Error 4302 - unable to open Apple Library

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Error 4302 - unable to open Apple Library

I've always backed up my iPhone photos through Photos app on an external hard disk. I tried doing this today and i kept getting this error. At first I thought it may be because I haven't updated my OS in a while but updating to Big Sur hasn't helped either. I cant seem to get the Photos App to work at all.

Is there any way to recover my old library?
Can I back up my photos from my iPhone in any other way?

MacOS Big Sur version 11.5.1

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017)

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.10

Posted on Aug 7, 2021 7:13 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

claire504

Community Specialist

Aug 8, 2021 8:45 AM in response to ak1784

Hey there, ak1784.

It appears that you're unable to open the photo library that you have stored on an external disk with the Photos app, and seeing an error 4302 instead.

Check out the articles below to see if those help:

Take care!

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Answer 2

Aug 8, 2021 8:27 AM in response to ak1784

Hi

Every time I've seen this message in the last couple of weeks, associated with 11.5.1, it has been because the library is stored on an external volume with an incompatible format. Normally it is ExFAT, because that is the default for a new drive.

It looks to me that Apple have decided Photos will no longer work with libraries on ExFat drives, and possibly any other incompatible volume.

If this is the case here, you'll need to move your library to a compatible volume (Formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled) with the ability to set the ignore ownership flag. The volume must also be directly conneted (USB or Thunderbolt), not networked (No Ethernet, no Wi-Fi)

Get back if you need further help with that.

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Error 4302 - unable to open Apple Library

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