Lost photos with Sonoma upgrade

[tec22]

I upgraded my MBA M1 to the new Sonoma system and now I can't open photos. I get a screen saying "Photos cannot find the system photo library named Photos Library.photoslibrary. What to do?

 

[lostless]

check in your pictures folder in your home folder and see if there is a file called "photos library". If so, hold option as you open photos and it'll ask you select your photos library.

 

[tec22]

check in your pictures folder in your home folder and see if there is a file called "photos library". If so, hold option as you open photos and it'll ask you select your photos library.

It asks me to select a library but there's none to choose from.

 

[Shirasaki]

It asks me to select a library but there's none to choose from.

As long as you opened photo at least once on your machine, there will be one such library somewhere. You need to browse around and find one.
Worst case scenario, you find the old library, open it, and manually import photos to a new library instead. Edits, albums, metadata and whatnot will be lost, but at least original photos are saved.

 

[lostless]

hit the "other library" button and browse and select your photo library