MacBook – How to access IPhoto on the external hard drive

iphotomacbook protime-machine

I can't access my Iphoto libraries from my hard drive. Every time I go to open the IPhoto file in the hard drive the error pops up as follows:

"You can't open Iphoto Back up because it is in Time Machine"

and when I try to open Iphoto with the Hard Drive plugged in the following error pops up:

"The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Relaunch iPhoto with key held down to choose another library."

I followed the directions but there is no library to choose. I'm not sure if I am going about the correctly but I am wondering if my time machine isn't compatible with Iphoto.

Best Answer

Right click the iPhoto library, pick "show package contents" then open the folder "Masters" or "Originals". They'll be organized by date in there. You can just drag the entire "Masters" folder into your new iPhoto and they'll get imported.