importing iPhotos library from old MacBook hard drive

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importing iPhotos library from old MacBook hard drive

Several years ago my MacBook died and before selling it I took out the hard drive. I'm just now getting around to trying to get the data off of the old hard drive. I've hooked it up to my current MacBook through an external enclosure but I've hit a problem with my old iPhoto library. It says that it can't be opened unless I have Monterey or earlier installed.

I also tried booting from the hard drive but that just resulted in a black screen with a dashed circle error sign.

Here are the details

Old hard drive has a copy of Mac OS 10.10.1

Current Mac is a 2017 running Mac OS 13.6.1

I also tried clicking option while opening photos to direct it to the iPhoto library but I get the same message about needing Monterey or earlier.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.6

Posted on Nov 8, 2023 06:21 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

214,308 points

Nov 9, 2023 09:32 AM in response to BLB23

How is the external drive formatted?

Before you purchase the old Mini, download the free version of PowerPhotos and see if it will open the iPhoto Library. It it can then you can use the paid version of it to copy the photos and metadata and organizational effort from the iPhoto Library to a Photos library. This is a comparison of the difference between importing with Photos and PowerPhotos:

PowerPhotos: Photos:

Albums -----------

Smart Albums (as regular albums) -----------

Folders -----------

Captions Captions

Titles Titles

Original images Original images

Edited images Edited images

Locations Locations

Favorites Favorites

Can detect and exclude Duplicates detected after import

duplicates (or not) during import

Neither method included projects.

Both methods could import older iPhoto libraries into a Photos library when the iPhoto library couldn't be migrated into a Photos library.

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,516 points

Nov 8, 2023 11:32 PM in response to BLB23

This is correct. You can't open an old iPhoto library anymore. However, you can try import from it to a Photos Library - in Photos try use the File -> Import command and see what shows up from the old iPhoto library.

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Answer 3

BLB23 Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 9, 2023 07:29 AM in response to Yer_Man

File -> Import results in the same error message unfortunately. If I were to buy a 2014 Mac Mini with Mavericks installed would there be a way to then move the photos around from iPhoto on the mini to Photos on the MacBook Pro? Thanks!

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Answer 4

BLB23 Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 9, 2023 08:21 AM in response to Yer_Man

The iPhoto library is about 12 gb. I was able to view the photos from the library package but I’m unsure if meta-data would be brought along if I moved them to Photos from the package? Looks like I can get a 2014 mini for under $100 so I may consider it if I won’t get my meta-data any other way. Thanks for your help!

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Answer 5

BLB23 Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 9, 2023 10:39 AM in response to Old Toad

This worked! The free version actually took care of it for me so no need to purchase the full version. I was able to transfer the iPhotos library to a different external ssd and in the process it converted the library to a Photos library. Thank you so much!

Editing to add that the old drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) just in case that helps someone else in the future!

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Answer 6

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,516 points

Nov 9, 2023 08:12 AM in response to BLB23

Assuming the library database is not damaged, yes.

How many photos are you talking about approximately? It might be less expensive to simply recover the original photos from the Library package.

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importing iPhotos library from old MacBook hard drive

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