I upgraded to the new OS X El Capitan as instructed by my IMac, and now I can no longer retrieve my iPhotos. It has a block symbol across it. I cannot even open it. It says it must be upgraded in applications, but once I attempt, it says my apple ID fails, or has changed since the purchaser, or it is no longer available in the US. I have no idea what is going on, but nearly every picture of my children EVER is on this (huge mistake, I realize). HELP.
You need a newer version of iPhoto because older ones are incompatible with El Capitan.
Go to the "Purchased" section in the App Store and get it from there. See Can't Update iPhoto because it is not available in the App Store for more information.
Launch the new applications Photos and it will migrate the last used iPhoto library - How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support - if it does not drag the desired iPhoto library to the Photos icon in the Dock
LN
Even if you can update iPhoto to the version iPhoto 9.6.1, the only version of iPhoto running on El Capitan, it will be a dead end. Apple stopped developing iPhoto and is no longer fully supported. You can no longer order any print products, and there will be no future updates for new systems. Photos for Mac is the current photo editing application that integrates well with OS X and it can migrate your iPhoto Libraries as described by Larry.
See this Help page to get started with Photos for Mac: https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.2
Iphoto blocked
