HT204484: If Photos can’t copy or create a library

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MACaroni Homie
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: How do I gain the necessary permissions for Photos to pull in my pictures off of my external hard drive?

I am trying to open the Photos app on El Capitan, but all of my pictures are located on an external hard drive. I get a dialogue box that states, "Photos was unable to make a copy of your library before preparing it. Photos does not have the necessary permissions to create a Photos library in the folder that contains your library."

 

Apple has directions for fixing this with a couple of Terminal commands if your pictures are located in your Pictures Folder. However, my pics are located on an external hard drive.

 

Could anyone provide either a Terminal command for tying the Photos app to the folder on my hard drive or some other efficient fix?

 

Thanks,

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 24, 2015 9:21 PM

by Old Toad,Solvedanswer
Old Toad Old Toad
Level 10 (141,223 points)
Mac OS X
A:

That's strange but not critical.  Click on the everyone and change it to Read and Write.  Also click on the "+" button and add yourself with Read and Write permissions.  See if that will do the trick.

Posted on Nov 25, 2015 11:30 AM

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MACaroni Homie

Q: How do I gain the necessary permissions for Photos to pull in my pictures off of my external hard drive?

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