Photos app stuck on "Restoring" Screen after Catalina Update

Maybe it is too early to be sure, but at the moment it looks like it is working now. After updating to OS 15.1 and restarting three times again with rebuilding the library for 10 hours approximately, now I can restart photos and even restart the Macbook and the program starts without problems. I hope it will remain like this.

do any of you have a pop up saying the “To use the java command-line tool you need to install a JDK” . I have had it before. But I don't remember what we did about it. Installing the latest version does NOT help get rid of it. I was wondering if the problems with Photo have anything to do with it?

I think they’re unrelated. I managed to get Photos back up and running by leaving Photos restoring (it took 10 hours) and then leaving the computer on with Photos closed. The issue seems to be related to Photos scanning all the photos for the facial recognition. I kept opening Photos every couple of hours and opening the People folder to check progress. The important thing was not to switch the computer off. I have 37,000 photos and left the computer on for 48 hours. It now seems stable , I can switch the computer off, restart and the Photos library opens without problem. I also had the Java popup at the same time but the two issues seem unrelated. This link was useful to sort this problem after Photos.

https://superuser.com/questions/1048562/which-application-is-triggering-a-to-use-the-java-command-line-tool-you-need

For me it was the “com.facebook.videochat.USERNAME.updater” causing the problem. I deleted it manually (not with terminal) from the Library/Launch Agents folder and it seems to have sorted it.

I’m no expert. It’s been trial and error, piecing information together from various forums and just waiting for the computer.

External hard drive formatted to Mac OS Extended Journaled. (Only the photos library on it) Latest version of photos.

I let all the “face recognition” and the other 3 or 4 processes photos was going thru completely finish. Did a shutdown. After restart, opened photos, and “Restoring” started at 0%, and took hours to complete. (1.7TB of photos) Any restart or shutdown causes the Restoring to start over, otherwise Photos will open and work once restore complete.

Anyone fixed this yet? I thought it was all fixed after upgrading to 10.15.1 and letting it restore, curate and find people but on restarting today its back to restoring. So frustrating that the app is practically unuseable - expect better from apple

I have the same issue and have contacted Apple Support. Like many others here, I was shuffled to Creative Media. They had no good answers, but told me that keeping my Photos library on an external drive isn't recommended. Really? Do I have to go out and buy a new Apple desktop with over 2 TB of storage to handle my library?

I wish I could leave my computer on 24/7 to complete the process like Apple Support recommended. Despite setting all necessary System Preferences to never shut down my MacBook, it never seems to stay running when I'm away from it or not actively using some app.

I have similar problems with Catalina. When I first switched to Catalina, Photos performance improved, it was much quicker.

But it has gone to pot since the most recent update. Sluggish operation and repeated crashing followed by hours of restoration. Currently looking at "Restoring....." showing at 0% complete.

Please fix this Apple

I am Completely frustrated with this update issue!! Just because we are Apple Slaves , we keep upgrading the softwares and Hardwares. And when Apple updates its software, can't they simply check at least ones? I have all the photos and memories of my last 15 years on this external hard drive in the Photos Library. Which took 10 hours to Update after I updated my Mac Book with Catalina. Then for once, it showed me the photos and since then it says "Restoring"!! After I read all the chats here I tried "Repairing" it but again its just On "0%" for hours and hours. I don't understand.. what was the NEED of upgrading if Apple can't simply have a better working software?😡😡😡 I m really scared what If I lose all my Photos?😟 Also.. till it doesn't start working, I'm unable to sync my iPhone with my Mac and transfer the Photos.. My iPhone storage is getting full day by day! This apple and there Catalina has screwed my life badly!!

Thanks for posting your solution. My ~375Gb Photos library is stored on the internal drive of my MacBook Air, not an external drive, but otherwise I have had a similar problem since updating to Catalina around Nov. 15. After a week of the "Curating" etc. process, I tried repairing the library, and now it has been stuck on "Restoring from iCloud" for another 10 days. The progress bar filled in relatively quickly, but it isn't completing, and Activity monitor shows very little activity from Photos.app or any of the related processes. Per your last post, I tried adding Read/Write permission for the Administrators group to my "Pictures" folder and applied it to the contents, let that process complete, and rebooted the computer and opened Photos. No changes yet, but I'll let it run the rest of the day.

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?

Apple Photos App suck big time after Catalina Update.... "Restoring" for the longest time! And even after you have done the restoring, you get excited and relieved, only that such relief is short-lived.... cos the next day, the whole process repeats itself.

Sucks big time

I'm not surprised. Macs do not need any "cleaning", "optimizing", "clean-up" or antivirus apps. If you peruse these communities you'll find time and again that these types of apps are responsible for compromising the system and applications performances. To paraphrase Nancy Reagan - Just say no to "cleaning", "optimizing", "clean-up" or antivirus apps.

Thank you SenseOfLife, this solution worked for me. After letting it go through the whole process twice (took many days) I was about to give up on Photos altogether (I still might!). Then I tried changing permissions to add Administrator and Apply to enclosed items. I have 1.3 TB and it took less than an hour, I re-started and opened Photos and for the first time, the app just opened without having to restore or anything. A frustrating waste of many hours, but thank you for sharing your solution. It is crazy that others in the thread who have been on the phone with Apple are not given the same solution. And it is really annoying that Apple forced these new "features" on everyone using their app. We should be able to opt out of the face recognition and other new "organization" features. And one last word of warning, if you ask Photos to show your photo in Finder, you will see that the app has organized them in a completely random way, there seems to be zero logic to how the files are organized which will have serous implications should you want to move them to a more logic based organizer later. In other words, if Photos is your only method of archiving all of your pics, that I can see, there will be no way to do a wholesale data dump to a different program later in life the next time Apple adds debilitating features. Hopefully I am wrong and welcome contradiction....Thank you again SenseOfLife!