Unrecognizable file format in Photos for Mac

I've been having trouble getting about 700 pictures to upload to the photos in the iCloud receiving the error that it is "unable to Upload" I can see those photos in the library but when I try and edit I get an error message the Photos cannot load adjustments for this image and if I try to import the photo back into the library after opening and saving in Preview to see if that helps I get the message shown in the title. I've already tried repair on the library once and when I try to export the whole 700 I'm only able to export about 225, the others can't even be exported. Unless someone has an idea I guess I am going to lose these photos. I'm running Big Sur on a 2017 iMac and the photos are aged from mid 2019 to early 2000 so there is nothing common about these pictures.

iMac, macOS 10.12

Posted on Jul 5, 2021 3:44 PM

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Posted on Jul 7, 2021 12:19 PM

I turned off photos in the iCloud and using Time Machine recovered a copy of my library from before trying to put it in the cloud and discovered that the same pictures that had the problem uploading were exhibiting the same symptoms as the library I had tried to upload so the problem was not caused by the attempt to connect it to the iCloud but rather was a preexisting problem surface by the upload attempt. Once I realized you could revert a picture without actually being able to open it it the edit mode, I selected them a small batch at a time and right clicked and selected revert to original and they disappeared from the Unable to Upload Album and immediately uploaded to the iCloud as revealed by looking at my other devices. This even worked on those that would open in the edit mode but were still not able to be uploaded. all of this got me down to about 10 pictures which remained in the unable to upload group. I then selected these remaining pictures one by one and looked at the picture in the all photos library and they were actually duplicates I had created intentionally to have multiple copies of the same photo for differing reasons. Having now reverted them they were no longer useful to me so I simply deleted them. I did discover while doing this that none of the offending photos had been edited with Luminar so that was eliminated as one of the causes. thanks for everyones inputs, they were all actually useful in tracking down this problem.

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Jul 7, 2021 12:19 PM in response to TonyCollinet

I turned off photos in the iCloud and using Time Machine recovered a copy of my library from before trying to put it in the cloud and discovered that the same pictures that had the problem uploading were exhibiting the same symptoms as the library I had tried to upload so the problem was not caused by the attempt to connect it to the iCloud but rather was a preexisting problem surface by the upload attempt. Once I realized you could revert a picture without actually being able to open it it the edit mode, I selected them a small batch at a time and right clicked and selected revert to original and they disappeared from the Unable to Upload Album and immediately uploaded to the iCloud as revealed by looking at my other devices. This even worked on those that would open in the edit mode but were still not able to be uploaded. all of this got me down to about 10 pictures which remained in the unable to upload group. I then selected these remaining pictures one by one and looked at the picture in the all photos library and they were actually duplicates I had created intentionally to have multiple copies of the same photo for differing reasons. Having now reverted them they were no longer useful to me so I simply deleted them. I did discover while doing this that none of the offending photos had been edited with Luminar so that was eliminated as one of the causes. thanks for everyones inputs, they were all actually useful in tracking down this problem.

Jul 6, 2021 11:12 PM in response to brianvegas

What about if you remove edits without exporting (select, then image>revert to original) Does that solve the unable to upload problem.


Can you also clarify - if you safe out of preview, are you finding the newly saved image then won't import into Photos? Or that it won't upload? How are you importing? Drag/drop, or file>import?


When you edit in luminar are you "round tripping" (Eg "edit in luminar", then save from luminar and it appears automatically back in the library). If so, it might be that process that is going wrong. It is quite possible that process could go wrong for some images and not others. The round tripping mechanism in Photos is not that good. Also luminar is one of the most buggy pieces of software I've ever had the misfortune to purchase, and I don't let it near my photos library any more.


Where is your library stored? In you pictures folder or somewhere else?

Have you ever used and clean up, or speed up apps on your mac?

I'd also try running first aid on your fusion drive to check it has no errors?


Next please try the following:

1 - Create a new empty library and try with that library open (hold down the option key while starting photos, and click "create new". To switch back to your currently library afterwards, do the option key start again)

2 - Try booting in safe mode - does it still happen?

3 - Try creating a new user account and try when logged into that account.


These checks will tell us if the problem is system wide, or linked to a particular library or user account.


Note that to try point 1, you would have to make it the new library the system library - which would restart the sync to iCloud - which you've said you don't want to do.


Points 2 and 3 you could try without restarting the sync with your current library. Point 3 you would need to import some of the problem images into the new user account library, and try syncing that with iCloud. You could either use your own apple ID - in which case everything currently in ICloud would sync to the new account (it can all be deleted after the test). Or you could create a new temporary apple ID on your mac, and add it to the iCloud family sharing, then try with that.





Jul 6, 2021 1:04 AM in response to brianvegas

brianvegas wrote: ....
I've been having trouble getting about 700 pictures to upload to the photos in the iCloud receiving the error that it is "unable to Upload"
 macOS 10.12

Is the system version below your post still valid? macOS 10.12? With such an old system version you may have legacy items in your library, that are no longer compatible with iCloud at all. Or you may have adjustments, effects, filters applied, that are no longer compatible with iCloud.


What is the file format of the items that cannot be exported? Are the items videos or image files? if there are videos, what is the codec? If there are images, what is the filename extension?


Tony asked already, if you can at least export the unmodified original image files. Can you? If your Photos library has become damaged, for example by a cleaning application, Photos may not be able to find the originals. Missing originals will also cause the "Unable to upload" error message. The same can happen, if an iCloud Photos library has been restored from a backup, and the backup has been incomplete and did not include all originals. What has happened to your Photos Library, before you first noticed, that you cannot upload all photos?


Jul 6, 2021 3:20 PM in response to léonie

Don't know where I can update the notation that it is MacOS 10.12, as I said it is a 2017 iMac with Fusion drive running Big Sur 11.4. This is the first time I have chosen to store my photos in the iCloud having signed up for the 2TB option to share with my wife. I have continued to try and find a difference between the successful uploads to the cloud and the unsuccessful. Using the external Luminar editor is not the problem as there are many more edited with Luminar that went up with no problem, There does not seem to be any commonality between the many successes and the many failures. Since some of the ones in the unable to upload album have been edited but are no longer editable I can only assume that something happened after they were edited but not as a result of editing. the one option I dread having to do especially if I don't have any confidence it will help is to turn off photos in the iCloud on all my devices and choosing not to download originals and then restoring my library from prior to the first attempt on my computer using Time Machine and starting the upload to iCloud from scratch.

Jul 6, 2021 2:41 PM in response to TonyCollinet

When I can export an unmodified original I can open it by double clicking and opening in Preview and then save it back with a new name as a JPG which is the same format as the exported picture. The ones that won't export are edited mostly in Photos but some in an external editor (Luminar) but there are lots of others in the photos library that were edited in Luminar and uploaded to the iCloud photos with no problem. The offending pictures were taken with a wide variety of cameras and even some scanned using a Canon flatbed. A lot of those that have been edited cannot be opened for editing giving a message "Photos cannot load adjustments for this image", others can be edited and if I revert to the original I can export but not then import that same image or if I can it still appears in the Unable to upload smart album and don't appear in the iCloud images as viewed on another device. there seem to be so many variables in this group of photos and no element that always causes the problem

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Unrecognizable file format in Photos for Mac

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