I cannot copy my photos library to an external drive.

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Level 1

20 points

I cannot copy my photos library to an external drive.

I cannot copy my photos library to an external drive (High Sierra). I get the -36 error every time. Ive tried everything. I've isolated the corrupt(?) file to the 9gb photos.db. Photos will not let me rebuild the library, it quits halfway through.

I've tried changing the permissions. Oddly there is no box for Ignore permissions when I 'get info'. I've even tried the Dot_clean and ditto- commands in Terminal. The external drive is formatted correctly, Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

To be clear the library opens and there is no issue there. I simply cannot copy it to an external drive without getting the -36 error.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Posted on Mar 12, 2021 11:01 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,972 points

Mar 12, 2021 11:12 AM in response to Hugh Ross1

Try use a back up application to "back up" the library to the destination. Any app that does a simple back up - Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper etc - will do. Time machine, which wraps things into its own format is not suitable for this.

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Answer 2

Mar 12, 2021 3:46 PM in response to Hugh Ross1

Yes, correct. You can't ignore ownership on the system drive.

Do you have ignore ownership set on the external drive? Have a look at this user tip from Leonie on avoiding errors when copying...

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250002206

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Answer 3

Mar 12, 2021 11:43 AM in response to Hugh Ross1

Hi

If there is no option to ignore permission, then you don't have a suitable format for the photos library. It needs to be APFS or MacOS extended (journaled). If you have not formatted it, then almost certainly it will be ExFAT - which will not work for a photos library.

Format it APFS for an SSD or MacOS extended (journaled) for a spinning hard drive. DON'T select "case sensitive"

When I tried to copy a library to a correctly formatted drive I also had to create a folder to copy into, so suggest you do the same. It *can* still error even if the format is correct, but hopefully it won't.

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Answer 4

Hugh Ross1 Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 12, 2021 1:37 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Thank you so much for your reply. Both volumes are formatted correctly, MAC OS Extended (Journaled). The folder idea was a new one. Unfortunately that didn't work. It's that **** photos.db file.

I read somewhere that there would be no 'ignore permissions' check box on the boot up drive. Maybe that's why there is none? Not sure.

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Answer 5

Hugh Ross1 Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 13, 2021 10:01 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Thank you again for taking the time to reply. I've spent the morning going through all of this and nothing seems to work. I've changed permissions on the ext volume and used the terminal commands suggested a few links in from the page you sent above. I'm stymied.

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Answer 6

Hugh Ross1 Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 12, 2021 1:25 PM in response to Yer_Man

Thank you so much for your reply. Per your suggestion, I used CCC and it still excludes that photos.db file.

So strange.

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I cannot copy my photos library to an external drive.

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