Level 1

32 points

Photos app stuck on "Restoring" Screen after Catalina Update

After updating my 2018 MacBook Pro to Catalina, I let the Photos app run the process of updating my photos library (which is slightly larger than 1TB). This process took just under 24 hours to run, so I was very happy when it finally finished running. However, the next time that I launched the Photos app, it just said "Restoring..." and a progress bar underneath at 0%. I have let it sit and it never progresses past 0%.

Beyond frustrated at this point that after updating my library for Many hours, I'm still unable to access my photos library. Please help!

MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 21, 2019 8:31 AM

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SenseOfLife Author

Level 1

32 points

Posted on Dec 2, 2019 8:30 AM

@AVADHOOTGUPTE Have you tried the solution that ended up being a fix for me? Here's what I posted a couple weeks back:

The new step I was instructed to do this morning was to edit the permissions on the external hard drive which stores the photos library. Even though my user account was set to read and write, and the checkbox to "Ignore ownership on this volume" was checked, she had me add Administrators to have full read & write access to the hard drive, and then click on the gear icon below permissions to select "Apply to enclosed items..." That part can take a long time to complete if it's a large hard drive. However, after that completed, I restarted the computer and opened up Photos. It had a little delay in opening, but not long and it's now going through the curation process. I was told to let that keep running...if I do have to stop it (which I will for going to work tomorrow) it should start back up from where it left off. She said that this process shouldn't take more than 48 hours, and at that point, fingers crossed...I'll be back up to running normally.

Since then I've been able to again use my Photos library normally. Try this out, I hope it works for you too!

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79 replies

Dec 2, 2019 12:37 PM in response to jrcchicago2

I have an external hard drive with all my photo library on it (1.7TB of photos). I have uploaded 2 separate diagnostic files to Apple engineering. Still waiting on a response. The “curation process” got to approx 90% and has been there for approx 30 days Or more trying to finish. The energy saver and screen saver are turned off so I don’t interrupt the process. I have tried restarting the computer a handful of times, and it always comes right back at the 90% point and stays there. The last senior rep I talked with said ignore the curation and use it as I want. I uploaded another 3000 photos and created new albums. The curation still remains at 90%. Not sure how long if ever it will take?

Old Toad

Level 10

215,238 points

Jan 6, 2020 2:55 PM in response to drpv

Try SenseOfLife's fix from this topic: Photos app stuck on "Restoring" Screen after Catalina Update

SenseOfLife Author

Level 1

32 points

Oct 21, 2019 9:23 AM in response to Old Toad

I've tried doing that several times. Tried restarting the computer as well. The program is still responding, and I'm actually able to quit the program without using Force Quit. It just never moves past 0% even if I let it run for hours.

SenseOfLife Author

Level 1

32 points

Oct 21, 2019 12:49 PM in response to Old Toad

I opened Photos at the beginning of my work day (shortly after 8am) and have left it alone...it eventually started showing progress for the "Restoring" process. Now at 2:45 in the afternoon, it's gotten up to 28%. Worried that I'll lose all of this progress anyway since I'll have to stop it when I leave for the day at 4:30. Maybe I'll be able to let it process all evening and through the night to complete...if it can't do it in that amount of time, I'll have to wait until the weekend.

At this point my biggest worry is that I'll continue to have issues with my photos library every time I try to open it. Does anyone have an explanation why it's going through this "restoring" process even though I already had it update the whole library for Catalina?

SenseOfLife Author

Level 1

32 points

Oct 22, 2019 6:25 AM in response to id192313

My library is on an external drive that I just purchased a few weeks ago, and formatted to APFS.

Update to what I tried yesterday...Let the "restoring" process run all day while at work. It was making progress, but around 4:00 the window popped up (it'd been minimized) and went back to 0% and quit responding. I had to force quit the program. Once I got home, I plugged it in and tried the above suggestion of repairing the library. I let it run all night (it was still showing 0% when I went to bed at 10:00) This morning it had only made it to 9%.

Starting to wonder if I just need to give up until apple releases an update

SenseOfLife Author

Level 1

32 points

Oct 22, 2019 12:52 PM in response to SenseOfLife

Today I let it do the restoring process again, and I watched it go from 99% to 0%...and at this point again the program quit responding. However, I left it alone and didn't force quit it. Eventually, the library opened! I can actually access my photos now, but it's extremely slow. It shows a progress bar, saying that it's "Curating best photos..." "Gathering favorites...", etc. I'm assuming this is what's causing the program to run so slow.

Does anyone have any experience as to how long this process takes for a library that's 1TB? It doesn't appear to be progressing at all and I'm worried if I quit Photos before it completes, that I'll be back to where I started the next time I open it up.

Oct 23, 2019 6:43 PM in response to SenseOfLife

Don't have any solution, but I experienced the exact same thing you did with a similar sized Photos library. I have been using Apple's discontinued Aperture software and recently switched to Photos. Photos has a lot of short comings, but since it was free I thought I would give it a try. Now that Photos is inoperable with the Catalina update, I am done with it and I am in the process switching to Capture One.

mksj

Level 1

13 points

Oct 26, 2019 4:29 AM in response to SenseOfLife

I have the same issue after updating to Catalina. When I start Photos, the screen with repairing library appears and remains at 0% forever. Also, when I look into the contents of the library folder, it doesn't look like any files are changed, and the software doesn't use much CPU. I am really not sure whether it does anything at all.

Oct 27, 2019 7:27 AM in response to SenseOfLife

I'm afraid I have exactly the same issue.

After updating to Calatina, photos had to "upgrade" itself. But now I opened it again it and doesn't go away from "Restoring 0%... complete".

Consistent to what other users say and no CPU activity either.

Oct 27, 2019 1:23 PM in response to SenseOfLife

Same problem after updating to Cataline, photos started "updating photos" process takes hours then everything is fine I can see my photos but next day photos app doesn't work with "Restoring" %0 Complete" on the scereen.. waiting couple of hours nothing changed, and closed the app many times every time same thing "nothing" So i can easyly say "Cataline sucks", the very core of apple which is working smootly does not excist any more

samgy84

Level 1

4 points

Oct 28, 2019 1:02 PM in response to SenseOfLife

I have the same issue - very frustrating - hopefully apple will relase a fix to this soon as the app is completely unsuable. I have a photos library stored on external hard drive with icloud photos on.

prik75

Level 1

4 points

Oct 29, 2019 5:19 AM in response to SenseOfLife

I do not have a reassuring answer for you. I 'updated' Photos library after installing Catalina, which took at least a night. My photo library is on an external disk. Even after Photos was done and I could see the photos again, and after quitting Photos, the finder would not let me eject the external USB HD, because it was still using it. I could also see that in Monitor. I forced quit.

Now however, it stuck 0% restoring... when I open the library...

RAKing

Level 1

19 points

Oct 30, 2019 3:37 AM in response to prik75

The same thing happened to me after I upgraded to Catalina on my MacBook Pro (mid-2012). I ended up deleting the photoslibrary package and reinstalling all 123gb of photos from various back ups over a number of days. Everything was fine until I installed the latest Catalina update yesterday. I checked and photos worked fine after so switched the computer off. I’ve switched on this morning and it’s gone back to the 0% restoring screen. Incredibly frustrating. I’m going to leave it running for the day to see if anything progresses. One of the things I noticed before is that the photoslibrary package continued to show only as 101mb despite all the photos being installed. The photos folder showed 123gb though so I don’t know if that’s significant. It’s good to know it’s not just me struggling with this but no one seems to have a solution.

SenseOfLife Author

Level 1

32 points

Oct 30, 2019 6:49 PM in response to Old Toad

Initially I had my hard drive formatted APFS, then I saw information stating that APFS is best for solid state drives running the OS, so I backed up all of my data again and reformatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) I was really hoping the format of the drive would have something to do with it, but it didn't solve the problem.

It's connected via USB to a USB-C adapter. I had no issues with this setup prior to updating to Catalina.

mksj

Level 1

13 points

Oct 31, 2019 3:54 PM in response to RAKing

My impression is that it is a problem with the face recognition. Last time photos managed to start up (after some 10 hours), it had about half the photos scanned for faces, this time (again after some 10 hours), it has only scanned some 5'000 out of 40'000 pictures. I actually don't need that feature, but it seems it can't be switched off? Apple is really annoying me more and more by imposing unnecessary stuff. I've been using Macs for 20 years now, but if they continue like that, my next computer won't be a Mac.

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Photos app stuck on "Restoring" Screen after Catalina Update