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My Photos program is always processing...removing duplicates, analyzing scenes, etc. What does it mean and what should i do?

My Photos program (by the way the program name is so common makes it very hard to search for tips online) is always processing...removing duplicates, analyzing scenes, etc. Even left it on the entire day and overnight and still it is like that. What does that mean, and what should i do about it?

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Jan 24, 2021 9:35 AM

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Posted on Jan 24, 2021 10:59 AM

How long has it been doing this for? Have you made any major changes to your library recently, added a large number of photos, etc?


Generally you should just leave it to do its thing, it can be quite slow and if you have a large library 100GB+, it is not unusual for it to take more than 5 days to sync.

3 replies

Jan 24, 2021 11:06 AM in response to Russ New Boy

Yes sorry i left that very important part out. I had a 2-3 yrs old mac mini with a Photos library (on an external SSD), i purposely wanted to start fresh (not use time machine/backups) on a brand new M1 mac mini i just got yesterday, and had just set the system photos library to point to Photos library on external SSD, about 280GB. When i pointed to it, it keep processing.


Thanks I will check back in a week or so then!

My Photos program is always processing...removing duplicates, analyzing scenes, etc. What does it mean and what should i do?

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