Upgrade from iPhoto 6 to Photos 3

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Level 1

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Upgrade from iPhoto 6 to Photos 3

Hi folks,

I've moved from a Mac Mini running iPhoto to an iMac running Photos. At this point, having run Migration Assistant and restored the iMac from a backup of the Mini, my photo library and photos from iPhoto haven't successfully imported into Photos.

I have kept my photos stored on an external HDD, although the new library on Photos is currently local to my iMac. I intend to change this so that the library is kept on the external HDD. (This will form part of this migration & setup).

The directory structure of iPhoto isn't entirely logical and I'm wondering which folders I need to import from and whether I should import everything locally to my iMac, then delete the photos and associated information from the external HDD before then moving it all back to the external HDD.

I attach a screenshot of the iPhoto directory structure.

Thanks for any advice and guidance.

iMac, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 27, 2019 5:31 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,279 points

Jun 27, 2019 8:58 AM in response to Matt Stalker

Upgrade from iPhoto 6

If your iPhoto version is really as old as iPhoto'6, version 6.x.x., than you will probably need to run the iPhoto Library Upgrader tool, to prepare the library, before you can open the library directly in Photos, as recommended by Keith. You should have received a warning, when you tried to open the library in Photos. This page describes, how to download the iPhoto Library upgrader and to run it on your iPhoto Library:

See: Using the iPhoto Library Upgrader tool - Apple Support

I can still download and run the upgrader, but some users reported, that they could not use it. Please, let us know, if the tool is still working for you. It contains 32-bit code, and will not run any longer on Catalina, so all upgrades for old libraries should happen now on Mojave.

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Answer 2

Jun 27, 2019 7:02 AM in response to Matt Stalker

First, there is no reason to go into the old iPhotos library.

If you start Photos with the option key held down, navigate to the external and select your iPhoto library. Photos will create a new library with hard links to your iPhoto files so it will not take up more space. Export any originals from the current Photos library on the iMac hard drive and import them into the new library.

Once you are satisfied and comfortable with Photos, you can delete the iPhoto library, if you wish.

http://osxdaily.com/2015/04/17/move-iphoto-library-to-photos-mac/

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Answer 3

Jun 27, 2019 10:50 AM in response to léonie

Oops, I assumed the "6" referred to the minor revision in 9.6, you may be right. I guess we could tell be inspecting the library screenshot, but I am too lazy.

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Upgrade from iPhoto 6 to Photos 3

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