Photos: iPhoto Database not auto detected, how can I import?

[se99jmk]

I have one iPhoto database, but had stored it in a Shared library so all users could access the same photos

Unfortunately probably because of this, the iPhoto Library wasn't detected when setting up Photos

I tried copying my iPhoto Library back to the default location in Photos, deleting the existing Photos DB, and launching, and it still didn't detect the iPhoto DB for importing :-(

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Should I hold Alt, and select the iPhoto Album as by DB of choice?

I don't really want iPhoto, and would happily kill it off, just want everything in Photos now. What would be a clean way to do this?

Seems like
- Hold alt to use iPhoto DB
- Turn on iCloud Photos (already on)
- Wait for everything to sync
- Delete the DBs and sync everything down from iCloud

Seems a little dangerous / risky, but possibly cleanest way?

 

[janezblond]

I believe if you try opening the iPhoto database with Photos (right click on library, open with Photos), this will make Photos do the conversion it would do normally - i.e. create a new Photos database and convert, leaving the original library as is.

 

[se99jmk]

Thanks!

I was a little impatient so I Alt-clicked Photos and used the iPhoto DB

iCloud was disabled though until I went into Preferences and set that as my main System DB

It's opened all the legacy photos in Photos now, and in theory "Updating" iCloud, but other than the text nothing seems to be changing so far.. No new photos downloaded from mobile devices, and mobile devices not got any new photos from iPhoto library..

Ah well, fingers crossed it'll just take time!

If it doesn't work for some reason, I can still try your trick of opening the iPhoto DB in Photos..