Can’t import images into Photos

Question

Can’t import images into Photos

I’m using Photos for storing images on an external hard drive. But the import stopped working. The images appear in the “Importer” but no images gets imported when pressing the import button.

Currently I’m storing about 1 TB of images on the external hard drive. I can see and navigate through existing images stored on my external hard drive using Photos.

It’s about 3400 images that’s ready for import. I’ve tried smaller chunks but it doesn’t work either. The images has been taken on an iPhone 12.

I would appreciate any help and it would be nice to keep using Photos.

Photos version: 7.0 (411.0.120)

Mac OS: 12.0.1

External hard drive: Airport extreme

iPhone 12, iOS 15

Posted on Nov 27, 2021 2:58 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 27, 2021 3:44 AM in response to WindsurfToday

Hi

You will need to move the library to a supported location.

This can be your internal drive (ideally in your pictures folder), or it can be an external drive - but directly connected (usb or thunderbolt) - and it will need to be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled). It should be possible to tick the "ignore ownership" checkbox if on an external drive. See also:

See

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517

Note - use of the referenced model (where you store the pictures separately from the library) is not recommended. See this user tip from Leonie:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250002591

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

Nov 27, 2021 3:14 AM in response to WindsurfToday

Is your Photos Library on the external drive (AirPort Extreme) or are you trying to import the photos as referenced images, with the library on the internal SSD of your Mac and the photos referenced on the AirPort Extreme?

The Photos Library will not be safe and can get damaged, if you are keeping the library on a volume, that is shared over the network or a volume used for Time Machine backups. And other users have reported here similar problems when trying to import images directly from a network share. Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

As a test to see if the location of the images is the problem or the image format - Can you import the photos, if you copy them to the internal volume (in small batches) and import them from the internal volume?

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Answer 3

Nov 27, 2021 3:42 AM in response to léonie

The Photos library is on the external hard drive.

Do you recommend storing the images on the external hard drive and the photos library on my Mac? (with referenced images)

I'm not using Time Machine backups at all.

As a test I've copied a small batch (16 images) into a directory on the external hard drive. Then I run the import, but I'm still getting the same problem. The images are shown correctly in the "Importer" but no images are imported when pressing the import button. The images are new. If I try to start a new import without exiting Photos it says that an import session is already running.

Another thing that might matter. When clicking on "Library" in Photos a never ending progress bar is shown on the bottom with info like "Analysing Scenes" and "Detecting Duplicates".

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

Nov 27, 2021 6:39 AM in response to WindsurfToday

How is your external Airport drive connected? Are you accessing it over the local network or are you using a wired connection? You need a wired connection for the volume with the library, and for the volume with the referenced images as well.

This is very disconcerting:

The images are shown correctly in the "Importer" but no images are imported when pressing the import button. The images are new. If I try to start a new import without exiting Photos it says that an import session is already running.

It looks like your Photos Library has already become damaged, if the import session does not correctly finish.

You may need to repair the library, but do it only on a correctly formatted volume with a wired connection.

I second Tony's advice. I would not risk using a referenced library on macOS 12 Monterey. There have been more and more issues with referenced originals since macOS 10.15 Catalina. It is very difficult to reconnect the originals, if the connection gets lost. And even harder, if we have to relocate the originals to a different volume, if a volume is no longer working correctly.

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Answer 5

Dec 5, 2021 1:35 AM in response to Yer_Man

Now I've connected to the Airport Extreme by an ethernet cable. Then I did re-run the repair and then the import. But the import still has the same issue. (I've disconnected the Wifi to make sure the cable where used)

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Answer 6

Dec 5, 2021 1:15 PM in response to Yer_Man

I exported all images from Photos to my Mac. Then I created a new Photos library and imported all images again. Then the import of the new images also worked! :-) Everything is located on my Mac. Thanks a lot for all help and replies.

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