Photos 5.0 imac, Catalina Failed to download assets for duplication

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Photos 5.0 imac, Catalina Failed to download assets for duplication

When I try to duplicate, copy, edit or export some of my older photos using Photos 5.0 on my imac (Catalina), I get this error: Failed to download assets for duplication. Failed to download assets for duplication

What does that mean? What are the "assets"

This question was asked earlier, but the only answer was no help. It never mentioned "assets" or why they might not have downloaded.

It is possible that the library is a "reference" library. The photos in it cannot be edited or exported. But I am unable to find out how to locate the original photos. If I select "Show referenced file in finder" under the File menu in the photo app, it just shows the library in the finder. That is no help. It seems I must find the actual .jpeg. And apparently even if I do, I would have to do this for every photo in the library, Thousands!

How can I change a referenced library into a Managed library. (or for that matter, how can I see, in a photo library, some indication of which it is, Referenced or Managed. It doesn't seem to say anywhere.

MacBook, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 16, 2020 11:31 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,273 points

Jun 17, 2020 3:43 AM in response to daleq1

If I select "Show referenced file in finder" under the File menu in the photo app, it just shows the library in the finder.

And where ist this library stored, that Photos is revealing? Is it in your Pictures folder or on an external volume? Is it the same library that you are currently have opened in Photos? where is the library located, that you re currently browsing in Photos?

"Show referenced file" should only be available for files that are not stored inside the Photos Library but referenced outside the library. In rare cases referenced files may be inside an iPhoto Library, but only, if your library has been migrated from an Aperture Library that has been referencing the originals in an iPhoto Library. has your current library been migrated from an Aperture Library?

You may want to check, which photos in your current library are referenced files by creating a smart album:

File > New Smart album
Set the rule to "Photo is Referenced".

Is this smart album empty or not? If it is not empty, select one of the photos and try "File > Consolidate". If does not work, open the Info for the photo and search for the filename using a search tool like Find Any File.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

197,273 points

Jun 17, 2020 11:51 AM in response to daleq1

daleq1 wrote:

...

So, if I may, here is another question for you. At the bottom of one of my libraries it says, "10506 Photos, 110 Videos, 2 Items"

Items??? What is an item, and how can I see it?

Items could be any item that you imported previously, but that is not compatible with Photos for Mac on Catalina. For example, In my library I had plenty of audio files, because the library had been migrated from Aperture, and in Aperture I had imported audio files to use as a soundtrack for slideshows. These audio files have been showing as items, because they were neither photos nor videos.

Some of the items might be shown in a smart albums with the rule "Photo is unable to upload to iCloud Photos".

This album will probably not catch all "items" but at least the items that Photos recognises as "Unable to upload". It might also be videos in an incompatible format or photos in a format or photos created by graphics programs in an unsupported format.

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Answer 3

daleq1 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 17, 2020 2:09 AM in response to Old Toad

I do not have iCloud photos enabled.

I do have an icloud account and use it for everything except photos, although there are some photos from years past that are in the iCloud storage. But iCloud Photos is disabled and has been for as long as I can remember.

I use my iCloud account for iCloud Drive, for Mail, Calendar, Notes, etc..

I do not know exactly what "Optimize Mac Storage" is, or where to see it, but I suspect it is on, as files in my Documents folder are sometimes kept in the cloud and sometimes on the mac and move back and forth on their own accord.

At the moment there are 277 GB of storage available on my Mac, although there was only as little as 10 or 20 Gb available a few months ago. Since then I moved my music, and most of my photo libraries to an external disk. (I have many 10 or 20) photo libraries scattered across many external drives or USB sticks, and it is this that I am trying to clean up and reduce to 2 or 3 libraries, with the main one which I will put on a new MacBook Air that I will have in a couple of weeks.

At present I am suffering with a

MacBook,13", 2017; OS 10.15.5

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