I am trying to restore some old photos backed up onto Time Machine and it is not working. The restore button reverts the file to the same photos I already have. Please help!
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: restoring photos from time machine
MacBook Air 15″, macOS 15.6
Because there are several ways to do stuff with Time Machine, it's hard to say much without more information. When you say photos do you mean pictures, rather than the Photos app or the Photos Library?
Since this is the Community for the Photos app, you might mean that you are trying to get pictures back from a previous Photos Library-- is that it? If that's right, this note might help.
Time Machine Restores a Photos Library - Apple Community
The point there is that you don't restore pictures, you have to restore the entire Library. And you can't drag and drop. You may want to choose "Keep Both" rather than replace your original Library. This may require lots of room.
You didn't say, but is your Photos Library on your internal drive? An external drive, if not formatted for Mac, may cause lots of problems:
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
You also didn't say if you're using iCloud Photos, and if you are set to Optimize Photos. That may be helpful information.
As to the Photos app-- you don't restore the Photos app, it is part of the macOS.
For individual pictures, I would "Enter Time Machine," as well, and navigate to a date where the pictures might be, and restore those.
Sorry for the terminology. When I tried to restore to the original library the size was 4.7 GB and the one that I was trying to "Replace" was 2.31 GB and when I clicked on restore the 4.7 GB turned to 2.31 GB even if I chose "Keep Both"???
You didn't say, but is your Photos Library on your internal drive? An external drive, if not formatted for Mac, may cause lots of problems
You also didn't say if you're using iCloud Photos, and if you are set to Optimize Photos. That may be helpful information.
You also didn't say how the "restored" Library's contents compared with the "replaced" Library. What was the Modified date of the "restored" Library? Perhaps you should put the "to be replaced" Library in another folder before using Restore.
My old Photos Library is on Apple's Time Capsule. I AM using iCloud Photos but I started using it 6 months after I backed up the old Photos library. There's more photos and videos hence the larger 4.7 GB's compared to the replaced library at 2.31 GB's. The modified date on the restored was 12/2024. I hope this help's because I'd really like to merge the old photos with the current ones.
An old Photos Library will have to be updated to work with a newer macOS. "Merging" libraries is problematic. You need to get both Libraries running independently before you can do much with them. Do you know what OS the older Library was run on?
Photos can import pictures from another Library, but it doesn't Merge in the sense of adding folders and albums. To do a true "merge" of Photos Libraries you would need the trusted 3rd party app PowerPhotos ($35,) which is very helpful for lots of Library stuff.
I don't know if you saw these two replies because I think I replied to myself?? So, the original OS was OS X 10.4 but it kept increasing to OS 14. So the library I am trying get from December 2024 is from OS 14. Also, I don't know if it makes a difference but library was put on the Time Capsule by a 2024 MacBook Air of which the photos library came from a 2018 MacBook Pro.
Mylit wrote:…I don't know if you saw these two replies because I think I replied to myself?? So, The original OS was OS X 10.4 but it kept increasing to OS 14. So the library I am trying get from December 2024 is from OS 14. Also, I don't know if it makes a difference but library was put on the Time Capsule by a 2024 MacBook Air of which the photos library came from a 2018 MacBook Pro.
The "Reply to" is especially useful when there are several people in a thread, but everyone in the thread gets the emails. Personally, I look online, and I don't read the emails, anyway.
I can't remember when I stopped using my Time Capsule. It doesn't work, and I keep intending to take it apart and see if I can examine the hard drive. The case is really locked up-- I think I have to use a hammer and chisel!
What I was saying was that an older Photos app cannot read a newer Photos Library. On the other hand, a newer Photos app has to upgrade an older Library in order to read it.
So, to "Merge" two Libraries the need to be the same vintage, perhaps upgraded to the same version. PowerPhotos will do the upgrading if you have it.
PowerPhotos also can merge Libraries while preserving the album structure. Photos, on its own, will import pictures from another Library, but not the album structure.
My Time Capsule is still working after 17 years but Apple's support doesn't. I already tried using an OS 10 Photos app to open newer Photos Library and what you said was verified. So can a newer Photos app upgrade an older Library? I'm sorry but I still don't understand, when I got the 2024 MacBook Air the 2018 MacBook Pro library was uploaded and then backed up onto the Time Capsule in December 2024 and at that point in time I could still see the old photos. It wasn't until I became heavily invested in the iCloud with 6 different devices, 8 if you count my wife's 2, that I was no longer able to see them. That is why I thought that if I restored that library from 2024 would work but it didn't, hence our conversation.
If you try to open an older Photos Library with a newer Photos app, it should offer to upgrade, unless corruption makes it impossible. There were drastic changes to the structure of Photos after macOS 10.14 Mojave, but I think that, even 5 major OSs later, you can still convert the Library, but it may just be more susceptible to corruption.
If Photos can't open the Library, perhaps because of corruption, then you can get into the Library and recover the original pictures, though without edits and captions.
I tried importing the old Library and it said "No Photos". How do I get into the Library if Photos says "No Photos"? Also can I extract the library from the Time Capsule if the restore button doesn't work?
I don't know if it makes a difference but it was put on the Time Capsule by a 2024 MacBook Air of which the photos library came from a 2018 MacBook Pro.
The original OS was OS X 10.4 but it kept increasing to OS 14. So the library I try get from December 2024 is from OS 14.
How to restore old photos from Time Machine when restore only keeps current ones?
