How to migrate photos from iPhoto to Photos?

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If you have more than one photo library on your Mac, then Photos will ask which one you want to upgrade the first time you open it. Photos allows you to open and work with libraries created in iPhoto.

  1. Quit Photos. 
  2. Relaunch the Photos app and immediately hold down the Option key until you see the Library selection screen, then choose one of the following options:
    - If you see the iPhoto library in the list, simply select it and choose “Choose Library” to open it within Photos app
    - Otherwise, select “Other Library” and navigate to the location of the iPhoto library you wish to import into Photos app, then open it as usual
  3. Let Photos app import the iPhoto library, it should happen almost immediately but very large libraries or those stored on slower external volumes may take some time.
  4. You can also drag the library you’d like to open to the Photos icon in the Dock. Or you can click Create New to create an all-new, empty library. 
Note: Photos can use libraries from iPhoto 8.0 or later. If you’d like to migrate a library from iPhoto 7 or earlier, use Apple’s free iPhoto Library Upgrader tool to prepare your library first.

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