Can't access iPhoto library on external hard drive (from Mavericks days) now that I'm running Yosemite on my Macbook.

I have an iPhoto library on an external hard drive (from when I had Mavericks), but now that I've upgraded to Yosemite, "Photos" won't open my iPhoto library. Ideas for how to import that iPhoto Library into Photos?

"Photos" won't open my iPhoto library. Ideas for how to import that iPhoto Library into Photos?
What is the file system of the external drive, and how is the drive connected? DO you get an error message? If yes, which message?
You can only open a library on a directly connected drive, formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled). If the drive is correctly formatted, hold down the alt/options key while you are launching photos, and then select your library from the Library Chooser Panel.
If the library is not listed in the panel, use the "Other Library" button.

Similar Messages

Can't Open iPhoto Library on External Hard Drive

Hi, please help!
I currently have 2 iPhoto libraries. 1 is on my external hard drive- and isn't recognized by iPhoto anymore. And the other is a newer one, on my internal hard drive.
Here's what I did:
I copied my entire iPhoto library to my external hard drive (it is a Seagate, Mac OS extended drive) a few months ago, and I went ahead and deleted my iPhoto library on my internal hard drive. Then I started importing new photos from my camera, and a new iphoto library was created automatically on my internal hard drive.
I tried to access photos from my old library yesterday by plugging my external hard drive in, and by hitting the "option" key when opening iphoto. Unfortunately, when I search for the library on my external HD, the only items that appear are music. None of my loose photos or my iphoto library are recognized by iPhoto.
Anyone have a fix for this? iPhoto doesn't recognize that any jpgs/photos are on my hard drive, but when I go through finder- I can see my library, as well as many other jpgs stored on my hard drive.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Sounds like iPhoto is not seeing a valid database there.
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new *iPhoto 08* library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD

Trying to copy iPhoto Library to external hard drive for backup. Error message: The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "iPhoto Library" can't be read or written (Error code -36).

Trying to copy iPhoto Library to external hard drive for backup. Error message: The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "iPhoto Library" can't be read or written (Error code -36).

That code is
-36
ioErr
I/O error (bummers)
Make sure the EHD is formatted OS X Extended (journaled) and run Disk Utilty on the EHD and repair the disk. If that fails to help I'd try the following:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button,
navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the external HD as the location of the newly rebild library.
Click on the Create button.
Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.
Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.
OT

Iphoto library on external hard drive now does not show all the photos when i access it from macbook

i backed up iphoto library to an external hard drive. Deleted photo library on the macbook. After transferring some new photos to macbook from a camera, when i access the iphoto library on external hard drive only the new photos show up. Originals are still in files, but don't appear when opening iphoto library on external hard drive.

Make a temporary, backup copy of your library if you don't already have one (Control-click on the library and select Duplicate from the contextual menu) and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

Accessing iphoto on my external hard drive

I just backed up my computer to a WD My Book for Mac. I am trying to verify specifcally that all of my iPhoto library has been successfully backed up before deleting anything but when i try and open it, its says I can't because it's in time machine. When I open time machine and try to access iPhoto, it won't let me open it either. My computers HD is almost full so I must remove photos from my computer. I am a photographer and occasionally need to access old clients photo sessions. Please let me know how I am able to access the photos on my external HD. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

See my answer in your other thread:
Re: accessing iPhoto on an external hard drive
It would be easier to relocate the complete iPhoto library to an external drive with a fast connection - Thunderbolt or USB3, and then work with iPhoto from that drive. Simply drag the library to that drive. This way you do not need to split up your iPhoto library and keep partial libraries in a different location. This can get messy, if you have duplicates in the partial libraries. And it is more difficult to search for photos, if you have several libraries, because you only can have one open at a time.
Any drive you are using with iPhoto needs to be formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled), see: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture (this document applies to iPhoto as well)
The problem is - you want to do two in one; archive older photos and backup your library, using a backup.
You have to separate these two tasks and use separate drives for the backup and the archive, because a backup cannot double as an archive. The easiest way to achieve this would be to move the complete iPhoto library to an external drive and back this drive up to your regular backup drive.

I can't copy iPhoto to my external hard drive. It will not allow me to drag and drop or copy and paste., I can't copy iPhoto to my external hard drive. It will not allow me to drag and drop or copy and paste.

I can't copy iPhoto to my external hard drive. It will not allow me to drag and drop or copy and paste., I can't copy iPhoto to my external hard drive. It will not allow me to drag and drop or copy and paste.

NTFS is your problem.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
for more. Note also the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

I can not save any data to external hard drive from my mac pro. Is there anyone can help me in this regard?( note, when i first plug my ext. drive to mac i chose option to backup later)

I can not save any data to external hard drive from my mac pro. Is there anyone can help me in this regard?( note, when i first plug my ext. drive to mac i chose option to backup later)

The device may be formatted for Windows, as NTFS. The format is readable, but not natively writable on a Mac. To write to the device, you must either reformat it (erasing all the contents) or install third-party software to enable write access to NTFS.

I have an external hard drive from my time capsule that stopped working on me. I am attempting to access the data with a hard drive reader on my MAC. I am able to see the drive in disk utility and under system info USB. But I am unable to access the data.

I have an external hard drive from my time capsule that stopped working on me. I am attempting to access the data with a hard drive reader on my MAC. I am able to see the drive in disk utility and under system info USB. But I am unable to access the data and it does not show on the desktop when connected.

Ok if disk utility was able to verify the drive I doubt there is any problem.. are you trying to open a TM backup??
You need to mount the sparsebundle then check the actual info inside the bundle.
Don't use disk warrior.. if the disk has verified then unless you deliberately deleted files there is nothing that is going to do.
Pondini has a lot of stuff about getting access to the sparsebundle.
http://pondini.org/TM/17.html
But if you have copied info to the TC that is now gone.. and the disk is ok.. I am not sure.. the TC will not have deleted the files itself.

Can't set up an iPhoto library on external hard drive: access privileges

Hi all
I am trying to set up an extra iPhoto library on an external hard-drive to store some of my photos.
I get the following message: 'iPhoto cannot create a new library in this location because you do not have enough access privileges.'
The external hard drive is Formatted: Mac OS Extended (Journaled), is 500g capacity and is empty. Also 'Ignore ownership on this volume' is ticked.
I am the administrator of this computer (imac) which is running Yosemite 10.10.1
Any clues as to what I need to do to make this happen? I'm not much of a techie!
Cheers
Finella

Once you've confirmed that the EHD is formatted correctly and all is well (run Disk Utility and repair the disk) try the following to create an almost "duplicate" library on the EHD:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.>Click on the Add Library button,
2 - select the library you want to add from those in the selection window.
3 - make sure that in the rebuild window the checkbox "Scavange orphaned photos" is checked.
4 - now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
5 - in the next window name the new library and select the EHD as the location where you want it to be placed. Click on the Create button.
Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.
Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

My mac will not properly read the iphoto library on external hard drive. It only reverts back to the library on the computer instead.

I have an iphoto library on an external drive, which I have connected to my airport extreme. I can see the disk in my finder and access data on the external hard drive through the wireless, local network. The only problem is that when I use my iMac, the machine does not read the iphoto library on the external harddrive, instead it picks up the library that's on the iMac itsel. Is this a preferences list issue or something else? Any help would be great, thank you.

A strong warning: If you're trying to edit the Library (that is, make albums, move photos around, keyword, make books or slideshows etc.) or edit individual photos in it via Wireless be very careful. Dropouts are a common fact of wireless networking, and should one occur while the app is writing to the database then your Library will be damaged. Simply, I would not do this with my Libraries.

Can't access old data on external hard drive.

Hello all,
I purchased my Macbook Pro about a year ago, and never really had any problems unless I was slow on updating. Well, I recently updated, and that's when everything went to pot. My computer became really slow - constantly giving me the spinning rainbow ball - and it would do this for up to an hour. I would have to keep manually shutting down and restarting. Then, it would show a loading bar when I tried to restart, but then it would just shut off completely by itself, without ever fully loading. I tried Safe Boot, but to no avail. After that, I attempted to boot from the Mac OSX Snow Leopard disc, but that didn't work either, because it said the disc was damaged when I did a disc repair. So, I did one the other options in disc utility: Restore. However, I did this on an external hard drive (1 TB, Western Digital) that I had just purchased after the Safe Boot failure because my 250 GB was too small for me to run Time Machine on. I placed the Macintosh HD as the source and the external hard drive as a recipient, for I had read that this works effectively in transferring files before erasing the hard drive. I then erased the internal hard drive, and booted from the disc, completely reinstalling the whole system.
My computer works just as smoothly as it did before all this happened, but now there's just one problem - I cannot access anything off of the external HD. I can see the music and video files that I used to have in iTunes, and they are .m4v, .mp3 and .m4p, but iTunes and Quicktime do not recognize them. If I double click on them, it says the files are not complete (as with the Applications on the external HD). I cannot find any of my old Word Documents or pictures, just music and movie files, and Applications. When I plug my external HD into my computer, it shows up as "Macintosh HD" and a notification that it cannot be changed and that it needs to be reformatted.
Is there no hope in recovering my old pictures and Word Documents? They were all on my first 250 GB hard drive, but I erased that in attempt to make more room for Time Machine.
Thank you for your help!

raneyeb wrote:
They were all on my first 250 GB hard drive, but I erased that in attempt to make more room for Time Machine.
If you simply reformatted the drive, but didn't overwrite it with new data, there is a chance recovery software can recover your files.
You need something like DataRescue that reads the 1's and 0's of your files directly off the platters (not what anything else says) and you need another new drive to send those recovered files too when your doing it. (can't write to the same drive, it would overwrite the deleted data)
If you let TimeMachine use the drive, or you copied data onto it, or did a "Security Erase Option" then it's all gone, sorry.
Next time, once your all stable again, take a look at Carbon Copy Clone your entire boot drive (no filevault or bootcamp) to another HFS+ journaled formatted drive, it's hold option bootable and will save your bacon if a boot drive dies or if OS X gets hozed due to some unforseen software issue.
I maintain 2 clones, rotate them every few weeks, they get auto-upddated nightly.
TimeMachine I don't use, but if I did, it would be in addition to the two clones, as TM isn't bootable and is not quite reliable when you restore back from it sometimes.

Need to transfer iphoto library to external hard drive

need to transfer iphoto library to external passport drive. It will not let me drag and drop

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
The external drive is formatted in NTFS, a format that OS X can't write in. You have to erase the external disk.
First, open Finder, choose the external drive in the sidebar, under "Devices", and copy all the content of your external drive to another folder like Desktop.
Then, follow these steps to format the external drive in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as Format > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html Finally, drag the iPhoto library to the external drive

Help! Can't copy iPhoto pics to external hard drive anymore

All of a sudden, I can no longer drag pics from iPhoto to my external hard drive. I've done this with no problem for at least six months, and now, can't do it. The hard drive is a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5 TB. It has a 3.0 USB cord. No issues up until now. I can still drag music to the external with no issues, but fro some reason, not photos. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The interesting thing is that for the first year I have had the external hard drive, this was my routine:
1. Have iPhoto and External Hard Drive both open
2. Create and name folder on EHD
3. Put cursor on folder of pics on iPhoto I wanted to copy
4. Click, hold, drag, and drop in folder
5. Copying automatically starts and finishes
Now, in order to copy, I have to open the particular folder on iPhoto, select all, copy all, then go to the EHD folder and select paste.
This isn't much more, but I guess I'm wondering what happenend on my EHD or iPhoto to make the "drag and drop" inaccessible all of a sudden?

Can't back up iPhoto library to external hard drive

Just purchased a new ext. hard drive; when I try to back up my iPhoto library (v. 5.0.4) to it I get a message "can't copy one or more of your items". When I click to continue, it simply stops. I had no trouble backing up iTunes and other files. What am I doing wrong?

Hi Lori;
Thanks to you for your support as well. I have tried dragging the iPhoto Library both directly from the Pictures File in Finder, and from a copy of the iPhoto Library folder on my desktop. I get the same non-result in both cases: "One or more items can't be copied. Do you want to skip them and copy the remaining items?" It doesn't specify what items can't be copied, and when I click yes (to continue) nothing gets copied.
As I said earlier, I successfully backed up my entire iTunes folder with room to spare, so I know the external hard drive is operating properly. Any ideas? Thanks again.

Accessing old Iphoto library on external hard drive in new iphoto

We recently bought a new macbook pro with iphoto 9.5.1. Previously, we had a 2008 macbook and had transferred the very large iphoto library onto our Toshiba external harddrive. After downloading Tuxera NTFS to be able to use the external hard drive on this computer, I tried to open the iphoto library. It said that the photos needed to be upgraded to be usable on the new iphoto. So I downloaded the iphoto upgrader. When running it, it says the iphoto library selected (the one on the external hard drive) does not need to be updated. When I try to open it through iphoto, it says that it needs to update and starts the process. Within a minute is says that some of the permissions on the library are incorrect and asks if I want to repair it. After clicking to repair it, iphoto stops responding and we have to force quit to stop it. Any ideas on how to access the library? I have over 20,000 pictures in that library and would like to be able to access them on a regular basis.

fter downloading Tuxera NTFS to be able to use the external hard drive on this computer,
An iPhoto library MUST be on a volume formatted OS X Extended (journaled) in order to be used from there. So your NTFS server won't work. You'll need another external hard drive formatted as I described:
There is just no way to make it work on your drive as it is configured now.
OT

Can't access iPhoto library on external hard drive (from Mavericks days) now that I'm running Yosemite on my Macbook.

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