Unsupported library on one of the macs

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Level 1

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Unsupported library on one of the macs

On my external SSD I have a Photos app. Which I can perfectly open with macbook. However opening the same library with another mac recieves the following message.

unsupported library - The library is from a newer version of Photos. Please upgrade Photos to open this library.

Both photos version are 8.0, however buildnumbers differ (541.0.120 vs 520.0.240)

The macbook which is able to open the photos library has the following spec

Ventura 13.3.1
Apple Sillicon (M2) processor

The macmini which can't open the photos library

Ventura 13.1
Intel processor

The SSD itself is formatted as ExFat.

What I have tried:

Repaired the library How to use the Photos Repair Library tool on your Mac - Apple Support
Checked updates through the app store

To check

Upgrade mini to Ventura 13.3.1

Mac mini, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 18, 2023 12:54 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,485 points

Apr 18, 2023 1:03 PM in response to JeroenDV

The SSD should be formatted APFS, not ExFat, if you want to keep a Photos Library there, see: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support.

Both macs need to run exactly the same system version, if you want to use the library on two different macs.

It would be easier to have an own copy of the library for each of your macs and to keep them in sync with iCloud Photos. Then slight differences in the system version would not matter.

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Answer 2

JeroenDV Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 19, 2023 2:51 AM in response to JeroenDV

It was indeed that both systems need to use exactly the same operating system to be able to read from the library. Reformatting the SSD in this case wasn't needed and still works with ExFat.

Thank you for suggesting iCloud drive. However I have already a cloud subscription (non Icloud) for storing data (including backing up the SSD) so an extra subscription would be redundant.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,485 points

Apr 19, 2023 5:40 AM in response to JeroenDV

You're welcome. iCloud would not be a backup anyway on a Mac. The main purpose of iCloud Photos is being an easy way of keeping the photo libraries in sync and identical across all your Apple devices, independent of the system version on the devices. But if you already have a syncing service with cloud storage and an additional backup, it would be redundant in your case.

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Unsupported library on one of the macs

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