Photo's is freezing while making a new System Library

Question

Level 1

9 points

Photo's is freezing while making a new System Library

Hi,

I had a Photo's library on my iMac with 250.000 pics and "optimize" mac space selected. Now I moved that library to an external HD and I want to make that copied library now my System Library. The idea is that on the HD, all my pics are stored as I have the space on my HD. But when I select the option to make that copied library my System Library, the Photo's app freezes. I let it run now for a week but still freezing.

Is it normal that it takes so much time ? Why does the app freezes ?

Thanx for support, Jan

Posted on Jan 21, 2021 1:30 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,909 points

Jan 21, 2021 1:37 AM in response to yamo

Hi

Is the external drive correctly set up for using with a photos library?

It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled) (preferred for spinning drives), and not be (or have been) used for time machine. It must have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked. It should not be on a memory stick, SD or similar. It stands to reason that if you want any sort of reasonable performance it should be a fast drive with a fast connection.

It must also not be a network drive (a direct connection is required - eg USB or Thunderbolt) 

See

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517

If it *is* set up correctly - and I guess you have all your photos in

iCloud, then you could try creating a new empty library on the external

drive, setting that as the system library and allowing photos to

download all your images into that one.

Reply

Answer 2

yamo Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 22, 2021 5:00 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Hi Tony,

Yes, I formatted the drive to a compatible format. MacOS extended (journaled). So that's not the issue. When I open the new library on the HD? all is working perfect. It's just when I select: use this library as the System Library, then the app is freezing although I see huge acitivy with my activity monitor going on. SO I guess it's making somehow a connection to the Cloud? My main question is: how long can this takes? Weeks? a month?

Jan

Reply

Answer 3

yamo Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 21, 2021 4:56 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Hi Tony,

Yes - HD is perfectly set up as described above. This should not be the problem. It's a brand new Lacie USB C one.

Let me try to solution you mentioned, as I said it's a 250.000 pictures library so probably going to take ages to download then...

Thanx, Jan

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 21, 2021 9:26 AM in response to TonyCollinet

If it is a brand new drive, it will be formatted exFAT - this is not compatible with photos library. If you have not formatted it to one of the required formats, and set "ignore ownership" then it is not set up correctly.

Reply

Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

197,117 points

Jan 23, 2021 6:29 AM in response to yamo

Are all your photos still in iCloud? Then it might be more efficient to use a new, empty library on your external volume as your system Photos Library. It will save the new upload of all 250000 photos to iCloud. Photos will simply start to download your photos from iCloud to the new system Photos Library.

Reply