Help: AlbumRescue

Last updated: 5 November 2026

Setup and common questions. If something here doesn’t solve it, email support@kayabyte.dev with your AlbumRescue and macOS versions (the Support item in the Help menu fills those in). Please don’t send photos or a library.

Turn on Full Disk Access

macOS protects your Photos library and Time Machine backups, so AlbumRescue needs Full Disk Access to read them. It only reads. For a library on an external drive you can go on without it and choose the library yourself.

1. Click Open System Settings in AlbumRescue.
2. Turn on the switch next to AlbumRescue. If it isn’t in the list, click +, open Applications and choose AlbumRescue.
3. If macOS asks to quit and reopen AlbumRescue, choose Quit & Reopen.

With Full Disk Access off, Time Machine backups and the library on this Mac are not read, and the app says so. You can turn it off again at any time in the same place.

My library is not listed

• External drive: connect it and click Look Again, or click Choose a Library… and pick it. A folder copied from a library works too, also if it lost its .photoslibrary extension.
• Encrypted volume: AlbumRescue names a locked APFS volume but cannot read it until you unlock it in Finder or Disk Utility.
• Time Machine on a network drive: open the backup in Finder first.
• An older date in Time Machine: open that date in Time Machine first. Only the latest backups can be found directly on an APFS backup disk.
• Slow or failing disk: a stuck or removed disk costs one reported line and the search moves on.

What the scan tells you

• Overview: what is in the library, what is really on this disk, and Before you pay, which is worked out for this library.
• Albums: albums and folders, with the number of items and how many have no original here.
• Missing or Limited: each item with no full original here, and why.
• Compare: what this library has that another one does not, and what differs.

“Not read from this source” lists the kinds of detail that could not be read, for example People names from journals.

Sources

• A working database: the fullest reading.
• Time Machine copy: on the Macs we checked, a backup has no database folder, so AlbumRescue reads the change journals in the library. Those hold albums, folders, captions, keywords, favourites and dates, not People names we could verify.
• Damaged database: it reads what it can from the journals and salvages what it can from the database file. The Overview names what was lost where it can be counted. Damage can also remove single links between a photo and an album without any count.
• No database and no journals: only the photo files can be saved, without albums.

The export

Choose Export…, pick what to include and a destination. A new folder is made inside it.

• Folders follow your album folders and albums. A photo in two albums is copied twice, and the sheet shows how much room that takes.
• Each file gets a sidecar <name>.xmp with captions, keywords, favourites and dates. Photos can import keywords from a sidecar but not People; turn on Also put People names in the keywords to keep names searchable, when the source has them.
• Live Photos come as the still and the video. RAW plus JPEG pairs come as both files.
• A CSV report lists every item, and every skipped item with its reason. Open it in any spreadsheet.
• Smaller copies, where the original is not here saves those files, marked as smaller copies.
• Options: Photos in no album, by year, Hidden photos, Recently Deleted.
• Files are real copies, each read back after writing.

The folder says (incomplete). The export stopped before the report and read-me were written. Run it again with the same destination to continue. What is saved stays.

A drive was removed. What is saved stays, marked as not finished. Connect the drive, scan again, then export to the same destination.

The disk stops answering. A sleeping or busy drive can take a minute or more, so AlbumRescue waits and says so. Stop always works, and what is saved stays.

AlbumRescue will not open again after you quit it while a disk was stuck. macOS keeps the old copy of the app waiting for that disk, and refuses to open a new one. Unplug the disk, or wait until it answers, then open AlbumRescue.

Not enough room. The app checks free space first and asks you to choose another disk or include less.

Licence

The free sample of 10 photos is counted per Mac, and a stopped sample still counts. Enter your key with Enter Licence Key… in the export sheet. One licence covers 2 Macs that you use yourself. To move it to a new Mac, remove it on the old Mac; if the old Mac is gone, email us and we free the activation.

Things it does not do

No writing into Photos. No originals that are not in this copy. No edited versions. No People names from journals. No shared albums, iPhoto libraries or libraries from macOS 10.14 or earlier. Smart albums are named in the report but not exported as folders.

Apple, Mac, macOS, iCloud and Time Machine are trademarks of Apple Inc. AlbumRescue is made by Kayabyte and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple.