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Restoring photoslibrary from a data recovery disk after computer crash

I recently experienced a complete hard drive failure in my iMac and at the same time my Time Machine backup was also lost! Thankfully a data recovery company was able to recover my data and I have a large "Photos Library.photoslibrary" file that I would like to restore to my new computer. Is it simply a matter of dragging that file from the external drive that holds the recovered data into my Pictures folder or is there more to it than that?


Thank you.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 13, 2022 4:45 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 13, 2022 5:56 AM

Yes just move it in the picture folder.

Please check if there is already an existing library, maybe you have to rename the existing version that is in the folder.


Then you have to switch the active library and set the right (from your backup) library as system library.

Create additional photo libraries in Photos on Mac - Apple ...Official Apple Support › guide › photos › mac


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 13, 2022 5:56 AM in response to Paul142857

Yes just move it in the picture folder.

Please check if there is already an existing library, maybe you have to rename the existing version that is in the folder.


Then you have to switch the active library and set the right (from your backup) library as system library.

Create additional photo libraries in Photos on Mac - Apple ...Official Apple Support › guide › photos › mac


Restoring photoslibrary from a data recovery disk after computer crash

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