Photos - "This Library isn't searchable in Spotlight due to its location"

Added: When I move my test library to /Users/Shared, I am getting the same message as you posted, no longer about the System Photos Library, but the library location.

This is indicating a permissions issue, as /Users/Shared is protecting the ownership of files.

Have you set the "Ignore ownership on this volume" flag for your external drive? Apple is recommending go set this flag for all volumes with Photos Libraries.

Just to follow up on my notes above, I had a conversation with Apple Support. They say that the new Venture Spotlight search feature only works with photo libraries that are stored on the Mac and will not work on an external drive.

This is disappointing - internal Mac storage is expensive and my photo library is above 400GB.

It was determined by exprerimentation. However, I made an error in assuming it was only the Pictures folder. It's anywhere on the boot drive. I had moved my System Photos Library to the Pictures folder and it lost that warning. But it can be anywhere on the boot drive, again by experimentation.

That's what I love about these forums, I learn something new every day. I never saw that in the General preferences (now Settings) - in all honesty I never looked since upgrading to Ventura beta a while back.

This is from the Get More Info page:

Note: The enhanced Spotlight Search can locate items in the System Photo Library. If you use other libraries, Spotlight does not locate items in those.

NOTE: the library must also be in the Pictures folder to be searchable.

I converted a library in the Pictures folder to be the System Photos Library and am still unable to search it. Gonna take more experimentation. It may be too soon for the indexing to be completed.

Léonie,

Is your system library on an external disk? That is the only time you would get the new warning, I think.

I think Spotlight searching in a Local System Library is the new feature. For system libraries on external drives , and all non-system libraries, Spotlight is just as useless as it has always been.

I wonder if finder searches will look inside a local system library now.

Louis Van Proosdij wrote:

Léonie, that's normal behaviour : "Only the System Photos Library can be searched by Spotlight"

Sure, but I have not seen this message previously. In the previous system versions I saw a message "Only the System Photos Library can be synced with iCloud", but never a hint about Spotlight in the Photos > Settings.

And I do not like that Photos is giving a different message when the System Language is set to German than the English equivalent. The language may be different, but the message should be the same.

I am getting a similar message (in German), for any library in the Pictures folder that is not my System Photos Library. The message is slightly different from the screenshot shown by Louis - it would translate to "Only the System Photos Library can be searched by Spotlight".

Richard.Taylor wrote:

Léonie,

Is your system library on an external disk? That is the only time you would get the new warning, I think. ...

My System Library is usually in my Pictures folder.

My tests have been with a small library, specifically created for testing.

The warning "This Library isn't searchable in Spotlight due to its location" appeared for the test library, when I moved it on the the internal drive to /Users/Shared, outside my user home folder, but still on the internal drive in the /Users area. I did not expect Photos to be able to work with a library in the folder /Users/Shared - as a shared folder does not suffice to give read/write permissions to the internal files in the Photos Library package, at least it has been the case in the previous system versions, so I am not surprised that the warning in the Settings panel changed in this folder to "This Library isn't searchable in Spotlight due to its location". It could have been more specific, however.

I cannot test to move the system Photos Library to a different volume, as my system Photos Library is an iCloud Library. Switching the System Photos Library to a moved library will disable iCloud Photos and I would have to endure a week of a new iCloud Syncing once I moved it back to the Pictures folder.

I'm going to give it a shot with a symlink from Pictures to an external drive. That might be the ticket.

"Photos preferences are displaying "

Where does it display this message? Is this in response to a search? in preferences?

To help us:

Do you have "Copy items to the Photos Library" checked?

Do you have "iCloud Photos" checked?

Is "Use as System Photo Library" grayed out (meaning this is indeed your system library)?

What exactly are you searching for?

Are you using the Spotlight menu in the menu bar or the search field when using the Command+Space keys?

Spotlight have never been able to search a Photos or iPhoto library except for the library's name itself. Spotlight can't search in packages (that's what a Photos library is) and many systems folders.

The Photos User Guide doesn't give indication that this should not work. The "Learn More" link next to the message telling me that the library isn't searchable says the following:

By default, your System Photo Library is stored in the Pictures folder on your Mac, but you can move it to another location on your Mac or store it on an external storage device.

It also warns that

The enhanced Spotlight Search can locate items in the System Photo Library. If you use other libraries, Spotlight does not locate items in those.

But there's nothing to indicate that Spotlight Search will not work if the System Photo Library is located on an external storage device, which is how my Mac is configured. Indeed the implication seems to be that it *should* work. What am I missing?