Problem with old photos on hard drive and Catalina

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Level 1

8 points

Problem with old photos on hard drive and Catalina

I have a problem with the Photo App and my MacBook Air (13inch, Mid 2013) on MacOS Catalina version 10.15.3.

I do not use Icloud!!

I have backed up and stored my older photos etc. on an external hard drive via the USB for the last 2/3 years to make sure I don't lose them. I backed up the photos still in the Photos App and all was ok until I updated to Catalina 10.15.3 in the last few days. When I tried looking for an old photo on the hard drive, I found I could not open the photos from my hard drive on the Photos App on the computer, instead I got a message -

"Check with the developer to make sure Photos works with this version of macOS. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and macOS.

Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple".

Report attached.

I then moved the whole folder still in the app from the external hard drive back to the desk top on the Computer and tried to open them there, the same message came up again. I did try a restart but that did not do anything.

I tried to copy the photos from the app to another folder, an ordinary folder marked old photos but not within the app. Then I tried moving the photos via a Stick and sending via Air Drop to my Ipad 3, which has the old version of Photo App on it. I did not have a lot of choice where to save these so saved them in Pages. Both copies arrived like this -

Went to Recents on my Ipad and found several folders all to do with the photos -

Import_Files_into_Photos. 49KB

Update_Images_from_Photo_Library 60KB

Show_Location_in_Maps. 34KB

Play_Sideshow 21KB

Sideshow_Controller 21KB

Get_Selection. 11KB

Get_Contents_of_Favorites_Album 11KB

Get_Album_by_Name 17KB

Export_Media_Items 70KB

Export_Media_Items_to_Keynote. 92KB

Display_Referenced_Photo. 20KB

Conversion_from_Albums_...ia_Items. 12KB

Add_to_Album. 34KB

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Please help as nothing seems to open the photos!

MacBook Air

Posted on Feb 14, 2020 4:02 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

196,989 points

Feb 14, 2020 7:32 AM in response to Elephant199

I saved the whole Photos app. When I look at it in "Get info" it is - 53,004,202 bytes (75.3MB on disk)

That is just the program, but not the photos. The photos are not stored inside the Photos.app. Photos is creating a Photos Library. When you double click the Photos.app, it will open the library that it has used most recently. When you erase the Mac, and the Photos Library gets deleted, the Photos.app can no longer access the photos, because the Photos Library is missing. If you look at the sizes you posted - even a small iJPEG taken with the iPhone has roughly the size of 3MB to 5 MB. The 75.3MB on disk would just have the size of ten to twenty JPEGs.

Look for an item in your Pictures folder with an icon like this (the Pictures folder is inside your Home folder) : This I where the photos should be stored, if they are still there.

Did you make a Time Machine backup of your Mac, before you installed the upgrade?

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

196,989 points

Feb 14, 2020 5:26 AM in response to Elephant199

What exactly did you save on your external volume? The error message suggests, that you saved the Photos program, the Photos.app, but not the Photos Library, where the Photos are stored. to recover your old Photos you need to find the Photos Library. this where Photos is storing the photos. did you save the library? By default it us in the Pictures folder.

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Answer 3

Elephant199 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 14, 2020 7:07 AM in response to léonie

Thanks for your help.

I saved the whole Photos app. When I look at it in "Get info" it is - 53,004,202 bytes (75.3MB on disk) Which is the same size as it was on the external Hard Drive. I know the photos are in the external Hard Drive version, because I looked at them only days before I did the update. I understand how you say that, because it seems to be the folders that make up the App. I cannot find a picture folder on my computer now.

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Answer 4

Elephant199 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 14, 2020 10:07 AM in response to léonie

Thank you very much for your help!!!

I have found the majority of my photos!! Before I do an update I back everything up to my external hard drive, so reading your last answer, I went back to my hard drive and found photos saved in various folders over the years so I think I can put them all back together again.

Thank you again, I will try to do better next time!!

You have solved my problem!

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

196,989 points

Feb 14, 2020 12:25 PM in response to Elephant199

You're welcome 😊.

It is a bit confusing, that Photos is managing our photos, but storing them elsewhere.

I am glad you found the majority of your photos.

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Problem with old photos on hard drive and Catalina

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