Upgrading from a 15 year old iMac, photos not transferring

You need a Mac with macOS 12 Monterey or older to convert your iPhoto Library to a Photo Library without having to use third-party software. Preferably do it on a Mac with macOS 10.14 Mojave.

Does any of your friend or family still have an older Mac, if you do no longer have your old Mac?

You could also ask for help at the nearest Apple Store at the Genius Bar, if the have a Mac with an older system version where you can convert your iPhoto Libraries. If you just bought a new Mac you may still have access to free support.

You missed the window of opportunity where you could still open iPhoto Libraries in Photos and create Photos from it and the conversion has been easy. Now the window for an easy migration has been closed.

• Apple stopped the development of iPhoto in 2015, after the compatibility update of iPhoto 9.6.1 for. OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite.
• We had four years to get ready and convert our iPhoto Libraries to Photos Libraries or migrate to a different app, by opening iPhoto Libraries in Photos, while we could tee also open in iPhoto and compare the albums, metadata, etc, side-by-side. At that time we also were also supposed to convert all legacy media (videos and image files in a format, that requires the old iLife frameworks. The last system version for an easy conversion of iPhoto Libraries has been macOS 10.14 Mojave.
• In 2019, when macOS 10.15 Catalina has been released, the first 64-bit only system version, the old 32 bit iLife frameworks and thus the support for some older video and image codecs has been removed from the system. Since then, it has no longer been possible to run a full version of iPhoto, and older media files using the legacy codecs could cause Photos to crash or hang. But we could still open iPhoto Libraries in Photos and work with them, but we could no longer compare them to the iPhoto Version and fix smart albums or other data, that could not been migrated properly. This lasted until macOS 12 Monterey in 2021. It has been the last system version, where the system supported the migration of iPhoto Libraries as a library and preserving the structure of the library with the events, folders, and album.
• Since 2022 and macOS 13 Ventura we can only import selected photos and videos from an iPhoto Library. We can no longer open the iPhoto Library in Photos to convert it, but we have to use "File > Import", select the iPhoto Library and then wait a very long time (have a cup of coffee while you wait or have an extended dinner) while Photos is preparing the library fro import, depending on the size of the library. It may crash, if Photos is running out of memory, or hang, if the library is containing videos in a legacy format, that is no longer supported.

If you tried to import photos and videos from your iPhoto Libraries and it failed, there may be three different reasons:

• Either your old iPhoto Libraries contain media in a legacy format that is making Photos crash, because the system cannot handle them. My old iPhoto libraries are still containing some hidden land mines, that are no more supported in Photos, mostly audio files as backing tracks in slideshows, old videos, or even PDF images. I kept my old Mac with Mojave to be able to open older iPhoto and Aperture Libraries and convert incompatible media.
• Or your iPhoto Library is simply too large and the memory does not suffice to prepare the list of new photos and videos for import.
• Or there are problems with the file ownership. You need to move the restored iPhoto library to an external drive with a wired connection (no NAS) and the "Ignore ownership on this volume" flag enabled. The file system format should be MacOS Extended or APFS, and the volume must not be used for Time Machine backups. Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Can you be more specific? If I go into Time Machine, and I navigate to the date I want, then I go to the Pictures folder and click on the Photos Library-- then the Restore button becomes active.

What is different for you? Do other files activate Restore?

When you open the Info Window for the Time Machine drive, does it look like this?

The paid version of PowerPhotos can merge an iPhoto library into a new, empty Photos (Sequoia) library. Just add the new, empty Sequoia library and the older iPhoto library to the sidebar of PowerPhotos by dragging to the sidebar or use the (+) button at the top of the sidebar and then click on the Merge button:

I just tested it and it works fine.

The following is a comparison of between PowerPhotos and Photos regarding what they can and cannot import:

I ran a number of tests with a 3119 photo, 72 video and 97 keyword Photos library with keywords, captions, keywords and locations.  I merged it into an empty library using Photos and PowerPhotos.  This is what I found was imported by each;

PowerPhotos:           Photos:

Albums***                                           ----- N/A ------

Smart Albums (as regular albums)** ----- N/A ------

Captions                                             Captions

Titles                                                   Titles

Keywords* Keywords (some but not all-see Note *)

Original images                                  Original images

Edited images                                     Edited images

Loctions                                         Locations

Favorites                                             Favorites

Can detect and exclude                      Duplicates

duplicates upon import or not

Neither method could import/merge projects. 

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

NOTES:

*The Photos app only imported 84 keywords out of 97. PowerPhotos merged 147 keywords, some which apparently were in the images but not read by Photos at the time of import or keywords delete along with photos but not purged from the database.

**The original library had 90 Smart Albums. All were merged by PowerPhotos but, as indicated above, the Smart albums were brought over as regular albums. No album of any kind were imported by Photos.

***The original library had 34 regular albums and 1 folder with some nested albums. PowerPhotos merger all of them successfully.

The original library had 72 videos. Photos imported only 57. PowerPhoto got all 72 in its merge.

You can do it with Photos only but you won't get much of the organizational effort you put into the iPhoto library.

PowerPhotos can also check libraries for duplicate photos and videos, merge folders from one library to another and much more. It's the one Photos utility app that is worth having.

Rachel O'Donnell wrote: …That's what I need, but I'm not a fan of having to buy software to view my MAC library that I backed up on time machine!

This is from 15 years ago? I have backups from floppy disks-- I'd have to go buy a whole floppy drive to be able to use those! It's pretty cool that PowerPhotos can still read those old libraries!

Are you trying to click on TM data files? Or are you using “Restore?” See this:

Time Machine Restores a Photos Library - Apple Community

How is what you’re doing different?

I forgot to add that PowerPhotos can display a Photos library is columnar form with these attributes columnized:

⬇︎

Your welcome. Good Luck, Rachel. 😊

Let us know, how it is working out, and if you manage to get access to your photos.