recovery iPhoto library

[miketurner201]

My main question is how do I get my iPhoto library back on my Mac ?

I’m was running macOS High Sierra Public Beta 1 And I started getting a constant restart saying ‘your computer restarted because of a problem. The log shows there is a panic report with the kernel trap.

The only way out of the restart was to downgrade out of the Beta version onto the Mac OS High Sierra.

I’m happy to stop running the Beta version, if it means my Mac works normally as doesn’t keep asking to restart.

I now find my iPhoto library has gone and saying ‘unsupported library create a new library?'

All my photos are on my iPhone and in the iCloud so nothing lost. Is there a way to get my full library of photos back on my Mac without losing anything ?

 

[Fishrrman]

Redownload them from iCloud?

It might be possible to work something by copying the "Masters" folder (inside your iPhoto library) to an external drive.
Then... DELETE the iPhoto library
Then... Restart iPhoto -- a brand new library will be created.
Now... Re-import all the pics from the Masters folder (on the external drive) into iPhoto again.
You WILL lose all prior edits, but at least you may have the pics back.
No promises that what I posted will work.

Um... this is what "backups" are for.

 

[miketurner201]

Thanks for the info. I have all my photos on my iPhone and on iCloud. I wonder if there could be a simpler guaranteed way of getting them back on my Mac ?

 

[Fishrrman]

"I wonder if there could be a simpler guaranteed way of getting them back on my Mac ?"

Probably not.
I'm going to give it to you straight:
You chose to risk an upgrade without having the correct way "to get back" if the upgrade didn't go as planned.
It didn't.
So now -- "getting back" isn't going to be easy.

The "proper way to get back" would have been to have an external, cloned bootable backup created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper...

 

[Phil A.]

In theory you should be able to start afresh with a clean / new library and it will sync your photos back from iCloud, exactly as you would if you bought a Mac for the first time.
However, as you've been running a beta you may have issues.
To start afresh, backup your existing library then delete it. Start photos and it will prompt you to create a new library. If you then set it as the system library it should sync your photos back.
Some things are local to the mac library though (smart albums for one IIRC) and will be lost

 

[miketurner201]

Thats great, many thanks for the info. I upgraded to the Beta version and its been running fine for around 6 months, then after installing and update to the Beta version this happened. Many thanks for the helpful info. will try Phil's suggestion.