external drive with Photo Library is damaged by Photos when making external library the default

Question

Level 1

11 points

external drive with Photo Library is damaged by Photos when making external library the default

New MacAir (M2). trashed my external drive with photo libraries when converting to the new operating system format. No warning that this can take a while (16+ hours). During that time, OpSys claimed external drive was improperly ejected (it wasn't). But I believed it and unplugged the drive. This trashed the library on the external drive. I had to recover from my backup on my old computer and successfully converted to the new format (this is when I discovered it took 16+hours).

So I added new photos and then I decided to make the external library my default. Photos warned me that it needed to resolve partially updated photos with the Cloud (no problem, Cloud is disabled). Again, Photos didn't give a warning and took hours. During that time, the OpSys gain complained I had improperly ejected the drive (I didn't - it still showed on in Finder and I could see it's content). I again waited several hours and killed Photos but the "change" seemed to still be running. This lasted overnight and still I couldn't access Photos (I got a 5416 error). Finally told OpSys to eject drive (force eject) and now I still get a 5416 error every time I try to access the external library

Not impressed with the Photos app. I'm worried I lost a lot of data.

I have tried to run the Disk Repair utility - it claims it can't unmount the drive. I tried to run the Photo Library Repair routine and it also claim a 5416 error).

What do I do?

MacBook Air, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 6, 2022 4:58 PM

Reply

Answer 1

JimWein5 Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 16, 2022 9:25 AM in response to steve626

SUMMARY

1) AFPS helped with converting from older Photos Library format. It went from 16 hours to 15 minutes

2) I have given up making the new (external SSD) Library the default after 2 1/2 days.

I had to force exit of Photos
I could NOT trash the Photos Library (that too "prepared" forever
I ended up reformatting the SSD to erase the locked up library

3) For some reason, iCloud was enabled for Photos (even though I deliberately avoided using iCloud at all. Turning it off didn't stop the conversion

4) In fact, the conversion still seems to be continuing - to a non-existent library (reformatted) because "preparing to copy" keeps reporting forever - something is locked up

By the way, I turned OFF iCloud for Photos while it was trying to change the library to the default - I gave it 5 minutes and nothing changed. This may have cause the lockup

5) I'm rebooting to clear up whatever is causing the problem - hope that works

6) I planning on abandoning the concept of making the SSD library the default. It isn't worth the problems and time

Thanks for everyone of tried to help.

Reply

Answer 2

JimWein5 Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 15, 2022 10:46 AM in response to Barney-15E

I've never used iCloud for anything. Security issue. Yes Apple is a better than Google for security, but I don't want my data on someone else's server

I'm trying to avoid exporting and importing and losing all the meta data. I'm considering starting again and NOT make the external library the default.

Reply

Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,214 points

Oct 6, 2022 6:13 PM in response to JimWein5

Will APFS really help that much? Why?

No idea. I told you what I would do. I asked about the format because it must be one of the two Mac formats in order to host a Photos Library.

Do you still have a Mac that can run El Capitan? If so, I would use it to export all of the photos out of your Library to individual files, then import them into your new Library. After Exporting, you can try rebuilding the Library by starting photos holding down cmd+option. If successful, copy that library to the external and try letting Photos convert it.

If it still doesn't convert, you can import all of the photos into a new Library. You will lose any of the metadata (keywords, faces, etc) and have to rebuild them. You are essentially trying to convert a Library that has changed several times. You may have to start over.

Reply

Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,214 points

Oct 6, 2022 5:36 PM in response to JimWein5

What format was the drive before? how is it connected to your Mac? Some people have reported problems with some drive enclosures connected through the USB-C ports.

What OS were you running that created the Photos Library?

I would format the drive APFS, Copy the Restore the Photos Library to the external, then Open Photos while holding down the Option Key. It will ask for a Library to open. Pick the one on your external drive.

Reply

Answer 5

JimWein5 Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 6, 2022 6:06 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for replying.

The library was created on iMac 27 running El Capitan. The drive is a portable 2TByte OWC Envoy PRO FX. It supports both USB A (on the iMac 27) and USB C (on the MacAir). The library was running fine on the iMac. It is formated Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Will APFS really help that much? Why?

Reply

Answer 6

JimWein5 Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 15, 2022 8:09 AM in response to JimWein5

Took at bit longer to try the APFS suggestion. First problem was that the old Mac27 doesn't support APFS. Got another drive (formatted it APFS) and on the Mac Air, I copied the library to the APFS. When I opened the library on APFS drive, it took only 15 minutes to convert it from the older Photos format to the new one. So that seemed to work well.

However, the next step of making it the Default Photos Library is not going well. It has (I assume) trying to resolve the Cloud with the the drive library for 36 hours and it hasn't finished. The only notification I get is the spinning mouse icon. I can't minimize Photos.

How long should I let this go? I'm guessing that it is going through each and every photo in the disk library and attempt to check the cloud - even though cloud support is OFF.

Suggestions?

Thanks for the APFS suggestion

Reply

Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,214 points

Oct 15, 2022 8:24 AM in response to JimWein5

If you don't have iCloud Photos turned on, it isn't trying to resolve anything with iCloud.

Even when I first turned on iCloud Photos, I could still work with it while it synchronized everything. Quite choppy, but usable.

If you do actually have iCloud Photos enabled in the preferences, and you have a slow upload speed, it will take a while depending on how large the Library. Also, if you run out of room on iCloud Drive, it will essentially stop uploading. I don't know how that would manifest in photos.

Reply

Answer 8

JimWein5 Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 15, 2022 8:33 AM in response to Barney-15E

iCloud is definitely OFF. In fact Photos warned me that it was OFF when I first started it up. It also warned me that it was going to resolve the Cloud with my local copy and when I said GO (instead of cancel) that is when it essentially seems to be locked up. I don't want to use Cloud storage - I don't trust the concept.

Thanks for the information though

Reply

Answer 9

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,214 points

Oct 15, 2022 2:10 PM in response to JimWein5

I'm trying to avoid exporting and importing and losing all the meta data. I'm considering starting again and NOT make the external library the default.

I don't know why it wants to connect to iCloud if it never was on iCloud.

Reply

Answer 10

steve626

Level 6

11,639 points

Oct 15, 2022 6:32 PM in response to JimWein5

JimWein5 wrote:

So I added new photos and then I decided to make the external library my default. Photos warned me that it needed to resolve partially updated photos with the Cloud (no problem, Cloud is disabled).

Check to make sure that you have turned off ALL the cloud functions inside Photos Preferences, AND ALSO that in the System Preferences, you have unchecked the option for Photos under the Apple ID cloud preferences.

Reply

Answer 11

JimWein5 Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 16, 2022 11:08 AM in response to JimWein5

SUMMARY ADDENDUM

Photos was locked up for 2 1/2 days after I told it to switch the default Photos Library. I turned off iCloud for Photos and waiting 5 minutes and nothing changed. So I forced OFF Photos. Then I tried to delete the Photos Library on the External SSD. That failed. So i reformatted the external SSD and I still couldn't copy the backup (old format) Photos Library to the new drive - it just hanged "Preparing to Move"

So I rebooted. Magically, when I started Photos, it used the External SSD and starting converting from the old format the the new format. When it finished, I double checked by restarting Photos with the Command Options key pressed and selected the External SSD library - and it was the one that was converted to the new format.

So, something was locked up - maybe related to iCloud but the default library is now the External SSD

Again - thanks for everyone's suggestion and somehow - even after reformatting the External SSD and copying the backup onto the External SSD, the default had somehow been remapped

Reply