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Apple Photos – Photos couldn't be copied because you don't have permission to access

Hi all,


I had this problem with my MacOS 10.15 MBP, that I couldn't import batch photos (when I was trying to merge two photo libraries manually).


Model Name: MacBook Pro

 Model Identifier: MacBookPro15,4

 Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i5

 Processor Speed: 1.4 GHz

 Number of Processors: 1

 Total Number of Cores: 4

 L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

 L3 Cache: 6 MB



It turns out that there is nothing at all wrong with the photos. It that this can be fixed by importing small batches (for me less than 1.5K) of photos in each batch, and *quitting* Photos and restarting. This will fix the problem.


I think Photos has some bug in with memory allocation or something similar and it incorrectly errors out in this way. This is with Photos 5.0. Hope this information helps someone else!


MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 18, 2020 11:24 PM

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6 replies

Apr 19, 2020 1:02 AM in response to knmnyn

Have the image files been in nested folders, and you tried to import them from these folders?


This is problematic, if you have two files in the nested folders with the same filename, the import can fail with this error message in the first versions of Catalina. Importing smaller groups will reduce the likelihood of importing duplicates within the same Import session. I can no longer reproduce this buggy behaviour in macOS 10.15.4..


Which version of Catalina do you have installed? Photos 5 is a part of macOS 10.15 Catalina, but the system version given below your question is macOS 10.13.


Apr 19, 2020 1:25 AM in response to léonie

I have macOS 10.15, but I think I chose the wrong Mac in my h/w choice that the post UI gave me. My apologies!


I don't actually have the photos in nested folders. Thanks for the help though! To be clear, I don't have an issue now since I found a workaround. Just posting to hope to help others that might come across the issue.



Apr 19, 2020 1:37 AM in response to knmnyn

Could you please give us the full version number of the system version, so we can see, which update you have installed? It would be helpful to know, if you still have been running macOS 10.15.3 or already updated to macOS 10.15.4. The reason I am asking is, that I only had the problem you have been describing in the early versions of Catalina, and have been hoping the macOS 10.15.4 update has fixed it. But if you are also running macOS 10.15.4, the bug still persists, which would be very disappointing.


Apple Photos – Photos couldn't be copied because you don't have permission to access

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