Photo quit Unexpectedly

Question

Photo quit Unexpectedly

I'm using Mac OS Mojave 10.14.3 and it automatically updated iPhoto to Photos. I just upgraded from 10.5.?. Upon launch, Photos says "Preparing Library." It gets to (4% complete) and then "Photos quit unexpectedly." I've tried 3 times and the same failure occurs.

The original iPhoto library is big 900GB and I only have 61GB free on the hard drive. Is photo trying to make a duplicate copy and therefore running out of space?

I made a backup copy of the whole system to an external drive before I started the OS upgrade. So I have the iPhoto library on the external hard drive also. I have 1.5TB of free space on the external hard drive. So I may be able to convert the library on the external drive.

What is the best option to get Photos working??

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Feb 6, 2019 8:00 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,311 points

Feb 7, 2019 12:22 AM in response to CommonSensebutNoExpert

Photos will create a new library, called like your original iPhoto library, but with the filename extension .photoslibrary on the same drive. Both libraries will share the storage for the original image files, but Photos will need additional storage for the previews and thumbnails. You may need a fourth of the library size for the additional storage. 61GB of available storage will not suffice to convert such a large library. Make a copy of the library on an external drive. This drive must not be used by Time Machine and the file system format should be MacOS Extended (Journaled), not case-sensitive.

If your previous version of iPhoto has been iPhoto 7.1.2 or older, you need to run the iPhoto Library Upgrader tool to prepare the library. See: Using the iPhoto Library Upgrader tool - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Feb 7, 2019 5:38 AM in response to léonie

Thank you leonie,

I have an external drive that I used to make a time machine backup before I started the OS upgrade process. Can I simply turn off the time machine backup and use that drive? The backup already made a copy of the iPhoto Library on that drive.

I will check the file system format later today.

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Photo quit Unexpectedly

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