restored library in Photos as described above.

You can restore from Time Machine to a different drive.

Reply

Answer 5

jackp93 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 22, 2015 3:52 PM in response to léonie

Ah ok thanks, the problem is it won't open in time machine because of the update to my machine, so it doesn't recognise it as the same backup (because now it's not anymore really). is there any way to get around this problem? I still have 90% of the photos on my old Mac, so could probably transfer them somehow if necessary.

Reply

Answer 6

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Oct 22, 2015 3:54 PM in response to jackp93

Nope - NO IMPORTING!

You cannot import an iPhoto library to iPhoto, [or Photos library into Photos] you have to open the library in iPhoto [or photos]. And for that it needs to be restored from Time Machine.

Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support

http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

LN

Reply

Answer 7

jackp93 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 23, 2015 6:16 AM in response to LarryHN

I managed to restore my library by deleting the system library, and once the system library couldn't be found it allowed me to use the library which it wouldn't originally let me use!

Reply

Answer 8

Dec 11, 2016 10:24 PM in response to jackp93

Please. Explain a little more about how you managed to d

Reply