Apple launches Apple Store app in India

The Apple Store app provides customers with the most personalized way to shop for Apple’s innovative lineup of products and services. Learn more >

You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Accessing Photos from Timemachine

Hello - I currently back up my iMac to an external hard drive using Time Machine (I also back it up to iCloud).


I was testing my back up to the external HD but when I tried to access Photos, I got the message "The library could not be opened. The library “Photos Library” is in a Time Machine backup. Open the original library."


So it's not a problem at present but if anything were to happen to my Mac, how would I access the Photos library from my external HD?


Regards, Gordon.


iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.7

Posted on Jan 16, 2025 7:43 AM

Reply
10 replies

Jan 19, 2025 8:12 AM in response to Gordondow

Gordondow wrote: All very difficult to understand for me

I think the point that Old Toad makes in his Jan 18 post, is that when you look at Time Machine files using Finder, it may look like the file "Photos Library" is right there, and many of us have been tempted to just drag that to where we want it. But that doesn't work.


That actual file may be made of lots of pieces in different backup files in Time Machine, and you have to use the Time Machine app to put it all together, again. So you have to go into Time Machine-- I use the icon on the menu bar

that opens the Time Machine app.


Then, like in Old Toad's picture, I go to the date I want, look in the Pictures folder, select the "Photos Library," and click on Restore. Then some sort of magic happens, it asks if you want to stop, or replace the one you have with the TM version, or keep both-- and then it restores the file.


Some files, like single images, may, in fact, be simple enough that you can just copy the file from the TM backup directly. But "Photos Library" is not a file-- it's a special kind of folder, and I imagine that the backup files must be rather complex.

Jan 17, 2025 6:23 AM in response to Old Toad

Thank you both. So why is it that photos which I originally took with a digital camera then transferred those from the SD card to my iMac, I can open those from the external hard drive, but photos which I now take with my iPhone - and which are automatically loaded to my iMac via iCloud - that those photos can't be viewed directly in the photos library on the external hard drive but have to be restored?


Regards.

Jan 18, 2025 4:01 AM in response to Old Toad

Thank you for your response.


They're all under the folder Pictures. The camera photos are then either under sub-folders or in some case individual photos. The iPhone photos are all lumped together in Photos Library with no sub-folders.


I use Mac's Photos app to look at my photos.


The drive is called My Passport but I've no idea how it's formatted.


Rgeards,


Gordon.

Accessing Photos from Timemachine

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.