Photos App keeps crashing! Help please!!

Question

Photos App keeps crashing! Help please!!

For a month, I've been trying to access the photos app on my MacBook Air, but it keeps crashing. I keep having to force quit the app but every time I open it, it gets stuck to this video, which doesn't even play and it is still loading. I've tried having access to the other videos/photos, but they are also blurry before it crashes again. I have a strong wifi connection at home, so it can't be the internet connectivity. I have reported to Apple about 12 times when the prompt to report to Apple comes up but nothing has been fixed. I've already done the command + option keys to repair the app, but it still doesn't work... Help me please!!

Here's a picture of what shows up on my screen (This is supposed to a video of my cats that I filmed from my iPhone) :

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 9, 2021 9:19 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,954 points

Apr 10, 2021 12:52 AM in response to SnoopyGoldberg

Hi

First thing to check - where is your photos library stored. If it is on an external drive, check that it is formatted correctly for a photos library (MacOS extened (journaled) or APFS, with the ignore ownership checkbox checked. (It also musn't be on a network drive, or shared drive such as iCloud drive or Dropbox)

If you don't know where your library is stored, you can check from the list that comes up when you use the option key to start photos.

If it is on your internal drive (and in the pictures folder) or external with a correct format, then try restarting your mac in safe mode, and see if the problem persists.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 17, 2021 11:53 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Hi, thanks again for helping. I did the safe mode thing and might have found the problem. The pictures and videos are loaded through the safe mode boot, but I cannot airdrop or store anywhere else or even have access to watch the videos. It says that there is a missing file for all the photos and videos, and it can't find the original. I don't know why this problem happened. I only use the Photos app to store photos from my phone. I don't use iCloud photos, so I hope this problem can be resolved because I would have stored my photos and videos on an external drive if I knew this problem would happen. Still, the only copy I have of those videos and pictures is on this laptop that doesn't let me even watch them or send them back to my phone... What do I do next!?

**I went back to the photos app again and it went back to the blurry look like from the first post I made

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 20, 2021 9:30 AM in response to léonie

The first time I noticed this problem happened was last month, and I hadn't changed anything to iCloud photos before in a while. I checked the format for the photos and videos, which are Jpeg and H.264, but the videos still don't play. I temporarily turned on the iCloud, but this shows up:

and when I checked on icloud.com, only 6 screenshots are there and nothing else. But that doesn't also explain why the Photos app keeps crashing after I make 3 clicks on the app... I'm gonna try consolidating it, but I don't know what to do next after that...

Reply

Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

197,279 points

Apr 20, 2021 2:29 AM in response to SnoopyGoldberg

Your first screenshot is showing a white loading circle in the lower left corner. This is usually only shown, if Photos is trying to download photos or videos from iCloud Photos.

You have just changed some settings in Photos. Has iCloud Photos been previously enabled, when you made this screenshot? If you have been using iCloud Photos previously, enable it again. And you need to enable "Importing: copy items to the Photos Library". A mixed lIbrary with some items downloaded and others not is not safe to use and the referenced items can block the iCloud syncing.

I would check, if the original video is still in iCloud. You can check this on the iCloud web page www. icloud.com - open this page, sign in with your iCloud AppleID, open the Photos app on this page.

If your videos are there, try to download them from this web page. Try to download the original video, not the preview. The Downloads button has a hidden menu in the lower right corner of the button, hover the pointer there to reveal the menu.

What is shown as the file format of your videos? Look at the info of one of the videos that are blurry. Photos may not be able to download or play videos in a legacy format, that is no longer supported by macOS 11. If the Info is showing HEVC or H.264 the videos should be able to play.

When did this problem start? Right after your upgrade to macOS 11? What else has happened, before you could no longer play your videos?

Apart from the video formats - a typical reason for missing originals is running cleaning applications to save storage on your Mac. Have you been running any cleaning applications to remove duplicates?

Reply

Answer 5

Meihol

Level 1

56 points

Apr 17, 2021 12:06 PM in response to SnoopyGoldberg

Just untick importing so photos are not uploaded to cloud photos.

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 17, 2021 11:55 AM in response to SnoopyGoldberg

ignore this post, I accidentally made another reply and can't delete it now...

Reply

Answer 7

Apr 20, 2021 12:39 AM in response to Meihol

I just did that and I restarted my laptop, but the problem still persists

Reply

Answer 8

Apr 20, 2021 9:52 AM in response to SnoopyGoldberg

I tried consolidating all of them at the same time, but of course, that's not gonna work. So, I tried to consolidate at least 1 picture, and it doesn't work either.

Reply

Photos App keeps crashing! Help please!!

Similar questions