Q: Cannot view migrated Photos Library
I use a Mac desktop, and a Mac Air laptop. Both run OS X 10.11.4 and Photos 1.5. In an effort to have all my photos available in one place, and to ensure a backup of all my photos, I recently copied the photo libraries from each machine to the Pictures file in the other. However I cannot open/view the migrated photo libraries.
When I double click on the migrated library in the Finder I get this message: "CANNOT OPEN MIGRATED LIBRARY. The content of the iPhoto library “Photos Library_Desktop.migratedphotolibrary” has already been migrated to Photos. Open Photos to view your library or use a compatible version of iPhoto to open this iPhoto library."
When I open the Photos app while depressing the 'option' key and am offered a choice of libraries, the migrated library is not one of my choices. When I click through to 'other' I can see the migrated library but it is dimmed and will not open.
I hope someone can help resolve this issue. Thanks.
MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)
Posted on Apr 28, 2016 3:20 AM
Deleting the latter would free up 30 GB of storage. Is it safe to do this without risking a loss of metadata? Thanks again in advance.
It is safe to delete the old iPhoto Library, if you have a backup somewhere, just in case the migration did not succeed fully.
But you will gain not really much storage. The new Photos Libraries and the old iPhoto Libraries are both independent, fully self contained libraries, but the image files are stored on the same place of your hard drive, so identical images will not need twice the storage.
Both libraries do not need much more space than the original iphoto Library.
See these links: Six Colors: The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto
and: Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support
Posted on Apr 28, 2016 10:51 AM