Photos Greyed out in Mac

Question

Photos Greyed out in Mac

Hi Everyone,

I'm stuck and so is my IT department! I have years of images on Photos on my Mac (using Mac OS Big Sur 11.5.2). Recently I noticed that random older images are greyed out. When I click on the thumbnail, the large image is also greyed out. When I click for info on the image, the information is there - date taken, image size, camera etc. I cannot edit the photo, nor can I revert to anything. I tried exporting the original file to my desktop, and was unable to do that as well - I got a notice that "0 of 0 images were exported".

These images are not on iCloud, which I don't use for photos. The most recent photos this is affecting are from 2009 - many if not all are photos I took with cameras, not my phone.

I have no clue what's going on and how to fix it. It seems as if the photo is there but the Photo app can't link to it any more. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can try?

Thanks so much!

Alex

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Sep 9, 2021 9:34 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

215,418 points

Sep 9, 2021 12:48 PM in response to GrannySmithGala

Where is your library located? If on an external HD how is that drive formatted and connected to your Mac?

Have you installed or run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on your Mac?

Is the library designated the System Photo Library in Photos General preference pane?

As a test launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it? This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread.

Then open your current library again and see if there's any change.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,537 points

Sep 9, 2021 10:01 PM in response to GrannySmithGala

What is the image format of the images that cannot be viewed enlarged? Look at the filename extension in the Info for the photo.

After the upgrade to macOS 10.15 Catalina some older image formats have become deprecated and Photos can no longer handle the photos in these formats.

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Answer 3

Sep 9, 2021 2:58 PM in response to Old Toad

Hi,

I tried creating a new test library, imported a photo, and there was no problem at all.

The only library I use is the System Photo Library and only older photos are affected - they're all over a decade old. The newer ones are ok (so far!)

I haven't installed anything, but I did get a new computer recently and all my files were transferred. That's when I noticed that the photos were greyed out - on my former computer as well as on the new one (same photos). So the problem seems to have transferred when the files were transferred.

This is a work computer, by the way, and our IT people manage it. But they're not super experts in Mac issues, so they didn't know what this might be due to. They did the file transfer from old to new computer, so it's not me having messed something up (I'm not a computer expert).

Any ideas?

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

215,418 points

Sep 9, 2021 4:19 PM in response to GrannySmithGala

After you tried the new library did you go back to your original library and see if there was any difference?

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Answer 5

Sep 9, 2021 8:40 PM in response to Old Toad

Yes, I did. Unfortunately, there was no difference - the same photos were still greyed out.

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Photos Greyed out in Mac

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