Unable to open the photo library

There are two ways to run the repair: You can either double click the Photos.app or the Photos Library, while holding down the key combination option-command.

Double-clicking the library will ensure, that the correct library will be repaired. also make sure, that you have plenty of free storage on your System drive. Rebuilding a library needs working space.

Have you tried to repair the permissions on your Home folder? The reair can fail, if their is a permissions problem on the home folder: Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support

If all fails, and if you are sure that all photos are safely in iCloud, you could simply delete the current Photos Library (copy it to a backup drive before you delete it) and create a new, empty library. Let it sync with Photos to download the photos from iCloud.

• To create a new library, hold down the options key while launching Photos. Keep holding down "options" until the library chooser dialog appears. Select to create a new library.
• Now make the new library your system photo library in "Photos > Preferences > General: Use as System Photo Library".
• Make the new library the iCloud Photos Library in "Photos > Preferences > iCloud" by enabling "iCloud Photos".

Hey, pro_pc_user.

I see that you're unable to use the Photos application on your MacBook Air. You get an error message after it stalls while updating that it's unable to open the library. I'm happy to help.

How to use the Photos library repair tool -- Review the information and apply the steps provided to repair your Photo Library.

Take care.

trying to open the photos app, it stalls in 15 % of updating the library with an error msg. I have an non-english IOS, but the error is something like "Unable to open the library" and "Creating the library "pictures" was not finished".

Where is the local copy of your Photos Library stored? Are you keeping the Photos Library on an external drive, or is it in your Pictures folder?

Photos may not be able to repair the library, if it is stored on an external drive with an incompatible file system format, or if the drive is used for Time Machine backups. If the library is on externald rive, the drive should be prepared like this:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support