How to convert .pct to .jpg for viewing in photos; the dreaded grey triangle

After struggling to find help on this topic I found my own solution and present it here. But if someone has a faster way please post.

Problem: In Photos, an old format of .pct pictures was giving grey triangle exclamation mark when trying to expand it from the icon shortcut.

Solution

1. Open Photos and locate the files

2. Create a folder on your desktop and name it by the date of the photos. Copy the files to it.

3. Create a second folder on desktop and name it "converted xxx." (For me the xxx was the date to make it simple. I chose this because the metadata will be lost during the conversion, but you can put it back later in step 10).

4. Click on a photo and it should open in preview.

5. Save photo as a .pdf into the converted file folder.

6. Right click on .pdf in the converted file folder and open with preview.

7. "Export" with the option of .jpg, (adjust the quality as you wish) to the converted folder

8. Return to exported folder and trash the .pdf version.

9. Return to photos and import the photos back into.

10. As your recent import, highlight all the new .jpg and assign the saved metadata of date and location.

11. Trash your desktop folders. Be happy.

(Note: there may be a loss in file size of the .jpg from the original but it will still be large enough for most viewing and prints.)