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Can’t open old photos

Photos backed up on an external hard drive won’t open as I have a newer version of Photos on my MacBook. Is there any way to access them? Thanks

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 29, 2022 9:31 PM

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,903 points

Posted on Jan 30, 2022 12:07 AM

If the photos are from an earlier version of the photos app, then new photos will open the lirbrary and convert it.

But not if it is on a time machine drive - you would need to restore it back to another location first. And if it is on an external volume, it will need to be formatted APFS or MacOS extended for compatibility with a photos library.

What error message do you get?

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Can’t open old photos

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