Downgraded High Sierra -> Sierra - Can't restore photos?

[spyran]

I finally managed to downgrade from that atrocious os that is High Sierra back to Sierra on my late 2013 15" mbp.

Unfortunately i had not made a time machine backup from when i was on Sierra, however i made one from High Sierra just incase and did a clean install of Sierra.

However the problem i'm facing now is that my time machine backup refuses to let me import my old photos. It says the photos were created on a new OS and that i would have to update to get them back. This is most likely do to the fact that the photos app had been updated in High Sierra.

Any way around this to get my photos on the HS TM back onto my Sierra build? If not i guess i'll just have to go back to High Sierra and live with a sluggish macbook - those photos are too important for me to let go. However Sierra performs SO MUCH BETTER

 

[Simple714]

As far as I know, no. What you could do to resolve this issue would be to go within the Photo Library (located in Pictures via Finder)> Right click on the "Photos Library"> Show Packages> Copy the "Masters" folder to desktop. From there you can create a new Photo Library with Photos and drag and drop the masters folder inside. You will lose albums, etc. but all the photos should be there atleast.

Hope that helps.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

You have learned a hard lesson about "upgrading".

This is why -- BEFORE doing a major system upgrade -- one uses either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a FULLY BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP before doing the update.

If you had one, it would be a simple matter to:
1. Boot from the backup
2. Reinitialize the internal drive (get rid of the update)
3. RE-clone the cloned backup BACK TO the internal drive.

After doing this, you'd be "right back where you started from".

What to do now?
I think I'd try this:
- First, I'd suggest you get an external drive of sufficient capacity.
- Then, get a USB flash drive of 16gb (minimum)
- Then, create a bootable USB installer of High Sierra on it using either Install Disk Creator or "Boot Buddy"
- Then, install a clean copy of High Sierra on the EXTERNAL drive.
- Then, copy over your Photos library so it can open again
- Then, EXPORT ALL YOUR PHOTOS from Photos into an archive (so that they are "OUT OF" Photos).
- Then, reboot from the Low Sierra (internal) drive
- Then RE-IMPORT the entire photo collection back into Photos
- You will probably lose folder organizations, etc., but you will be BACK IN THE OLDER VERSION.

This will probably be an all-day project, but it -might- work, at getting your library back into Photos on Low Sierra.

 

[Ebenezum]

Suggestion posted by Simple714 is probably the easiest way to recover the pictures.

You might be able to copy previous Photos library in Time Machine from a few weeks or months ago which would work in Sierra and make the process much easier.

I agree with Fishrrman, next time definitely make a clone of your Mac before upgrading the OS! While SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner will help they are not excactly required, OS includes the Disk Utility which is capable of doing a clone (well that is one of the features that works after Apple removed most of the features within Disk Utility in El Capitan...)

 

[Fishrrman]

Very good suggestion by both Simple and Ebenezum about trying to copy the "masters" folder and using that. I should have thought of that!

You might copy it to a USB flashdrive of sufficient capacity, then
... "nuke" the existing Photos library (this will wipe it out, don't do it unless you have the copy)
... restart Photos (it will create an entirely new [empty] library)
... replace existing "masters" folder (the one that was just created) with the masters folder from the USB flashdrive.

 

[sunnyjohn2]

Very good suggestion by both Simple and Ebenezum about trying to copy the "masters" folder and using that. I should have thought of that!

You might copy it to a USB flashdrive of sufficient capacity, then
... "nuke" the existing Photos library (this will wipe it out, don't do it unless you have the copy)
... restart Photos (it will create an entirely new [empty] library)
... replace existing "masters" folder (the one that was just created) with the masters folder from the USB flashdrive.

[doublepost=1514743105][/doublepost]I had exactly the same problem but found a much easier way to solve it. This is what you do:
- mount your backup HDD onto your desktop and double click to open
- navigate as follows: users - your home folder (in your administrator's name) - pictures - iPhoto library
- right-click and click on 'Show package contents'
- locate the folder 'Masters'
- Now open Photos in Sierra, click on the file menu, then 'import',
- In the Finder menu that appears, click on your back up HDD in the left-hand list
- In your HDD window, you will now see the Photos package window with Masters in it
- click on the Masters folder
Now you can click 'Review for import' and the process will begin.

Good luck!

John W

 

[miz-mdk]

As far as I know, no. What you could do to resolve this issue would be to go within the Photo Library (located in Pictures via Finder)> Right click on the "Photos Library"> Show Packages> Copy the "Masters" folder to desktop. From there you can create a new Photo Library with Photos and drag and drop the masters folder inside. You will lose albums, etc. but all the photos should be there atleast.

Hope that helps.

This worked for me! Very simple!

 

[komatsu]

OP:

You have learned a hard lesson about "upgrading".

This is why -- BEFORE doing a major system upgrade -- one uses either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a FULLY BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP before doing the update.

If you had one, it would be a simple matter to:
1. Boot from the backup
2. Reinitialize the internal drive (get rid of the update)
3. RE-clone the cloned backup BACK TO the internal drive.

So do users place too much trust in Time Machine? Or do you recommend this solution because two file systems
are involved "APFS" and "HFS+"?

 

[Fishrrman]

komatsu wrote:
"So do users place too much trust in Time Machine?"

Yes, they do, in my opinion. I place NO "trust" in it. But perhaps that's just me.

"Or do you recommend this solution because two file systems
are involved "APFS" and "HFS+"?"

The reason that a cloned backup created BEFORE upgrading is important, is that if the user has problems with the upgrade or just doesn't like it, it's child's play to "downgrade" back to the old OS install.
You do it this way:
1. Boot from the cloned backup
2. Erase the internal drive
3. Clone the backup BACK TO the internal drive.

As simple as it gets. Takes a little time to clone back over, but it can't get any easier.

If one DOES NOT have a cloned backup with which to do this, one can still "get back", but it's going to be a more involved process.

 

[komatsu]

ok thanks.

What would a common reason for a "bad upgrade" be on lets say an iMac?