Photos updated from IPhotos App- Missing Access

Cougurr

Well-Known Member
A recent upgrade on an iMac to its maximum capable OS (High Sierra) resulted in having to also migrate my various iPhoto Libraries into the new Photos. All went well and found the newer Power Photos to manage my various libraries after using iPhoto Library manager for a number of years. Photos displays my pictures and organizes them in its newer way, different of course than how I was able to do it in iPhoto. I am getting used to it and some newer features I have discovered. Now my problem....... Previously when I selected one of the iPhoto Library files in the Pictures Folder on my iMac it opened up a list of items including a folder called Data. Within it was usually a dated file folder full of the actual photos and I could take one of them and drag a copy to my desktop from a particular location. There were also folders if I recall correctly showing thumbnails. NOW when I go into the Pictures folder under my user name and select the particular Photos library the only thing it shows me is the information column and I cannot locate where my actual photos are located anymore. HELP ....Where do you access these files now outside of the Photos App? Attached below shows what I now see with no option for access to Date folder. Thanks in advance for any new directions to find my files :)
Missing  Phots Data File.png
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
I’m not clear on why you can’t just drag a photo out of Photos onto the Desktop if for some reason you want a duplicate copy. Or why you can’t use the Share button on any given photo in Photos if you want to send a copy somewhere.

Also note sure why you are creating so many Photos libraries. Shouldn’t those just be albums in your overall Photos library?

Anyway, the .photoslibrary files are just packages which you can right click to examine. However I would STRONGLY caution you to stay out of there … these are databases and you risk corrupting your Photos library if you mess around with the components of a package.
 

DaveWT

Well-Known Member
Yes, what Chas said!

Here is a screen shot of my equivalent setup for comparison.

Screen Shot 2021-06-15 at 10.42.39 PM.png

Within my Pictures folder I have a much simpler structure: The Digital Photos folder are sub folders containing photos sent by others (which I choose not to import into Photos), and duplicates of my own photos that I wanted to keep separate from iPhoto in the early days because that app had early issues. I can probably delete all those now to save space as I trust Photos and have other backups anyway.
The DoubleTake Library is for panoramas created by that app. I am not sure why I am still hanging on to the iPhoto Library. I no longer have that app on my iMac and I realize I have just forgotten about it. Those photos were imported into Photos years ago. Clean up time! And as to the Photo Booth Library, I haven't played with that app for years and really have no use for anything there. Obviously another item to clean up
And I keep Scanned Photos in a separate folder. Some are for almost immediate use and then can be deleted or imported into Photos as I see fit. But just one Photos Library with all of my 13,000 photos. (I am a light user!)

And as Chas pointed out, when I want to get a photo out of Photos for use somewhere else, I just drag it to the desktop. I would never consider actually going into the Photos Library directly and messing about.
 

Cougurr

Well-Known Member
Thank you both for clarifications on this and advice as to where and where NOT to venture with these files. Chas in answer to your question about multiple libraries I found iPhoto yeasr ago to really slow down with the number of photos I had collected. So someone at Byte Computers at the time suggested the iPhoto Library Manager and that got me started on the idea of yearly libraries which I managed to keep up with for quite some time but not so much recently. We also took so few trips we created trip specific libraries following these events also. I am now getting squeezed for size on my 1 TB hard drive computers due to the number of photos and will probably have to move some of the older libraries off to external storage before I get a major log jamb. Not sure how one could manage all the photos I have in a single library unless Photos has improved to handle VERY large collections and then if I had them all in the one library I would certainly need to move up to a 2 TB hard drive based on how close I am now to being full on my 1 TB. My Pictures folder currently is just under 600GB and I have already moved a few libraries off to external drive storage already. Any suggestions on how to work with such a large group of photos appreciated.
Thanks again
Colin
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
Photos can handle large photo libraries.

The idea of yearly or perhaps decade-separated photo libraries isn’t a bad one, but then comes the time you can no longer remember which year you took the kids to Disneyland and spend hours guessing …

in your case, it might not be a bad idea to separate photo libraries into certain “eras,” perhaps based on things like “the 1980s“ or places you’ve lived, etc.

But generally speaking, Photos can handle very large libraries without issue, barring storage space constraints.

I believe the program that can be used to merge or separate Photos libraries is called Power Photos, and it’s available from Fat Cat Software for a modest price (around $30 US, IIRC).
 
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