Apple Photo Library Won't Open After Catalina Upgrade and New MacBook Migration

Question

Apple Photo Library Won't Open After Catalina Upgrade and New MacBook Migration

So this issue may be related to a new MacBook migration or just the upgrade to Catalina itself, but hoping someone can help as I've yet to find any prior advice on support forums to work.

BLUF: Bought new MacBook. Used Migration Assistant to set it up. Attempted to open my apple photo library on an external drive and the "update" process via Apple Photos failed to open the library. Repair stuck at 100%. And now, I can't enable Photo syncing with iCloud via System Preferences.

Long Story: My 2013 MacBook was not running Catalina prior to purchasing my new MacBook. So, to support the transition, I upgraded my 2013 to Catalina. This went fine. I then successfully migrated everything over to my new 2019 16" MacBook.

My Photo Library is just over 500gb and is stored on a rather slow (5400 rpm) external Western Digital drive. I never opened this library on my old MacBook after upgrading to Catalina, but it had worked albeit slowly fine in past operating systems.

I opened the library on my new MacBook and it went into an "updating library" cycle which took about 6 hours to run, but ultimately ended up failing in the end with a message saying the Mac could not open the photo library.

From there, I ran the repair cycle on the library. I eventually got a 100% message on the repair, but apple photos was frozen. I left it like this for about an hour and eventually force quit photos. I then tried to create a new library to just download everything from iCloud (I always sync.)

When I went to enable iCloud photos, I go to the system preferences>Internet Accounts and try to check the box for 'photos' under the iCloud settings. At first click, the Mac does something, but seems to just hang. Eventually it becomes responsive and won't let me check the box. It's not disabled or anything, it's just that when I check the box, it immediately unchecked it.

So, hoping someone can help fix 1 of my 2 issues.

Photo Library just won't open on new MacBook with Catalina.
Can't enable photo syncing via iCloud settings.

Thanks!!

DB Cooper.

MacBook

Posted on Jun 18, 2020 6:09 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,013 points

Jun 18, 2020 12:04 PM in response to DBCooperWas43

Yes, making the library the system Library is important, because only the System Photo Library can sync with iCloud at all.

Have you also enabled the option "Ignore Ownership on this volume" as described in this link? Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

It will help to avoid permission errors.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

195,013 points

Jun 18, 2020 6:54 AM in response to DBCooperWas43

Are your phots already in iCloud? If you have used iCloud Photos before and all your photos are in iCloud, you could create a new, empty Photos Library and make this your System Photos Library. Enable this library for iCloud.

To create a new library, quit Photos, if it is running. Then launch it again while holding down the options key. Now select to create a new library.

Go to Photos > Preferences > General, while you are viewing this library in Photos. Click the field "Use as System Photo Library". If this field is disabled, the library is your System photo Library.

Then you can enable iCloud Photos in the System preferences > Apple ID.

Also enable iCloud Photos in the Photos > Preferences > iCloud.

You did not mention the file system format of your external volume. On Catalina the file system format for the external volume needs to be MacOS Extended (Journaled) or APFS. And the volume must not be used for Time Machine backups, or you will have permission problems.The volume needs to be locally mounted, not a NAS: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Jun 18, 2020 7:10 AM in response to léonie

Hi léonie, thanks for the reply. Yes, all photos are in iCloud already. I did try creating a new library and that was successful, but that's where I got into my problem #2 on the original post. When I try to enable iCloud photos in system preferences, the check box won't check. It checks and quickly (milliseconds) unchecks with no message whatsoever. Now, i will say the only thing I did different from your proposed steps was that I did not first click the field "Use as System Photo Library" before enabling icloud on the new library. Not sure if that will make a difference or not, but I'm willing to try.

The file system on the external drive is MacOS Extended and it is attached via USB. I've currently attached the drive to the old 2013 MacBook to see if photos will open there... I suspect i'm 5 hours away from seeing if this will work or not. I'm also buying a faster, new SSD external drive to see if speed is the issue.

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Answer 4

Jun 18, 2020 12:35 PM in response to léonie

Thanks again. Just set the "System Photo Library" on the new MacBook (local hard drive, not external this time). Well, I'm trying anyways. I clicked the button on the new Photo Library I created and now I have a pinwheel and it's hung up. So far, it's been 10 minutes, hopefully it comes back. If / when it does, I'll try to then enable iCloud photos and hopefully just start downloading all my photos/videos from iCloud.

Regarding the "Ignore Ownership on this volume", having the external drive attached to my old MacBook, I do not have that option available. It simply doesn't show up.

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Answer 5

Jun 18, 2020 12:56 PM in response to léonie

RESOLUTION: Setting the "System Photo Library" a second time fixed the problem. I had to force quit photos after hung for 20 minutes the first time. The second time I did it, it was instantaneous. Not sure why MacOS didn't tell me this when I tried to enable Photos for iCloud rather than just unchecking the box for me. That should be fixed.

Now... it just needs to download the 40k photos/videos. :)

Thanks. In the meantime, I'm ordering another external SSD to put my photo library on once the one on the Macbook hard drive completes its download in order to free up that space. And, i'm going to make a few backups of that library once it's complete. This has been a nerve racking experience.

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Apple Photo Library Won't Open After Catalina Upgrade and New MacBook Migration

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