Export Failure (Unknown Error 0)

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Level 1

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Export Failure (Unknown Error 0)

I'm having trouble moving photos from my Photo Library on my Mac to a new hard drive. I've tried exporting some of the photos individually but I still get a failed export operation due to Unknown Error 0.

I've tried removing Photos completely from my iCloud storage, which was full. But even after removing Photos from my iCloud, I can't export anything. Exporting each photo as an Unmodified Original hasn't worked for me either.

I've tried to update my software on my Mac, but it says that I don't have enough storage to do so. It seems that I'm stuck in an endless loop of not having enough storage to update, but not being able to clear storage because I don't have an update.

I'd really appreciate any tips! I'm nearly ready to throw my computer into a brick wall :)

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.5

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 9:30 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,954 points

Dec 30, 2021 4:05 PM in response to dejak

The photos application does not hold your photos, just like the pages application doesn't hold your documents.

The library is the data structure that holds your pictures. You need to put the app back in the applications folder.

Then it looks like your drive is a time machine drive. This is not a compatible location (due to permissions structures) for a photos library. This might also be causing your problems with exports - though I'm not certain of this.

See

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

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Answer 2

dejak Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 30, 2021 3:31 PM in response to TonyCollinet

The hard drive is a MacOS extended journaled, so I was able to click and drag the Photos application into my new hard drive. The photos show up in my hard drive when I do that, so if I go ahead and delete everything from the Photos application in Finder, they will still exist on the application on my hard drive, right?

I just wanted to clarify before I go ahead and erase everything to create some storage. I've inserted a screenshot just in case I didn't explain something clearly enough.

I currently have 18.44 GB available on my Mac out of 250.79.

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Answer 3

Dec 29, 2021 9:40 AM in response to dejak

What format is the external drive?

If you format it APFS, or MacOS extened (journaled), you could choose to move the whole library to the external drive (no export needed - just drag the library to the external drive using finder) but it MUST be correctly formatted first.

Also there is a bug in some versions of photos that it will refuse even to export to a drive that is not one of the apple formats mentioned above.

How much free storage do you have on your mac at the moment?

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Export Failure (Unknown Error 0)

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