"Photos cannot load adjustments for this image" error since upgrading to Catalina

Upgraded to Catalina and suddenly 6,000 photos are reporting "Photos cannot load adjustments for this image."

Don't tell me I've to revert to the originals, tag them, edit them. This is unresponsible. Went back to a backup from February but it seems the error has been going on for a while as these images are also not working. Interestingly, Photos under Mojave NEVER reported a problem and I now I'm sitting on useless backups and lost my images.

I had the exacts same problem.

One thing I noticed on my computer is that the photos where I would get the "Photos cannot load adjustments for this image" 

error message when trying to edit them were photos that had been edited (you can see that with he small three lines with dots in the upper right corner of the photo) a long time ago. It only occurred with photos of mine that had been taken and edited prior to 2016. After that no issue at all.

So I assumed the edited file was corrupted or something. So if you (1) right click on a open photo where you get the error message, then (2) you click "revert to original", and then you click ok if you have a confirmation menu).

It appears then that the old orignal file is ok and I could edit them normally. I had to do that to about 800 photos with edits which were not very important so I didn't lose anything valuable.

I hope it will work for you as well.

Hello fwallenberg! 

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. I understand that you’re having an issue with an error message in Photos on both macOS Catalina and iOS. 

I understand how important it is to have your photos loading correctly. 

Is this error occurring with all photos, or only with one? If this is occurring with all photos, check out the steps in this article: How to use the Photos library repair tool.

If you continue to have issues with Photos please Contact Apple Support for more assistance. 

Enjoy the day! 

This is a nasty bag which affects several functionalities of the program, like creating slide show and exporting photos.

See my post here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250870058?answerId=251681779022#251681779022

I have been having this issue, and also another one to do with Bluetooth.

I have submitted both of them as issues through Apple support, using serial number from my 2014 macbook air.

I got quick and useful responses for both, using chat and phone response. Not all resolved, but they are definitely helpful and willing to pursue and escalate the issues. Response times are amazingly fast.

Interestingly, they always check for previous similar issues issues, and they tell me that there are very few. They don't monitor these chat groups with any regularity, so if you have a problem, its much better to go to the real deal technicians!

Go to https://support.apple.com/en-ca/contact

Hi fwallenberg,

The next thing to try would be to rescan these images if you can. Also, if you have the original files saved in another location, remove one of the scanned JPEGs from iCloud Photos, then upload it again from the original file. See if there is any change.

If you're unable to do this step, or if the issue persists, Contact Apple Support.

Cheers!

Has there been any further development on this, please? I have recently imported some high quality JPEGs into Photos and get the same: cannot load adjustments for this image error in both Photos on my MacBook and iPhone. Other photos taken on the same day on my iPhone and another camera work okay.

Has a bug been introduced since the macOS 10.15.1 update?

I, too, am having this problem. Since I upgraded to Catalina. Some photos, when selecting edit, get this error message. Others are showing up in very low resolution, even though cmd-i information shows full file size. This is AWFUL.

Mine might be slightly different as I don't think there's anything wrong with the photos themselves, just buggy Photos app. Whenever I import photos, first thing I do is delete all the bad ones, then I crop them all at 16x9 to fit my screen and apply various adjustments. As I do the edits - about 10% of the time this message comes up. I wait a sec, try again and then it works. Feels like this is bad memory management/flaky memory garbage collection. I have a top of the line 2015 BTO I7 4.0 27" iMac with 24 gigs of ram and nothing else running, so don't think its any kind of hardware limitation. This has happened across many os versions including the current 10.15.2 Beta (19C32e). There's also other things that happen like momentary photos edit window freezes and leftover visual artifacts. If I quite photos and relaunch, it behaves a while, then as I continue to edit it builds up again.

I reported in this discussion, a week or so ago, odd Photos behavior (similar to that described by Spinnetti earlier today) after upgrading to Catalina. I've since downgraded to Mojave 10.14.6 and am still experiencing what Spinnetti reports. Now using a new MacBook Pro, so the problem for me exists independent of the hardware or OS version I'm using.

i have the same issue since update. it happens to select jpeg images where i get the message that "photos cannot load adjustments for this image", and some images have been corrupted by green lines running through them. i have completed the photo repair and the problems have not resolved.

That’s an interesting observation, JohnSmith582!! Most photos where the problem occurs are indeed edited images that are 4 years and older. Thing is, I’ve some 6,000 (!) of these and neither the time nor, in some cases, the photo-editing app that was used originally (for example, Aperture, Snapseed, Photo Éléments etc.). Also, reverting back to the original — even though I know the original is stored somewhere within Photos’ chaos of folder structures — doesn’t work as it results in the dreaded beachball spinning forever.

To me it looks as if Apple is unable to process and link older images within Photos. The question is whether an update will resolve the issue or not.

Following. I have the same problem and have tried the suggestions in this thread already. Older photos only, which is problematic as I am trying to make albums of older photos. I don't need to edit per se, but need to rotate some of these photos which can only be done in editing.

Hi @DrMBliss

I understand your issue since I had the same one. Did you try my method of right click, revert to original ? Once this is done, I was able to enter the normal edit menu, and then I could crop and rotate the photos as usual as if no problem had ever occurred.

If my "method" doesn't work, then unfortunately, I can't help you.

Hope you find a solution.

Getting a bad feeling about this. I just tried editing an image which I scanned and edited a couple of months ago and got the message described. I tried reverting to original, which worked, but I still can't edit it. Some scanned JPEGS seem OK, others have the same problem.

Now I'm afraid to go back and work on older pictures in my huge library, in case I damage something.

Is it possible that Catalina damaged something in my library during the 3 days it spent scanning it?