Ralphjh

Q: Behavior of migratedphotolibrary

It has the icon of iPhoto.

 

If I double click the icon, a dialog appears as follows:

Dialog.png

If I select Open Photos, the file will open as a regular Photos file. However, if I open with iPhoto, the file identifier is changed from migratedphotolibrary to photolibrary and behaves as an iPhoto file. Further opening with Photos will restart the process of converting to a Photos file and a file with the migratedphotolibrary identifier.

 

Wierd!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 29, 2015 4:55 PM

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Q: Behavior of migratedphotolibrary

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  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Oct 30, 2015 1:32 AM in response to Ralphjh
    Level 10 (139,532 points)
    iLife
    Oct 30, 2015 1:32 AM in response to Ralphjh

    Nothing weird at all. You're trying tom open the iPhoto library with Photos.

     

    Try opening the Photos Library with Photos...

  • by Ralphjh,

    Ralphjh Ralphjh Oct 30, 2015 10:46 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 2 (214 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 30, 2015 10:46 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Terence Devlin wrote:

     

    Try opening the Photos Library with Photos...

    I've done that but my comments were about the migratedphotolibrary. Notice that the default position of the buttons is to Open with Photos.

  • by Old Toad,Helpful

    Old Toad Old Toad Oct 30, 2015 12:54 PM in response to Ralphjh
    Level 10 (141,085 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 30, 2015 12:54 PM in response to Ralphjh

    When you double click on a .migratedphotolibrary it does give you the default to open it in Photos.  However, the default button only opens Photos and it's last used library.  It does not open that migrated library again, it can't.  The iPhoto button will open the library and convert it back to a .photolbrary extension which is an iPhoto library.

    OTsig.png

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 30, 2015 11:35 AM in response to Ralphjh
    Level 10 (106,767 points)
    iLife
    Oct 30, 2015 11:35 AM in response to Ralphjh

    See this:  If Photos won't open a library that you already migrated - Apple Support

     

    Do you want to migrate the ".migratedphotolibrary" a second time to Photos?  Is there a problem with the version you already migrated?

     

    To be able to migrate this library once again to Photos, simply rename it. Change the filename extension  ".migratedphotolibrary" back to ".photolibrary". Then drag the renamed library onto the Photos icon.  Photos will create a new migrated version.

  • by Ralphjh,

    Ralphjh Ralphjh Oct 30, 2015 1:02 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 2 (214 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 30, 2015 1:02 PM in response to Old Toad

    Old Toad wrote:

     

    When you double click on a .migratedphotolibrary it does give you the default to open it in Photos.  However, the default button only opens Photos and it's last used library. 

    Interesting! I should have noticed that since I have more than one library.

     

    The iPhoto button will open the library and convert it back to a .photolbrary extension which is an iPhoto library.

     

    At this point, are the hard links in effect? In other words, is there only one container of photos for both the iPhoto library and the Photos library?

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Oct 30, 2015 1:16 PM in response to Ralphjh
    Level 10 (141,085 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 30, 2015 1:16 PM in response to Ralphjh
    At this point, are the hard links in effect? In other words, is there only one container of photos for both the iPhoto library and the Photos library?

    Yes but only for the photos that were in the iPhoto library at the time of migration and as long as neither of the libraries have been relocated to a different volume.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 30, 2015 1:19 PM in response to Ralphjh
    Level 10 (106,767 points)
    iLife
    Oct 30, 2015 1:19 PM in response to Ralphjh

    At this point, are the hard links in effect? In other words, is there only one container of photos for both the iPhoto library and the Photos library?

    Yes, if you open the migrated library in iPhoto, it will just change the filename extension of the library package back to ".photolibrary". The hard links between the original image files are preserved. I checked this with a test library. the original image files in the Photos library and the iPhoto Library were still lined by hard links after I opened the library again in iPhoto.

  • by Ralphjh,

    Ralphjh Ralphjh Oct 30, 2015 1:24 PM in response to léonie
    Level 2 (214 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 30, 2015 1:24 PM in response to léonie

    léonie wrote:

    See this:  If Photos won't open a library that you already migrated - Apple Support

     

    That link brings me to a page that contains the following statement:

    If you try to open an iPhoto or Aperture library after you've converted it to a Photos library, you'll see a message that Photos "Cannot open migrated library."

     

    That's not what happened when I opened the migrated library file. See the message box in my original post above.

     

    léonie wrote:

    Do you want to migrate the ".migratedphotolibrary" a second time to Photos?  Is there a problem with the version you already migrated?

     

    No problem. I was only experimenting to try to understand what a migrated photo library is all about.

  • by Ralphjh,

    Ralphjh Ralphjh Oct 30, 2015 1:29 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 2 (214 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 30, 2015 1:29 PM in response to Old Toad

    Old Toad wrote:

     

    At this point, are the hard links in effect? In other words, is there only one container of photos for both the iPhoto library and the Photos library?

    Yes but only for the photos that were in the iPhoto library at the time of migration and as long as neither of the libraries have been relocated to a different volume.

     

    So what happens when a photo within the Photos library is modified?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 30, 2015 1:44 PM in response to Ralphjh
    Level 10 (106,767 points)
    iLife
    Oct 30, 2015 1:44 PM in response to Ralphjh
    So what happens when a photo within the Photos library is modified?

    The original image in the Masters folder will remain hard linked, since Photos will never modify the original, but the previews and the thumbnails will be replaced by new image files, reflecting the edits.

     

    So, if you edit photos, the hard linked preview images will be replaced by new files, and you will need more storage.