Photos

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Photos

My Photos library is on a USB flash drive. When I start up my MacBook Pro, the following message appears: "MacOs can't repair the disk "Photos". You can still open or copy files on the disk but you can't save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can." Also, when I click on the Photos library it says: "The app "Photos" can't be opened. -36 error code"

When I right click on "show package contents", I can see the photos but am unable to edit them. They are also no longer organised into folders as before.

I have tried copying the photos onto another USB stick but have been unsuccessful.

Any advice, please?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on May 31, 2020 7:12 AM

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Old Toad

Level 10

207,847 points

May 31, 2020 12:01 PM in response to alibabe12

How is that flash drive formatted? The library must be on a volume that's formatted OS X Extended (journaled) with Ownership set to be ignored.

Apple specifically recommends again using flash drive in this document: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support. This is from that document;

Prepare your drive

You can store your library on an external storage device, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).1 Find out how to check the format of your external storage device.

To prevent data loss, Apple doesn't recommend storing photo libraries on external storage devices like SD cards and USB flash drives, or drives that are shared on a network.

I'd recommend getting an external USB drive properly formatted and copy the library to it. Then see if it will open. You may have to run first aid on the Library by opening it with the Option+Command keys held down.

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