saymay
Level 1 (4 points)
iCloud

Q: scared to upgrade to el capitain/photos app & losing my iphoto library housed on external hd

I keep my HUGE iphoto library housed on an external HD. I am afraid to upgrade to el capitain, and in turn the new Photos app, because I am hearing horror stories about rebuilding libraries. How will photos read my iphoto library if its housed on an external hd? has anyone had success with this?

Thanks in advance,

Sarah

 

MBP - 2014
2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

OSX 10.9.5

iPhoto '11

Posted on Nov 9, 2015 11:07 AM

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saymay

Q: scared to upgrade to el capitain/photos app & losing my iphoto library housed on external hd

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Nov 9, 2015 12:30 PM in response to saymay
    Level 10 (108,869 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 9, 2015 12:30 PM in response to saymay
    How will photos read my iphoto library if its housed on an external hd? has anyone had success with this?

     

    Sarah, it will depend on the file system of your external drive. Photos can only migrate your iPhoto Library to the new format, if the external drive is locally mounted and correctly formatted. The filesystem of the drive needs to be MacOS Extended (Journaled).

     

    So, check the file system of the drive.  Elect the drive in the Finder and press the key combination ⌘I to bring up the Info panel:

     

    Screen Shot 2015-11-09 at 20.14.00GMT.png

     

    If the file system is different, you will need to move the library to a correctly formatted drive.

  • by saymay,

    saymay saymay Nov 9, 2015 12:31 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 9, 2015 12:31 PM in response to léonie

    thanks leonie! yes im mac os extended journaled. ...does photos rebuild the library?

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Nov 9, 2015 12:32 PM in response to saymay
    Level 10 (139,597 points)
    iLife
    Nov 9, 2015 12:32 PM in response to saymay

    No. Photos simply migrates the Library to its own format. The iPhoto Library is left untouched.

     

    How large is this library?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Nov 9, 2015 12:47 PM in response to saymay
    Level 10 (108,869 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 9, 2015 12:47 PM in response to saymay

    As TD said, your iPhoto Library will be left untouched.

    This document describes, how your iPhoto Library will look in Photos: How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support

    If you have unfinished projects - books, calendars, you may want to finish them in iPhoto before you upgrade. The templates for books have changed. 

    If your iPhoto version is listed in your Purchase History at the App Store, you may be able to continue to use iPhoto after the upgrade to El Capitan by updating iPhoto to version 9.6.1, so you can finish any projects or compare the migrated libraries.  But in the long unit will be better to migrate the library to Photos.

  • by saymay,

    saymay saymay Nov 9, 2015 11:04 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 9, 2015 11:04 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    my library is 167GB!!!!!

  • by saymay,

    saymay saymay Nov 9, 2015 11:08 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 9, 2015 11:08 PM in response to léonie

    1 more quick question... when i upgrade to el capitain and open the Photos app for the first time will I be able to open my extrenal library just as i do with iphoto now? (even tho its an "iphoto library" and not a "photos library") i guess i'm asking if it will recognize it off the bat or if i will need to do some migrating?

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Nov 9, 2015 11:16 PM in response to saymay
    Level 10 (139,597 points)
    iLife
    Nov 9, 2015 11:16 PM in response to saymay

    The disk space used by the Library is not significant and no, that's not an especially large library. I have one twice that size.

     

    To migrate when the Library is on an external: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch Photos. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'

  • by saymay,

    saymay saymay Nov 9, 2015 11:27 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 9, 2015 11:27 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    thanks for your quick reply - thats what i usually do now, just want to make sure i didnt miss a step.