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Never ending Photos library repair

I started up Photos today and a dialog box popped up saying that:


"The library “Photos Library” has inconsistencies that must be repaired."


I click the Repair button and start working on something else. Then the box pops up again after 5% of progress saying the exact same thing: "The library “Photos Library” has inconsistencies that must be repaired." Again, I click the repair button and go back to my work.


Then it pops up again, and has continued to do so, EVERY 5% of progress! I'm now at 310% complete and I'm wondering if this will ever end.


Anyone had similar issues?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Mar 22, 2020 7:16 PM

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Posted on Mar 23, 2020 11:06 AM

Do you have a current backup of the library? If you do then quit out of Photos, boot into Safe Mode (Use Safe Mode to isolate issues with your Mac and Playing Safe: what does Safe Mode Do?) and check there to see if the problem persists (this tells us if there's any 3rd party software that might be contributing to the problem). Reboot normally and test Photos again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 


2 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Mar 23, 2020 11:06 AM in response to Starboard V

Do you have a current backup of the library? If you do then quit out of Photos, boot into Safe Mode (Use Safe Mode to isolate issues with your Mac and Playing Safe: what does Safe Mode Do?) and check there to see if the problem persists (this tells us if there's any 3rd party software that might be contributing to the problem). Reboot normally and test Photos again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 


Mar 24, 2020 7:51 PM in response to Old Toad

I let the "repair" run until 1000% (I'm an optimist/sucker) then called it quits. I force quit Photos then reopened. At that point it said that it tried to repair and failed, choose another folder or quit.


So I booted into safe mode, opened Photos without a problem. Closed out, restarted normally, and opened photos without a hitch.


Thanks for the guidance!


Never ending Photos library repair

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