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How to restore Photos from Time Machine?

How do I restore Photos from older Time Machine Backups? Some of the backups are from other machines. Do I have to have the original machine from which the backup was taken.


For some reason, I thought Photos would be able to read archives stored from other machines.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Jan 3, 2023 5:08 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 4, 2023 1:54 AM

You have to run Time Machine to restore the old Photos Library.

Connect the drive with the Time Machine backup, then click on the Time Machine icon in the Menu bar and hold down the option key and select "browse other backup disks".


Now navigate in the time tunnel display to the location of the Photos Library, select the library and click the restore button. Or ctrl-click the library and use "Restore to", so you do not overwrite an existing library in the same location.



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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 4, 2023 1:54 AM in response to jthomas458

You have to run Time Machine to restore the old Photos Library.

Connect the drive with the Time Machine backup, then click on the Time Machine icon in the Menu bar and hold down the option key and select "browse other backup disks".


Now navigate in the time tunnel display to the location of the Photos Library, select the library and click the restore button. Or ctrl-click the library and use "Restore to", so you do not overwrite an existing library in the same location.



How to restore Photos from Time Machine?

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