Issues with using reference files in Photos in Catalina.

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Level 1

5 points

Issues with using reference files in Photos in Catalina.

Three major flaws in using Photos in Catalina so far: 1) If you use referenced files instead of copying files into the Photos library, Photos doesn’t display locations on map in Places. This was not a problem in Mojave, just in Catalina. 3) “Show Referenced File in Finder” command does not work. 3) If you move a Photos library that uses referenced files to a new another computer, links to originals get lost and cannot easily be re-established. Find Original button from Missing File dialog box does reset links, but only one file at a time. In Mojave, locating originals one or two times reset links for the whole library.

Are any fixes for these underway? Any work-arounds?

iMac 27", macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 31, 2019 12:53 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

197,273 points

Dec 31, 2019 1:16 PM in response to Nixan

2) Show referenced file in Finder is working for me, if the referenced files are in the Pictures folder on the system volume. It may not be working however, if the referenced files are on an external volume, that is not compatible with Photos - a volume, that is used for Time Machine backups or a network share.

3) This has always been problematic. You have been lucky, if it worked for you on Mojave.

If you have not done so already, you may want to send feedback to Apple with a bug report, so the problems will get a higher priority: Feedback - Photos - Apple

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Answer 2

Nixan Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 31, 2019 3:10 PM in response to léonie

Thanks, Léonie. I had been using Photos for a "lightweight" library containing only finished JPEGs. All my editing work is done in Lightroom, Photoshop, ON1, or Luminar, with "heavyweight" files (PSDs, TIFFs, DNGs) residing in Lightroom. I guess I'll need to start using Lightroom to organize lightweight files as well. Lightroom has none of the issues mentioned in my post.

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Issues with using reference files in Photos in Catalina.

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