Updating photo library

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Level 1

8 points

Updating photo library

Helping a friend backup a external h.d. That has a large photos library created in 2016. It opened fine on his Mac from the external hard drive. When I took it home I attempted to open it on my Mac and it went straight to “updating”. I quit this out after 2% as I didn’t understand why this happened. After I backed up the library to another drive, I attempted to open the copy and the updating began again. It was very slow and took 8 hrs to complete. It is a 40k pictures/videos library. Now it works fine and opens.

Why did it need to “update” itself? All I can think is my friend may have not updated his Mac / version of photos in awhile?

thanks!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jun 8, 2021 5:58 PM

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Answer 1

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TonyCollinet

Level 7

24,068 points

Jun 9, 2021 12:56 AM in response to Photosdude

Hi

If you are using a later version of MacOS (and therefore Photos app), you have now updated the library for use with that version. Typically the format of the library is changed from version to version to support the new features. The bad news is he will no-longer be able to open it on his MacOS unless he can upgrade to the same version or a later version.

The good news is it sounds like you've only updated the backup, so you will need to back it up again, and not try to open it on your mac - take it back to his and check on that.

DO NOT open the original on your mac, or you will have a challenge (and cost) to change it back.

While you are on - make sure the external disk (original and backup) are in a format compatible with a photos library. They need to be APFS, or MacOS extended (journaled). If they are not, it may appear to be working fine, but storing up damage in the library and cause problems later.

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Answer 2

Jun 9, 2021 2:13 PM in response to Photosdude

If the updating process started also on the original library - then I can't say if his mac will still be able to open that. It may be too late even after that process has just started.

If that is the case, there *is* a way to downgrade the library, but you have to use iCloud (and pay for at least a month of a plan large enough for the complete library). See this user tip from leonie.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000297

The alternative (as you say) is to upgrade his mac to the same or later version than yours. If it is a recent enough model to be upgraded. This link tells you the models which can be upgraded to Big Sur. It seems only the iMac Pro needs to be 2017 or later. But that is because that is when iMac pro was first introduced. So with a 2016 mac, you should be fine.

https://support.apple.com/kb/sp833?locale=en_GB

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Answer 3

Jun 10, 2021 12:04 AM in response to Photosdude

Yes, if you logged into iCloud with his apple ID (You should create a new user account for this, and set the apple ID for that account to his, since this would avoid any disruption to your apple ID/iCloud data on your account), then you could sync the working library on the external disk to his iCloud.

He would then be able to re-sync the iCloud library back to a new empty library on an external drive connected to his mac. You would need to set the new empty library to be the system library. This is effectively the "downgrade" method described by Leonie in the user tip.

Bear in mind, the sync of such a large library to iCloud is likely to take weeks 24/7 in each direction. My 5000 image 50GB library took 48 hours. If the (say) 500GB library goes at the same speed (it is not limited by your internet speed but by apple servers) then I would expect around 20 days full time, both for the sync from your machine and then again for the sync to his machine.

Again he would need an iCloud plan with sufficient storage for the whole library.

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Answer 4

Photosdude Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2021 10:09 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks tony. Just to be clear, the original library on his external drive that I quit after 2% updating, I already took back to his mac and attempted to open it. It showed the same thing that it was “updating” so we quit out of this right away.

mare you suggesting that I make another copy from this original library and then it will be un modified as it was before I tried to open it on my Mac?

in the end I understand -he needs to update his Mac and then the updated library that was updated on my Mac should work fine when he has the same version of os / photos.

since his iMac is from 2016 I’m assuming this should not be an issue to update to the current software updates? That is all that worries me now.

thanks again

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Answer 5

Photosdude Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2021 6:32 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks for the info. One more option/question is what if this updated library was uploaded to his cloud, could his iMac be left alone and not updated?

even if it had to be uploaded from my Mac, signed into his cloud? I’m just wondering what all the options are. In the end my friend envisions having a massive library that contains this library we are speaking about (315 gb) plus his current cloud library which is somewhere in the 100-200 gb range.

thanks again for the help

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Answer 6

Photosdude Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 10, 2021 6:27 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Ok, thanks. But let me make clear what I’m also asking; if the working updated library that is currently on the hard drive was uploaded to his iCloud from a updated Mac, could he view the photos on his current iCloud /iMac without updating his iMac?

in other words since his ultimate goal is to have all the photos together in his cloud I don’t think there is a reason to downgrade the library so that its set up how it was before, and so that he would not have to update his iMac to bug sur.

so my other question for you is are all iCloud photos able to be viewed on different versions of os ? Like if he updated his iMac to Big Sur would that put his current iCloud library through an updating process?

or does Apple automatically update photos when they are loaded to iCloud on there end / or since you are viewing iCloud photos through the internet it doesn’t matter if your Mac is not up to date?

hope I’m being clear. Thanks again for the help

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Updating photo library

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