How to Extract All Photos from Apple Photos to a Backup Drive Using Another Mac When Your Old Mac Won’t Boot

When your old Mac refuses to start, one of the most stressful thoughts is about what happens to your photos. For most people, the Photos app contains years of memories:  family events, travel photos, work images, and precious moments that can’t be replaced. If the Mac won’t boot, those pictures may seem locked away. But in most cases, they’re still safely stored inside the Mac’s hard drive.

Even if your computer doesn’t start up normally, the photos usually remain inside a file called the Photos Library, located in the user’s Pictures folder. The key is getting access to that drive from another Mac. Once you can see the old drive’s data, you can copy the library or extract individual photos and save them to an external backup drive.

Understanding Where Your Photos Are Stored

On any Mac, the Photos app stores images inside a special package called Photos Library.photoslibrary. This file looks like a single document, but it’s actually a folder containing thousands of individual image files and metadata that keep your albums and edits organized.

By default, it’s found in your user’s Pictures folder. The full path looks like:

Macintosh HD / Users / [Your Username] / Pictures / Photos Library.photoslibrary

When your Mac fails to boot, this library still exists on the internal drive unless the drive is physically damaged. As long as you can connect that drive to another Mac, you can recover your entire photo collection.

Step 1: Prepare the Working Mac and Backup Drive

You’ll need two things:

1. Another Mac that works and has enough free space to handle the transfer.
2. An external hard drive or SSD for your permanent backup.

Connect the external drive to your working Mac and open Finder. Create a new folder on that drive named something like Recovered Photos or Old Mac Photo Backup. Keep that window open,  you’ll use it later to store the recovered images.

Make sure the backup drive is properly formatted for macOS (APFS or Mac OS Extended). You can check this by selecting the drive in Finder, choosing File > Get Info, and looking at the Format field. If it’s formatted as NTFS or FAT32, you can reformat it using Disk Utility (but only do this before transferring files, since reformatting erases data).

Step 2: Access the Old Mac’s Drive

The next step is to get access to the old Mac’s storage. There are several ways to do this depending on the situation and type of Mac you have.

Option 1: Use Target Disk Mode (for Intel Macs)

If the old Mac is an Intel-based model that still powers on but doesn’t boot macOS, you can use Target Disk Mode.

1. Connect the old Mac to the working Mac using a Thunderbolt or FireWire cable (depending on ports).
2. Turn on the old Mac and immediately hold down the T key.
3. After a few seconds, you should see a disk icon appear on the screen of the old Mac.
4. On the working Mac, the old Mac’s internal drive will appear in Finder as an external drive.

You can now open it and navigate through the files just like any external storage device.

Option 2: Use Share Disk (for Apple Silicon Macs)

If the old Mac uses an Apple Silicon chip (like M1 or M2) and won’t boot, you can use the Share Disk feature instead.

1. Connect both Macs with a USB-C or Thunderbolt cable.
2. On the old Mac, press and hold the Power button until you see “Loading startup options.”
3. Choose Options, then Continue to open macOS Recovery.
4. In the top menu, click Utilities > Share Disk.
5. Select your Mac’s internal drive, click Start Sharing, and then connect to it from the working Mac by opening Finder, clicking Network, and selecting the old Mac.

Once connected, the old Mac’s internal drive will appear on your working Mac’s desktop.

Option 3: Remove the Drive and Use an External Enclosure

If the old Mac is completely dead and doesn’t power on at all, you can physically remove the internal drive (if it’s not soldered). For older MacBook Pros or iMacs with removable drives, you can take out the SSD or hard disk and place it in a USB enclosure or docking station.  Connect the enclosure to your working Mac, and the old drive will appear like an external disk. From there, you can browse its files and locate the Photos Library.

Step 3: Locate the Photos Library on the Old Drive

Once you have access to the old Mac’s internal storage, open it in Finder.

Navigate to:
Users > [Your Username] > Pictures

Inside the Pictures folder, you should see a file called Photos Library.photoslibrary.

If you can’t find it there, check for other user accounts on the old drive,  sometimes people use multiple accounts and store photos in different locations. You can search the drive by pressing Command + Spacebar and typing “Photos Library” in the search bar.

Once you locate the file, drag a copy of it onto your external backup drive or to your working Mac’s desktop. Depending on the size of your photo collection, the Photos Library can range from a few gigabytes to hundreds. The copy may take some time, so be patient and ensure the Mac doesn’t go to sleep during the process.

Step 4: Open the Photos Library on the Working Mac

After copying the Photos Library, you can open it in the Photos app on the working Mac.

Hold down the Option key while launching the Photos app. A window will appear asking which library you want to open. Click Other Library, navigate to the folder where you saved the recovered Photos Library, and select it.

Photos will now open your entire old collection. You’ll be able to browse your images just as they were on your old Mac,  including albums, edits, and metadata.

At this stage, it’s a good idea to check that everything looks intact before proceeding with the export.

Step 5: Export All Photos as Individual Image Files

While the Photos Library is convenient, it’s essentially a container. If you want to create a real backup that doesn’t rely on Apple’s Photos app, you should export all your pictures as separate image files.

Here’s how to do that:

1. Open the Photos app on your working Mac.
2. In the sidebar, click Library to view all photos.
3. Press Command + A to select everything.
4. In the top menu, click File > Export > Export [number] Photos.

You’ll now see an export options window. Choose these settings for the best results:

• Photo Kind: JPEG for compatibility, or TIFF for lossless quality.
• Quality: High or Maximum.
• Color Profile: sRGB (the standard for most devices).
• File Naming: Use Original Filename or create a custom naming system.
• Subfolder Format: You can choose “Moment Name” if you want your photos grouped by date or event.

Click Export, then select your external backup drive and the folder you created earlier (for example, “Old Mac Photo Backup”). Click Export again to start the process.

The Photos app will now create standalone image files from your library and save them directly to your external drive. Depending on how many pictures you have, this could take anywhere from minutes to hours.

Step 6: Export Unmodified Originals (Optional)

If you want to keep your original, unedited files exactly as they were imported from your camera or iPhone, you can use another export option.

Go to File > Export > Export Unmodified Original for [number] Photos.

This exports every photo exactly as it was before you made any edits in Photos. It’s ideal if you want a true archival copy. You can create a separate folder on your backup drive called Original Photos to keep them organized.

This way, you’ll have both your edited versions and the untouched originals safely stored.

Step 7: Verify the Backup

When the export finishes, open Finder and browse the backup folder on your external drive. Make sure all your images are visible and accessible.

Double-click a few random files to confirm they open correctly in Preview. Check that file sizes look consistent and that both photos and videos are present.

If your library includes Live Photos, each one will export as a still image (JPEG or HEIC) plus a short MOV video clip. You can keep both for the full Live Photo experience.

It’s also smart to right-click the backup folder and choose Get Info to see its total size. Compare it to the size of your original Photos Library to ensure nothing major is missing.

Step 8: Organize and Rename Folders

Once everything’s exported, you can organize your backup however you like. Some people prefer folders by year or event. For example:

• 2020
• 2021
• 2022 Family Trips
• 2023 Work Events

You can rename folders or photos in Finder without affecting their contents. Just make sure you keep file extensions like .jpg, .png, or .heic intact.

Step 9: Create a Secondary Backup (Recommended)

Now that your photos are safely on an external drive, it’s wise to create a second backup. Drives can fail unexpectedly, and having only one copy is risky.  You can copy the same folder to another external drive or even upload it to a trusted cloud storage service for redundancy. The goal is to have at least two copies stored in different physical locations.  For example, one drive could stay at home, while the second backup is stored somewhere else, such as a family member’s house or a safe deposit box.

Step 10: Check for iCloud Photos (If Applicable)

If you used iCloud Photos on your old Mac, your images may also exist in iCloud. Once you log in to the same Apple ID on your new Mac, iCloud will automatically sync the photo library.

However, it’s still crucial to have an offline backup. Cloud syncing doesn’t count as a permanent backup,  if you delete a photo on one device, it disappears everywhere. Having your exported copies ensures your photos are safe regardless of what happens in iCloud.

Common Issues

The old Mac’s drive doesn’t appear on the working Mac:
Try a different cable or port. If the drive still doesn’t mount, open Disk Utility on the working Mac to see if the drive is detected but not mounted. You can select it and click Mount manually.

You get “Permission Denied” when accessing the old user folder:
If the old drive used FileVault encryption, you’ll need the old user’s password to unlock it. Click the drive in Finder, enter the password, and you’ll gain full access.

Photos Library is corrupted:
If Photos can’t open the recovered library, hold down Option + Command while opening the Photos app to launch the repair tool. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Not enough space on the working Mac:
You don’t need to copy the Photos Library to the internal storage. You can open it directly from the old drive or export photos straight to the external backup drive.

Prevent Future Photo Loss

Once you’ve successfully rescued your photos, take steps to prevent future data loss. Keep at least two backups: one on a physical drive and one in the cloud. Turn on Time Machine to automate regular backups.  Also, occasionally export your photos from the Photos app as image files so you always have easy access outside the library system. That way, if your Mac ever fails again, you’ll already have your images safely stored and ready to access from any computer.

A Mac that won’t boot can feel like a disaster, especially when years of photos seem trapped inside. But in most cases, those memories aren’t lost,  they’re simply waiting to be recovered. With the help of another Mac, a few cables, and an external drive, you can extract your entire Photos Library and turn it into a secure, accessible collection of images.

Whether you use Target Disk Mode, Share Disk, or a drive enclosure, the process always leads to the same result: your photos, saved as ordinary files you can open, move, and back up anywhere. Once you’ve completed the export, your pictures will be safe,  independent of any single computer or software.

Backing up your photos this way gives you control and long-term security. And after the experience of a failed Mac, you’ll know that your memories are finally protected, stored on reliable drives, and ready to view from any device whenever you want.