Unable to Open iCloud Photo Library

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Unable to Open iCloud Photo Library

I keep my iCloud Photo Library on an AFPS-formatted external SSD. Before I moved it to the SSD, I had it on another drive which was connected to my MacBook. I moved everything and put the drive on my new Mac Studio. Up until this week, I haven't had an issue using the drive on either computer, but I never used Photos much on my MacBook.

Yesterday, I put the drive back on my Studio to do some work in Photos and was given the error: Unable to Open iCloud Photo Library error 4302." I did a library repair but Photos continues to give an error (3145).

So I put the drive back on my MacBook and the library repaired and opened fine, although it hangs on restoring from iCloud so it won't download about two weeks' worth of photos.

I'm not sure what to do now. On one hand, my Studio refuses to open the library and MacBook gets stuck restoring from iCloud, but the library at least opens. Is there something I'm missing? Some cache or something I can clear/reset to make things work again? I really don't like the idea of redownloading 500GB of data.

Thank you so much!

Dan

Mac Studio

Posted on Sep 28, 2022 12:52 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

dvsdanny Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 29, 2022 8:03 AM in response to dvsdanny

So...the problem somehow fixed itself. I left the drive plugged into Mac Studio overnight and sorta forgot about it. Decided I'd try it again and, lo and behold, Photos works perfectly with everything up-to-date. 🤷🏼‍♂️

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

197,083 points

Sep 28, 2022 9:50 AM in response to dvsdanny

Is your external SSD directly connected to the Mac or are you accessing it over the local network?

Has the external SSD been used for Time Machine backups? pHotos cannot work with a library on a network share or with a library on a volume used for Time Machine backups.

Try, if you can set the "Ignore Ownership on this volume" flag as described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support. If you cannot set this flag, something is wrong with the external volume.

Are all your photos already in iCloud? Then try to create a new, empty Photos Library and make it the System Photos Library in "Photos > Preferences > General". Then make it the iCloud Photos Library in "Photos > Preferences > iCloud". A new library will avoid the lengthy new upload to iCloud, of items that are already in iCloud and just download your photos from iCloud.

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Answer 3

dvsdanny Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 28, 2022 1:51 PM in response to léonie

Okay, I"m trying your suggestions now. To answer your first question, no, this is not over a local network. My SSD is alway plugged in directly to either machine. Also, I don't use Time Machine Backup. But I'll try the second step of your recommendation.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

197,083 points

Sep 29, 2022 8:12 AM in response to dvsdanny

How large is your Photos Library? For a large library the upgrade may need a very, very long time and it is best to let it run without interrupting it, as you found out 😊

You mentioned "downloading 500GB" in the original post. Is that the size of the iCloud Photos Library?

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Answer 5

dvsdanny Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 29, 2022 8:26 AM in response to léonie

Well, on Mac Studio it didn't even offer to upgrade. Just gave an error. I suppose on the backend, some processes were running that made things click.

The 500GB was already downloaded and was current as of two weeks ago. I just didn't want to redownload everything again. In the initial days of iCloud Photo Library, that would sometimes happen with errors. Things actually seem smoother these days. When I bought Mac Studio, I transferred my library from HDD to SSD and figured one of my machines wouldn't like that. It opened and worked instantly.

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Answer 6

Sep 28, 2022 1:53 AM in response to dvsdanny

Hi

Are both macs on the same version of IOS? (Major and minor)?

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Answer 7

dvsdanny Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 28, 2022 9:12 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Yes, sorry I left that detail out.

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Unable to Open iCloud Photo Library

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