iPhotos corrupted on external hard drive

on my external hard drive, I moved over my old iPhotos 6-7 years ago. Now, when I want to open it, I get an error file. Upon further research, it appears the iPhoto founder is not supporters anymore, and needs to be updated for any chance to recover the 1000s of photos within it? Will the Genius Bar be able to do this, or do I have to go to an expensive 3rd party data recover company?? Thanks

MacBook Air (M2)

Posted on Jan 29, 2023 09:33 AM

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Posted on Jan 29, 2023 12:53 PM

Once I dragged the old iPhoto library to the Mac, I got this message..

"The library version for “iPhoto Library” is not supported. It can be opened with macOS Monterey (version 12) or earlier. Alternatively, you can use Library Import to add photos from one library into another.

".

I'm not sure how to navigate this?

UPDATE: I created a new library, and dropped my old iPhoto library into it…and it WORKED!! Solved. Thanks for helping me grind through this:)

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Jan 29, 2023 12:53 PM in response to Littlechilds

Once I dragged the old iPhoto library to the Mac, I got this message..

"The library version for “iPhoto Library” is not supported. It can be opened with macOS Monterey (version 12) or earlier. Alternatively, you can use Library Import to add photos from one library into another.

".

I'm not sure how to navigate this?

UPDATE: I created a new library, and dropped my old iPhoto library into it…and it WORKED!! Solved. Thanks for helping me grind through this:)

Jan 29, 2023 09:59 AM in response to Littlechilds

Your post is a bit confusing.


What exactly is "corrupted"?

What exactly did you move to the external drive?

If you moved the actual iPhoto application, then yes, the app will no longer work as its a 32 bit app and those are not supported on new macOS versions. The App itself does not hold any photos at all however.


The Photos are held in the iPhotoLibrary.photolibrary file.


What exactly does the error say?


If you moved the iPhoto library file to the external drive, then you should be able to just open it with the current Photos app on your Mac by holding down the option key when starting the Photos app, and pointing it to the location of the iPhoto library file on the external drive. Neither Apple, nor an expensive 3rd party company are required for this.

Jan 29, 2023 12:25 PM in response to Phil0124

Sorry about that.

You are correct, the photos are in an older "iPhoto Library".

I plug the external in and it asks me if I want to repair the Library. I click yes and it begins repairing. Today for the first time, after 5 minutes, it made it too 100% (I was a bit surprised), but then froze my computer, thinking wheel perpetually spinning. I tried again after a hard re-boot, but this time (the more common scenario), it starts repairing at 6%, then gives me the error "Photos was unable to open the library “iPhoto Library”. (4302)".


I tried the "click option" and open current iPhoto, but same error came up.


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iPhotos corrupted on external hard drive

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