macOS 13 ventura updating photos library stuck

I just had this problem after updating to Ventura, and I just solved it by messing with the permissions on my external drive. I did "Get Info" on the external drive > click the lock button to unlock permissions > click the plus button to add 'admin' as user with permission to read and write > use the three dots menu to select "apply to enclosed items". Waited for it to finish updating the permissions, then the next time I opened my system photos library on my external drive, it updated the photos library and worked. Your mileage may vary. My external HD is formatted in APFS.

I am having a similar issue. Photos.app on My MacBook Air after upgrading to Ventura has been working on "Restoring..." on my second photo library over a few weeks. It is now 45% and still progressing. I am still waiting but it doesn't look right. Is there any way I can fix this issue?

My second photo library is not the system's default one. So probably that's why it does not show "restoring from iCloud". Also, this library was originally created by Aperture.app and converted some time ago. The size is roughly 300GB. It is stored on my main SSD drive. This process is exhausting energy. It drains the battery quickly.

My hard drive is ExFAT. It ran well before updating to macOS 13 ventura.

Perhaps it did, or perhaps there have been issues developing within the library that haven't shown themselves before now. One of the symptoms of having the library on an inappropriately formatted disk are silent issues that accrue over time.

Does it mean that the hard drive needs to be formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?

Or APFS. Yes. Remember that reformatting the drive will erase it so back up all important data first.

However, I suppose the same problem will appear when the second hard drive is connected?

It's likely, but you may be lucky.

Is there any thing I can do to make it right or stop the 'updating' process?

Quit or Force Quit the app. There is no other way.

But wait - I restarted the Mac, opened only photos and it moved from Updating Library to Restoring and within a few minutes the progress bar moved to 100% and the app opened to it's normal look and saying at the end "restoring from iCloud".

What format is the drive? It needs to be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or apfs.

Don't you have a back up?

Did it work?

I'm having an exact same problem, but I'm already using macOS extended journaled. MacBook Pro 2020, macOS Ventura, stuck at 5%.

Having the exact same problem but my library is on MacBook Pro 14' 2021. This is after updating to OS Ventura 13.0.1. "Updating Library" stuck at 0% complete. HELP!!

Thank you

My Library is on my MacBook HD, Updating was stuck at 0%.

Restart

Now Restoring is stuck at 0%.

What should I do ?

@300wisegoats, Thank you! I just did what you did and restarted. My photos are all back in "Photos"!

@300wisegoats, Thank you! I just did what you did and restarted. My photos are all back in "Photos"!

Thanks. your solution is great.