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Photos app won't open a library--- says that photos library is from a newer version of Photos...running Catalina 10.15.7

Help--


I can't open any of my photo libraries... I have the latest version of photos installed..

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 27, 2021 7:00 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 27, 2021 8:21 AM

You will be seeing this error message for two possible reasons:

  • If your Photos Libraries have been opened by a newer version of Photos, for example on a Mac running macOS 11 Big Sur. Did you perhaps downgrade the system back from Big Sur to Catalina?
  • Or, if you are trying to launch Photos by clicking an older alias, for example in the Dock or an alias on the Desktop.

To be sure, you are running the latest version of Photos, installed by the system, open your Applications folder and select Photos there. Then hold down the options key ⌥ while double clicking Photos. Release the key when the library chooser dialog appears. You will see all compatible libraries found by Photos. Select the library you want to open.


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 27, 2021 8:21 AM in response to JaneM19

You will be seeing this error message for two possible reasons:

  • If your Photos Libraries have been opened by a newer version of Photos, for example on a Mac running macOS 11 Big Sur. Did you perhaps downgrade the system back from Big Sur to Catalina?
  • Or, if you are trying to launch Photos by clicking an older alias, for example in the Dock or an alias on the Desktop.

To be sure, you are running the latest version of Photos, installed by the system, open your Applications folder and select Photos there. Then hold down the options key ⌥ while double clicking Photos. Release the key when the library chooser dialog appears. You will see all compatible libraries found by Photos. Select the library you want to open.


Jul 28, 2021 11:56 PM in response to JaneM19

That explains it then.

If it is not possible to upgrade to Big Sur because of the internal policy work, consider to install Big Sur on an external volume or in a separate partition.

This would allow you to upload the photos library to iCloud Photos, and from iCloud you can download it to a Mac with Catalina and downgrade the library back to a Catalina version.


Photos app won't open a library--- says that photos library is from a newer version of Photos...running Catalina 10.15.7

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