Select different iPhoto library in Photos

HI,
I just installed 10.10.3 on my Retina iMac and Photos opens with a new, empty library instead of my iPhoto library. How do I change to the real iPhoto library? It is using a Photos Library it created in my Home > Pictures directory and my real iPhoto library is in Documents > Photos (directly on my hard drive, not under Users).
Thanks,
Jay

ICloud Photo Library is turned off in Preferences. Selecting File > Import in Photos lets you import individual photo files not the iPhoto library. I think I figured it out though - I right-clicked on the iPhoto library and selected Photos from the "Open With..." menu item. It is still "Preparing Library in Photos, so I'm not sure it will be successful, but it is looking good. I'll report back.
Jay

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Is there another way to open a different iPhoto library?

Is there another way to open a different iPhoto library besides using the option key and clicking on the iPhoto icon? It takes me upwards of a dozen times to get it to work, so I get that screen where I choose which library I want to open - the option key usually just doesn't respond. And since it takes several seconds for my main iPhoto library to shut down everytime it incorrectly opens up, it ends up taking me upwards of a few minutes, and a lot of frustration, by the time the option key suddenly decides to randomly work and I can choose the other library I want. This is iPhoto '09, version 10.6.8, by the way.
Thanks!

Of course I understand about double-clicking. but how can I double-click to choose the name of the iPhoto library I want when I cannot reliably get the menu option screen listing my two libraries to come up. As far as where the two libraries are actually stored on my computer, I haven't a clue - I just created the libraries on that iphoto library menu screen at some point in the past when I was setting it up. Is there some other place I could navigate to via Finder to select the library I want? I just don't think I need to spend $20 on software that I don't need - if I has lots of libraries, sure, but most of the time I use just the one library. But it's driving me crazy that when I do switch, I m having such difficulty.
Thanks :)

Updated my OS to Yosemite ver 10.10.3 Need to access iPhoto library in Photos. I have over 400 Mega pictures on a partitioned external drive. Tried dragging but no change.

I updated my OS to 10.10.3. but now can't access my iPhoto library in Photo.
I have an iMac (20 inch, Mid 2007) with a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667 MHz DDRs SDRAM and have over 400 mega bits of pictures on a partitioned external drive: 2 TB G-Technology by Hitachi connected by FireWire 800 to my iMac. My iPhoto application no longer reveals what version of iPhoto I have, but it was last updated on Dec 14, 2013 with a 1.7 GB file.
Tried dragging from its place on external hard drive.
When I go into the iPhoto it says it is not compatible with OS X Yosemite but the link offered to App Store says they do not have an update.
Help?

Apple dropped both iPhoto and Aperture with the Yosemite release, and I am not happy about that as I used Aperture, but try holding down the option key when you click on the Photos icon. That should bring up a box asking what library you want to connect to. In my case it had both Aperture and Photos. But there is also a choice called "other" that I would think would allow you to navigate to where your library is located and select it.

Can't import iPhoto library into Photos

I updated Yosemite today which installed the new Photos app. It did not automatically import my iPhoto library. I was able to sign on to Photo Sharing, so those photos did import into my new Photos library.
My problem is that my iPhoto library is in my "shared" home folder, rather than my individual home folder. In order to open the "Shared" Pictures folder, you need to right click and choose "Show Package Contents" to see any of the files inside. When I do that via Finder, I see a Library file, but it was last updated in 2011. I assume that is not the file I need. But there are no other library files within that folder. I even tried to use "Open with..." and chose Photos for it, but nothing was imported. When I try to click the "Pictures" folder via Photos open library functions (when you open Photos, pressing the Option button), it is shaded out and unable to open.
When I open iPhoto, my library appears to be functioning and everything is there. But I don't see an option within iPhoto to export the library so that Photos may have access to it.
I just can't for the life of me figure out how to find the file I need to import into Photos.

You do not want to import the Masters folder from your iPhoto library into Photos. You will lose all of your edits, keywords, etc.
Instead move the iPhoto Library to your Pictures folder and make sure it's running correctly before trying a conversion. Run the First Aid procedures if need be.
Once you've confirmed it's running OK launch Photos with the Option key held down, click on the Other Library button, navigate to the Pictures folder and select the iPhoto Library to convert.
If you think you may want to continue to use iPhoto until you're comfortable with Photos make a copy of the iPhoto Library before converting.

I imported photos from iPhoto library to Photo library instead of relinking the library and now approx. 9,000 photos are missing. How do I fix this?

I imported photos from iPhoto library to Photo library instead of relinking the library and now approx. 9,000 photos are missing. How do I fix this?

Trash your Photos library and do it again (Hold down the option key while launching Photos and select your iPhoto library to open)
LN

Hard drive packed up, but had Time Machine backup. I installed new sad and upgraded to Mountain Lion., but I can't find iPhoto library and photos or iTunes songs? Is there an answer to this? Graham

Hard drive packed up, but had Time Machine backup. I installed new ssd and upgraded to Mountain Lion, but I can't find iPhoto library and photos or iTunes songs? Is there an answer to this? A backup run did not install either photos or songs. Graham

Thanks so much but none of that helped. It was driving me crazy because it would back up another external drive. I just changed the name of the drive from iPhoto/iTunes Library to Media Libraries and IT WORKED!! I guess for some reason it didn't like the drive being called iPhoto or iTunes ???? I don't understand but I have tried so many solutions and exchanging things out but the name change did it????!!!
Thank you for your help and replying to this. Guess I made my own issue!

I Just converted my iPhoto library to Photos. Now I can't find my RAW files. I need to have all the images in my old library show up in their RAW format.

I Just converted my iPhoto library to Photos. Now I can't find my RAW files. I need to have all the images in my old library show up in their RAW format.

Unfortunately no - Photos use extensions and the vendor (adobe) will have to implement the extension to allow external edits in PS or PSE
For now you must export the photo, edit and then import - not great but a work arond
And you can continue to use iPhoto until Photos meets your needs - launch it in your applications folder - if you need assistance on this see Why won't my iPhotos open?
LN

Can I delete iPhoto amd iPhoto library once Photos is in place

Can I delete iPhoto amd iPhoto library once Photos is in place, or iPhoto is still useful.

Yes - but don't.
Wait until Photos matures. Both libraries will live side by side. As will the apps. You can still open your iPhoto library with iPhoto.

Why is my iPhoto Library duplicating photos

why is my iPhoto library duplicating photo's, sometimes 3 times ?

Your iPhoto library is not duplicating anything. Give virtually no information the only guess is that you imported an old iPhoto library into a new one. NEVER import one photo library into another one. If you did and still have the old library you can easily recover. Drag the library you messed up to the desktop and drag the old library to the pictures folder and launch iPhoto
LN

How do i fix permissions problems in migrating my iPhotos library to photos?

I am getting this notification when i try migrating my iPhotos library over to photos
my iPhoto library is stored on an external hard drive. any ideas how to fix this? I've tried doing a permission repair through iPhotos but that didn't help.

I am unable to migrate iPhoto library to Photos, get message that there is not enough disk space.
Also can not open iPhoto after the Yosemite upgrade. Get message saying that my iPhoto is not compatible.
Tried to upgrade iPhoto to most current version 9.6.1 & get message that this product is not available in US store, HELP!

Having installed aperture 3 and imported iphoto library (15000 photos) Apertue 3 does not render most of my photos corectly most a blurred pixellated and distorted. Reverting to photo produces perfect results. Any suggestions

Having installed aperture 3 and imported iphoto library (15000 photos) Apertue 3 does not render most of my photos corectly most a blurred pixellated and distorted. Reverting to photo produces perfect results. Any suggestions

Galdaplh,
What do you mean by "reverting to photo"? "Revert" is not a function in Aperture so you must be talking about something else.
If you just performed the import of that many photos, Aperture will take some time to generate thumbnails. You can see if it is doing this sort of thing by {Command}-{Shift}-0 to show the Activity window.
Once Aperture generates all its thumbnails, you will have nearly instantaneous access to much, much better thumbnails than Aperture uses immediately after importing photos.
nathan

Deleting iPhoto library after Photos is installed

Once the Photos Application is installed and is running, can the original iPhoto library(s) be deleted to recover space?

OmniDiskSweeper is confused.
Photos is using an OS X feature (actually, it's a UNIX feature) called "hard links" which makes it LOOK like there are two copies of a photo, but in fact there is only one on disk. If you "delete" one of them, one of the links will be removed, but the original photo itself will only be removed from disk if the second "link" is deleted (making the "link count" to the photo 0).
This makes it look like twice the space is taken up, but in fact that's wrong.
Once you have safely imported your iPhoto library to Photos, you can delete the iPhoto library and Photos will be fine. HOWEVER, Apple (and I) STRONGLY recommend that instead of deleting the iPhoto library, that you archive it off on storage somewhere, and leave it there for a long time "just in case" anything bad ever happens. Because if you don't, and you lose the photos, I'll be all out of sympathy

HT4236 Sync iPhone to different iPhoto library

I have three different iPhoto libraries on my computer and I only want to sync with one of them. However, when I connect my phone to iTunes, it automatically chooses the wrong library to sync and doesn't give me the option to switch it (the other libraries are greyed out). How can I select the correct library to be synced when I connect my phone?

Hi mcooke7,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
Before syncing with iTunes, make sure you have switched to the iPhoto library you want to sync:
To switch between photo libraries:
Quit iPhoto.
Hold down the Option key as you open iPhoto.
Select the library you want to switch to.
Click Choose.
From:
iPhoto '11: Create a new iPhoto library or switch between libraries
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2505
Cheers,
Jeremy

I just upgraded to Photos and now I can't open my iPhoto Library in Photos OR iPhoto. How do I get my photos back?!?

I recently updated to the new Photos and when I went to import my library into Photos, it wouldn't let me. Kept throwing errors. I followed the suggested fixes using the terminal regarding permissions, but that didn't work. I decided to just go back to using iPhoto, but when I opened that it wouldn't see my library either. I tried copying it to an external hard drive and opening that, but it didn't work. I can browse for it and see it on my computer but it's grayed out and I'm unable to select it. Please help. I'm terrified I lost all those photos.

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places 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.
Regards
TD

Is it a good idea to migrate my 200 gb iphoto library to photos in yosemite?

Right now im in Mavericks in my imac, running iPhoto 9.5.1. It stores all that I have taken in the past 10 years. My imac now only has 30gb left. What steps do I take, im freaking out..I don't want to lose all my awesome family vacay, baby pics etc..
Here's what im planning and tell if this could be a big mistake.
I will backup my library as a copy on an external and then time machine it also. After that I will Update my system to Yosemite. After Yosemite update I will go to my app store and under purchases I will click the iPhoto update button (even though it says iphoto was purchased in 2011, Im assuming its still safe to update it that way because its the only way to update the app). Then after iPhoto is updated to 9.6.1, I will then open it up and make sure is was safely updated. Then after I make sure all of my stuff is in the new updated iPhoto I will try and migrate it to photos. (not sure of the exact steps on this) After I migrate the whole 200gb library to photos I will then pay for and turn on icloud 500gb storage and use my library from here on out through the cloud. Backing up the library off of icloud every so often. (keep in mind I will still have only about 30 gb left in my internal hd) This brings me to another question. Does anybody know how much extra space you need on your internal HD to migrate from iPhoto 200gb library to the photos app. I know in the end it wont take up any extra space on you internal HD, but I do know that it does take extra space during the migration but I just don't know how much extra..
Over all I need some feedback on my plan, I don't want to lose any pics or videos and I also just don't know where to go from here with continual photo storage.
Thanks Community!

Your plan is generally OK, but I would suggest a different approach, since you're so frazzled by it.
1. Update iPhoto first; check and backup the iPhoto Library;
2. Upgrade to Yosemite; This will prompt you to migrate to Photos, but you don't have to do it, so don't!
3. iPhoto 9.6.1 will remain in your Applications folder and you can continue to use it;
4. Learn more about Photos, it's features and how iCloud Photo Library really works (for example, once you turn it on, you won't need to download manually);
5. When you do feel you know enough about Photos, only then launch it to migrate your photos; after migration your iPhoto Library remains fully functional, in case you want to revert to using iPhoto, so that part should not worry you.
Thet biggest issue you have is the small amount of free space. You might want to address tha first, or locate your new Photos Library on an external drive as well, and only move it to your local drive when it's been optimized (or keep it on an external).

Select different iPhoto library in Photos

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