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User profile for user: Motti.Sh
Motti.Sh Author
User level: Level 1
45 points

Photos 3.0 (3291.13.210) for Mac crashes repeatedly on Mac OS High Sierra

My library is big (~40000 items, spanning ~500GB) and contains all our family's footage which is very important. In addition - I have invested thousands of hours on this library, identifying faces, setting locations to old photos taken by cameras without GPS, creating hundreds of Albums, "Projects" "Events" etc. Yes - this library started with the first iPhoto, and migrated to Photos grudgingly - I still think iPhoto is much better, but Apple withdrew support of it.


I do NOT use iCloud for the whole library - it is too big for my pocket. I DO use the old photo-stream for synchronizing photos across my devices.


Lately, Photos began crashing more and more frequently and the situation deteriorated to a point where I would just open it - and it will crash autonomously (without me doing anything) within 10-20 seconds of its launch.


Of course I tried the "repair" option (pressing Option upon launching the app) at least a dozen times, despite it taking over an hour to finish (successfully... huh!) then it would crash again.


I also tried repairing in "Safe mode", with iCloud turned off for Photos, etc. To no avail.


To my horror - I found that all my backups of the library (on 5 different hard drives) dating 5 months back - exhibit more-or-less the same behavior (when I launched photos to choose another library, and chose one of the backups - it would sometimes survive a minute or so, but as soon as I tried to do something - it would crash).


I then took yet another copy, and started playing with both Photos and the Library.

First off, I deleted all "Photos" related "Containers" from ~/Library/Containers/

I looked for any Cache (both in ~/Library/Caches and in the /Library and /System/Library) related to Photos - and deleted them. I then opened the "Photos Library" bundle, and looked for stray junk. There were tons of iPhoto leftovers there - which I deleted too. I also took the chance, and deleted the ".skindex" files from the database directory within the Photos Library bundle.


Then I restarted... and opened Photos again. It came up, opened the library, and didn't crash for a few minutes. I started clicking Faces, Moments, etc. and it looks like working -- except this:


ANY TIME I CLICK ANY ALBUM -


Photos will crash immediately, and the crash-log looks almost the same (attached).


It looks like I'm in better state than before - still I'm really scared I might lose my work on this library, and quite reluctant to attempt to re-do from scratch all my work on these photos, videos, etc.


Crash-log, one of hundreds stored by the OS


Does anyone have any idea about the source of the problem? What can I do? I can't even give up my Albums and delete them - because Photos crashes as soon as I try to select one.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jul 29, 2019 12:22 PM

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User profile for user: Old Toad
Old Toad
User level: Level 10
210,591 points

Posted on Jul 29, 2019 2:07 PM

Have you tried as a test to launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library? If it works import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it? (This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread) Then try to open your current library.

I found that all my backups of the library (on 5 different hard drives) dating 5 months back - exhibit more-or-less the same behavior (when I launched photos to choose another library, and chose one of the backups - it would sometimes survive a minute or so, but as soon as I tried to do something - it would crash).

You can't directly open a Photos library that's been backed up by Time Machine. You must first enter Time Machine,

go to the Pictures folder (if that's where you keep it normally), go back in time and select a library and restore it. If you don't want to overwrite you current library Control (right) - click on the library in Time Machine and select Save "xxxxxxxx" to ...... from the contextual menu and save it to another location.



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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Old Toad
Old Toad
User level: Level 10
210,591 points

Jul 29, 2019 2:07 PM in response to Motti.Sh

Have you tried as a test to launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library? If it works import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it? (This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread) Then try to open your current library.

I found that all my backups of the library (on 5 different hard drives) dating 5 months back - exhibit more-or-less the same behavior (when I launched photos to choose another library, and chose one of the backups - it would sometimes survive a minute or so, but as soon as I tried to do something - it would crash).

You can't directly open a Photos library that's been backed up by Time Machine. You must first enter Time Machine,

go to the Pictures folder (if that's where you keep it normally), go back in time and select a library and restore it. If you don't want to overwrite you current library Control (right) - click on the library in Time Machine and select Save "xxxxxxxx" to ...... from the contextual menu and save it to another location.



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Photos 3.0 (3291.13.210) for Mac crashes repeatedly on Mac OS High Sierra

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