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User profile for user: xyz321abcmikey
xyz321abcmikey Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Recovering Photos from an External Hard Drive

I backed up my entire MacBook Pro a while back to an external hard drive. Now, I am trying to recover those photos on my new MacBook (12 in). But, my new MacBook is running Photos 5.0, while the MacBook Pro that I backed up ran a much older version of the Photos app (I think it was either 1.0 or 2.0). So now when I try to open the Photos app from the external hard drive, it says error, and basically tells me to make sure the application that I am trying to open is compatible with my new MacBook's OS X (New MacBook is running MacOS Catalina 10.15.4). Is there a way that I can open the old Photos app on my new MacBook?

Thank you.

MacBook, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 16, 2020 6:52 PM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,291 points

Posted on Apr 27, 2020 2:24 AM

xyz321abcmikey wrote:
while the MacBook Pro that I backed up ran a much older version of the Photos app (I think it was either 1.0 or 2.0). So now when I try to open the Photos app from the external hard drive,

You cannot run the old Photos.app from the backup. The Photos.app is a part of the system and installed by the system. To access the old photos you need the backup copy of the old Photos Library, not a backup of the Photos.app.

Restore the saved Photos Library.photoslibrary from the backup, if it is part of a Time Machine backup.

Then run the version of photos (Photos 5.0) that is installed by Catalina in your Applications folder.

  • Launch Photos from your Applications folder while holding down the ⌥key until you see the library chooser dialog. Then select the restored Photos Library.


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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,291 points

Apr 27, 2020 2:24 AM in response to xyz321abcmikey

xyz321abcmikey wrote:
while the MacBook Pro that I backed up ran a much older version of the Photos app (I think it was either 1.0 or 2.0). So now when I try to open the Photos app from the external hard drive,

You cannot run the old Photos.app from the backup. The Photos.app is a part of the system and installed by the system. To access the old photos you need the backup copy of the old Photos Library, not a backup of the Photos.app.

Restore the saved Photos Library.photoslibrary from the backup, if it is part of a Time Machine backup.

Then run the version of photos (Photos 5.0) that is installed by Catalina in your Applications folder.

  • Launch Photos from your Applications folder while holding down the ⌥key until you see the library chooser dialog. Then select the restored Photos Library.


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Recovering Photos from an External Hard Drive

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