Transfered photos to new Mac not in albums anymore

[slippyjim]

Hi,

So I helped my Dad copy everything across to his Mac using the migration assistant and a time machine backup on USB HDD and the photos have come across but they are not in albums any more.
His old Mac had photos v3 I believe if that is relevant.
New Mac is latest 24" with M1 chip

A couple of things didnt come across properly with the migration assistant,
1 folder in mail I had to import again manually
some videos didnt copy across

Nothing too major but just thought I'd mention it

Is there another way to copy the pictures across that will include the albums?

Thanks

 

[IWT]

I think the problem is that Albums and Folders are part of the complex architecture of the Photos app and may not be transferrable - especially if the older Mac used iPhoto or an earlier version of the Photos app which seems to be the case.

Thankfully, you appear to have copied across all the photographs which is a blessing.

As regards your last question - "Is there another way to copy the pictures across that will include the albums?" - I don't believe so in view of what I said above.

Ian

 

[pm-r]

Is there another way to copy the pictures across that will include the albums?

I would be inclined to check out some of the hits with a Google search for a solution that should suit you:

Google Search

And maybe start off with the first hit I see from Apple support:

Photos User Guide for Mac

Learn how to use Photos on your Mac to view photos and videos, edit and share your favorites, access your photo library from other devices, and more.

support.apple.com

And isn't one supposed to be able to use a Time Machine backup and select the users iPhoto/Photos Library and import or just move them???


- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

And isn't one supposed to be able to use a Time Machine backup and select the users iPhoto/Photos Library and import or just move them???

Yes, and when I have done that everything comes over, including albums. Albums are, after all, just metadata in the Photos database. But if what was done was to import images from the iPhotos database into Photos, instead of converting the iPhotos database, then the album data is lost.

 

[pm-r]

Yes, and when I have done that everything comes over, including albums.

Thank you Jake for the confirmation.

Maybe the OP could try using that method...
it's unfortunate that migration assistant doesn't always do what one would expect it to do...


- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

I wonder if the TM backup is still there, in which case the OP could restore the old iPhoto database, then open Photos and convert it to the new format, which may recover the album structure.

 

[IWT]

I agree, Jake. That was the point I was trying to make earlier in this thread; but you put it much more succinctly. The OP's post did seem to read that it was a direct copy from iPhotos to Photos app by Migration Assistant.

Your suggestion of above seems spot on, if there's a TM BU available.

Ian

 

[slippyjim]

I'm not quite sure where iphotos came from as I never mentioned it

On his original mac he did have iphotos (only a few very old pics that have gone into photos anyway) and photos v3.
It was direct from photos to photos via TM but its a newer version of the photos app on the new Mac

 

[MacInWin]

OK, I got iPhotos mixed in. My bad. However, that raises a question. How was the previous version of Photos handling imports? There are two options, one to import the file into the app and the other to leave the file on the drive and just track the changes to it in the Photos database. The option is on the Photos preferences page. Here is my setup:

With that checked, once the images are imported, the files can be removed from the drive. If that is NOT checked, then the files have to stay where they were when the import was done or the database cannot find them. I wonder if the original database was not checked? It's a long shot, but worth asking.

 

[slippyjim]

The Photos on his old mac were mainly from his Sony camera which had been imported via USB and a few from his iphone that had been imported via USB.
icloud photos/ backup never worked on his old mac

I spoke to my Dad tonight and I'm sorry but I've telling the wrong story......
the TM backup via migration assistant didnt work, the file copied across into the correct place ok but when we opened photos it said something like system library cannot be found. I created a new library but could not get it to recognise the one copied across from the old mac.

It was at this point I manually imported the pictures from the masters file so obviously no albums

Apologies for the confusion, I had a bit of a brain fart.....

 

[MacInWin]

icloud photos/ backup never worked on his old mac...

the file copied across into the correct place ok but when we opened photos it said something like system library cannot be found. I created a new library but could not get it to recognise the one copied across from the old mac.

Still confused here. You said Photos never worked on old machine but then said that the file copied across into the correct place. What file? If Photos never worked, there wouldn't be a file. If it worked, and if the problem was just with iCloud sync, then the library should have worked when migrated. And once you created a new library, Photos used that and stopped looking for the old one. If the old one is there, and if it worked (except for iCloud), then you can still point Photos to it using the Option key as I described.

Or maybe give us a bit clearer picture of exactly what is going on?

 

[pm-r]

Or maybe give us a bit clearer picture of exactly what is going on?

Ahhh... What a nice relief to read that comment Jake... and thanks. I thought I was going crazy trying to understand what exactly was going on... But I'm getting used to old age brain farts... I guess it goes with the territory and age. But I will admit that I have never completely understood the differences between iPhoto and Photos and how they both work, or NOT as the actual case may be...


- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

What makes it more difficult to communicate is that the app is now named Photos. When it was iPhoto, you could talk about photos in iPhoto and everybody knew what you were saying. Now you have to be pedantic about image files in the library of Photos. If you get loose with the language, confusion can easily creep in again. How iPhoto and Photos work isn't actually that much different. Both could store image files in the library, if you chose to do that, both can just store changes and file locations if you set it up to leave the image files where they were on the drives. And Photos could import and use an iPhoto library. But this thread has mixed language and terms so much that it's hard to know what has been done and what the results may have been. Maybe @slippyjim can describe again what the situation is, from the beginning, and we can sort it out.

 

[IWT]

I agree. On the occasions when I've tried to help people with iPhoto or Photos apps, I've deliberately used "pictures" to describe the same; rather than photos (or photographs - this being more effort to type).

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

I agree. On the occasions when I've tried to help people with iPhoto or Photos apps, I've deliberately used "pictures" to describe the same; rather than photos (or photographs - this being more effort to type).

Ian

Yeah, you have to be pedantic about it, which I hate doing because it sounds like lecturing. But in this case, it's really critical to use the language properly.

 

[slippyjim]

yes it is pretty confusing, not helped by me remembering wrong.....

I meant the icloud backup from iphone to mac never worked
the photos app on the old mac worked fine, he could see all his pictures there and he had them organised in albums

The photos library copied across from the old mac to the new mac but when I opened the photos app on the new mac it gave an error
I tried the hold option while opening the photos app but it would only let me create a new library and not open the library that i had copied across from the old mac.

IIRC
In Finder, in the Pictures folder I could see the Photos app library file
When I held down the option key and opened the photos app it would let me choose a library file but it didnt show the library file in the Pictures folder so I couldnt select it.

Thanks

 

[MacInWin]

When you start with the Option key, at the bottom right of the option window is a button labeled "Other library..." to allow you to tell Photos where the library is located. Can you use that to navigate to where the library is? Note that the extent of the library has to be ".photoslibrary" to be seen.

 

[slippyjim]

I havent been back to see my Dad yet, but will update after I've been

Thanks

 

[slippyjim]

So I went over this week and long story short its all sorted.
I copied the photo library across from the old Mac, and at first it got stuck on 2% upgrading for ages (this is what happened before, but I had forgotten) so then I repaired the database, it repaired the current database but then when I removed the current one and replaced it with the old one it opened and did the upgrade to 100% in a couple of minutes

All ok now, we did find another problem but thats for another time....

Thanks everyone

 

[IWT]

Bravo! Success at last.

Ian