I saved a Fotos library to an external hard disk. Not I cannot read it: I always get a message which asks me to repair it and then another message that the library cannot be opened.
Even after copying the library back to the Macintosh HD it cannot be read.
The hard disk hat a 'Mac OS Extended (Groß-/Kleinschreibung und Journaled)' format.
What can I do?
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
The error message does not complain about the deleted user. The error message shows, that the system is recognising the Photos Library as an application, and not as a library.
It will not launch this application, because the developer certificate of the application is not valid.
I would remove the ";" from the filename of the Photos Library, because it can cause problems, when opening files, then open the Info for the Photos Library in question in the Finder with "File > Get Info" or ⌘I,
In the Info panel disable "Hide Extension", so you can see the filename extension and make sure it is ".photoslibrary", then change the "Open With" to "Photos.app". This way Photos will launch, when you double click the library or ctrl-click and use "Open With".
The error message does not complain about the deleted user. The error message shows, that the system is recognising the Photos Library as an application, and not as a library.
It will not launch this application, because the developer certificate of the application is not valid.
I would remove the ";" from the filename of the Photos Library, because it can cause problems, when opening files, then open the Info for the Photos Library in question in the Finder with "File > Get Info" or ⌘I,
In the Info panel disable "Hide Extension", so you can see the filename extension and make sure it is ".photoslibrary", then change the "Open With" to "Photos.app". This way Photos will launch, when you double click the library or ctrl-click and use "Open With".
Has the external drive been used by Time Machine? Then you may have problems with the file ownership and permissions. Even if previous system versions could open Photos Libraries on a drive used by Time Machine, this changed with High Sierra and Mojave.
Which system version are you running, Hans? The file system format ( 'Mac OS Extended (Groß-/Kleinschreibung und Journaled)' ) is also a problem, i.e. on Mojave. If you copy a library from a case-sensitive drive to a drive that is not case-sensitive, you may encounter filename conflicts. And on Mojave the Live Photos or videos may not be able to play on a case-sensitive drive.
Try to enable the "Ignore ownership"("Eigentümer auf diesem Volume ignorieren") flag for the external drive. How to set this flag is described here:
Ihre Fotos-Mediathek verschieben, um Speicherplatz auf Ihrem Mac zu sparen - Apple Support
After the flag has been enabled try again to copy the library back to the system drive or to a drive, that is not case-sensitive. And then repair it again.
The libraries may have been damaged during the first transfer.
You did already try to repair them as described here, right? If not, try the repair with the library in your Pictures folder (Ordner "Bilder"). See: How to use the Photos library repair tool - Apple Support
If the library really cannot be repaired, try a manual repair to fix the permissions and ownership. Use the Terminal commands described here: These commands will recursively change the permissions and file ownership for all subfolders and items in your Pictures folder.
If Photos can’t copy or create a library - Apple Support
You can extract the original image files from your damaged libraries by ctrl-clicking the library. From the contextual menu use the command "Show Package Contents". The originals will be in the subfolder "Masters" in nested subfolders named by the year, month, day of import.
'ctrl-clicking' does not work - nothing happens. But from 'Terminal' I got the following message:
And 'photolibraryd' I found in'Users/chor/Library/Containers/com.apple.photolibraryd/Data/Library/Preferences'. ('chor' was a userI deleted several months ago.
Is there a way to reactivate this deleted user? So that I can try to open the library this way.
It did not help: The original library as well as the copied one are not recognized.
The external drive contains a lot of libraries. Most libraries are readable, only some resist to be read. These libraries are copied at about the same time; perhaps something happened when they are copied?
On a second external disk I have the identical problem with the same libraries.
Is there another way to get to the photos?
Do you still have a backup copy of the libraries in question, so you could test the original versions of the libraries?
Is there something common about the libraries? Do they perhaps have been copied from the same drive? The original drive may have had a corruption, so copy of the libraries is incomplete. Or some of the media inside cannot be read.
In any case, you should move all libraries off the drive with the case-sensitive file system. This is problematic in Photos 3.0 with High Sierra and will be much worse with Photos 4.0 and Mojave.
Since most libaries can be read, the reason can be a matter of time: The (two) unreadable libraries were stored at nearly the same time; of all those that were stored at other times I did not find any unreadable.
At least I made videos of them in advance - and I must be content (hoping that the photos are not necessarily be read once more)!
which version of Photos do you have installed?
MacOS: High Sierra
Photos: Version 3.0
Hans
Is your external disk a simple hard drive or a NAS?
It's a 'normal' hard drive.
Success: According to your suggestion I eliminated the extension 'photoslibrary'. Now I can build a new Photos library - my problem is solved!!!
Great! That has really been a strange behaviour.
Cannot read a Fotos library
