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Photos crashes every time I manually type in keywords in "Information" box

I have been using the Photos app since it came out, and my library contains about 70K pictures. Yesterday something happened that whenever I try and manually add a keyword to a picture by typing in the information box, Photos crashes. I can still assign them by the keyword menu (command-k). This is a new behavior, and I cannot tell what I have done. Is there a way to fix this? If I rebuild the photo library, will I lose any keywords/faces/places information? I'm using Photos 5.0 (141.19.150) on a late 2015 iMac (Retin 5K, 27-inch) with 32GB memory. Thanks!


iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Mar 31, 2020 5:07 AM

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14 replies

Mar 31, 2020 9:49 AM in response to jonathanfromsterling heights

Do you have the iCloud Library enabled. If the answer is no then you can try the following:


1 - make sure you have a current and full backup of your Photos library.

2 - open the library with the ⌥ + ⌘ (Option+Command) keys held down and repair the library.


Also try the following;

1 - As a test launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library.  Import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it? (This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread)


2 - Log into another user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac and see if the problem persists. (This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide).


Apr 3, 2020 3:24 AM in response to Old Toad

OT and léonie - thanks to you both! As far as I can tell, my problem is fixed. What I believe started out as currupted keywords or Photos library file is now working, thanks to iCloud and your advice. I was able to create a new Photos library file by holding down the <option> key when launching Photos, and then in Photos/Preferences/General I selected "Use as System Photo Library" to make this new library the main library. Then in System Preferences, I selected "Internet Accounts/iCloud" and made sure that Photos was checked. This then began the process of downloading all my photos from the cloud, where they had been previously syncing with all my devices. It appears that this "fresh" download has all my photos, keywords, faces and places intact so far, and does not have the corrupted keywords. I can now assign keywords by typing them into the correct field in the Information dialog box, and the program does not crash anymore. Thanks for your patience and advice! I am once again back up and running!



Mar 31, 2020 5:21 AM in response to jonathanfromsterling heights

Does it happen for any keyword or only for certain keywords, for example keywords with ethnic characters?

If it only happens for certain keywords, try to rename the keyword in the keyword manager.

Entering keywords in the Info is behaving buggy for my library as well. I am not seeing crashes, but Photos is continually losing the focus on the Info and the keywords are only partially entered. It is usually better for a short time, after I restart the Mac.


Mar 31, 2020 9:08 AM in response to léonie

Thanks for your time! All my keywords are engllish charactors and words only, and no punctuation nor special characters. I was renaming a keyword in the "Manage my Keywords" dialog box, and it didn't the change. So I attempted to rename it several times. I notied the problem started shortly after this. Again, I have been using Photos since it came out, and the keywords for even longer. I've tried all the usual methods to correct errors, such as quiting and restarting the Photos app, restarting and shutting dow the computer. If anyone can answer my question about rebuilding the Photos database, and what if any effect that has on existing keywords, etc. that would be very helpful. Thanks!

Apr 1, 2020 5:58 AM in response to Old Toad

OT - thanks for the recommendations! I started by testing a new library and importing 20 photos. I was able to create and use Keywords with no issues. In regards to your questdion on whether I have my photos backed up in iCloud - yes, I do. All my devices sync through iCloud. How does this impact my ability to repair the library? Should I not try this? I've invested years of time adding keywords and tags and places, etc. to all my photos, and am very worried about creating a problem via rebuild that propogates to all my devices. Does rebuilding the photos library run the risk of losing all this work? Thanks again for your expertise!

Apr 1, 2020 6:23 AM in response to jonathanfromsterling heights

OT - one more update. I created a second user account per your suggestion. Of course, Photos started downloading all 76K photos from the cloud. But after several thousand were downloaded, I paused it and tried adding Keywords. It appeared to work with no issues. So it may be either the user account or the number of photos (?). Open to more suggestions. Thanks!

Apr 1, 2020 6:50 AM in response to jonathanfromsterling heights

Final insight for now. It appears that in my list of Keywords I have a blank keyword, with no characters, at the top of my list. I tried to delete the keyword, but this automatically crashed my Photos app every time. I tried to add a shortcut, which I can do, but in doing so I have now somehow created 3 more blank keywords. So now I have 4 blank keywords that I cannot apply to a photo (clicking on the button does nothing), and that I cannot delete. So, I can apply all other keywords using the shortcut I have assigned them, oy by selecting a photo and adding the keyword via the keyword dialog box (where you click on the leyword you want to add manually). I just can just no longer manually type in a keyword in the picture Information dialog box, which is where I normally do this.

Apr 1, 2020 6:53 AM in response to jonathanfromsterling heights

When you repair a Photos Library with ⌥⌘ , that is syncing with iCloud Photos, it will cause a new upload to iCloud and it is a lengthy and expensive process.

The easiest way to create a rebuild iCloud Photos Library is to create a new, empty library (as you have done in your new user account), then let the library download from icloud into this new library. iCloud Photos usually will save all keywords, titles, descriptions, locations, albums. If you are satisfied with the test library in your test user account, you could try the same in your regular account.

The one thing that might be missing, after you download the library from iCloud, may be some of the manually added faces. iCloud is supposed to sync all named faces, but I frequently found some faces tags missing, after a fresh download from iCloud.

Apr 1, 2020 10:55 AM in response to jonathanfromsterling heights

All my devices sync through iCloud. 1 - How does this impact my ability to repair the library? Should I not try this? 2 - Does rebuilding the photos library run the risk of losing all this work? Thanks again for your expertise!

1 & 2 - see léonie's response.


3 - regarding the blank keywords. Can you rename them without crashing? If you can then see if you can delete them.

Photos crashes every time I manually type in keywords in "Information" box

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