Photos 8.0 "Another import session is in progress. Please try again when the current task is complete." error

Is anyone else having issues importing photos into the Photos app (v8.0) in Ventura? Initially noticed when it would just pause while starting to import from memory card. It will not let me import photos into the app from my desktop. I drag/drop the photos to the "library" tab on the left column and it goes to the import tab like it is about to import but nothing happens. When I try the action again I get the following error "Another import session is in progress. Please try again when the current task is complete.

" this is the case for one photo import or trying to import several at once. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you.

Mac Studio

Posted on Nov 3, 2022 9:37 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 23, 2022 6:20 PM

SOLVED

For posterity: reformatting my external drive from exFAT to APFS solved the issue

My steps

  1. Borrow another external drive (it was the older OSX Extended Journaled)
  2. Copy "Photos Library.photoslibrary" from drive which was not working after the Ventura update to the borrowed drive
  3. Use OSX's DiskUtility.app to erase and reformat my drive from exFAT to APFS
  4. Create a directory (I created one called "Pictures" to mimic the path if it were on my internal iMac drive)
  5. Copy "Photos Library.photoslibrary" from borrowed drive back onto original drive to your new directory
  6. Photos.app will open and because the drive format has changed, not be able to find the library, so you must click the dialog it presents to select the "new" directory location of "Photos Library.photoslibrary"

Cheers -

23 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 23, 2022 6:20 PM in response to Yer_Man

SOLVED

For posterity: reformatting my external drive from exFAT to APFS solved the issue

My steps

  1. Borrow another external drive (it was the older OSX Extended Journaled)
  2. Copy "Photos Library.photoslibrary" from drive which was not working after the Ventura update to the borrowed drive
  3. Use OSX's DiskUtility.app to erase and reformat my drive from exFAT to APFS
  4. Create a directory (I created one called "Pictures" to mimic the path if it were on my internal iMac drive)
  5. Copy "Photos Library.photoslibrary" from borrowed drive back onto original drive to your new directory
  6. Photos.app will open and because the drive format has changed, not be able to find the library, so you must click the dialog it presents to select the "new" directory location of "Photos Library.photoslibrary"

Cheers -

Nov 6, 2022 11:56 PM in response to hohealpen

A previous system version may have not checked the format of the external drive and allowed you to store the library on an unsupported drive. But using Photos in an unsupported way may break after a system upgrade, when the system upgrade has added more security checks. So you'd better check again, if the external volume is meeting all requirements described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support


Feb 4, 2023 11:47 AM in response to mephistocles

Say what now?


The library is on an ex-fat drive. The simple solution is to copy the library elsewhere and then reformat the drive. Then copy it back. There is no secret here. There is no bad programming. There is user error. Apple have said since the launch of Photos that it should be on an appropriately formatted disk - I posted a link to the relevant article earlier in the thread.

Feb 5, 2023 12:03 AM in response to mephistocles

The relevant paragraph from the link posted by Yer_Man:


"Make sure that your external storage device, such as a USB drive or Thunderbolt drive, is formatted for Mac: either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

You can't store your library on a storage device used for Time Machine backups. And to avoid possible data loss, don't store your library on a removable storage device like an SD card or USB flash drive, or on a device shared over your network or the internet, including over a cloud-based storage service."


And don't fool yourself, that the recent update may have fixed it, if your library is on an incorrectly formatted volume. You are putting your photos at risk, and the library may get silently damaged in the background, until it is damaged beyond repair.

Feb 5, 2023 12:17 AM in response to fedupwithapple574

fedupwithapple574 wrote:

But why such an obtuse error message??? FFS Apple developers, this sadly is just another example of obfuscation.

You seem to have made several attempts to import new photos, which got stuck, because the external drive is unsupported. The import is running in the background, and may continue after quitting Photos. And when you tried again, you got the message, that the previous import is still not complete.


It would have been more helpful, if you got an error message directly, when you start an import, telling you to move the library to a location, where it can be used safely. Or directly, when you try to open a library on an unsuitable volume.


Nov 6, 2022 11:13 PM in response to Yer_Man

I moved my library to this external drive months ago, and have been importing and editing and exercising all functions of Photos from that SSD without issue until the upgrade to Ventura, so I'm ruling out a format issue.


Image Capture triggers the same response from Photos as other means of import (either via the Photos|File|Import... menu or via drag 'n drop from Finder, i.e. the first import does not appear to do anything, and a subsequent attempt results in the information dialog stating that "Another import session is in progress..."

Nov 7, 2022 12:26 AM in response to léonie

Sorta makes sense that Monterey might not have the same issues as Ventura (also partly perplexing).


Seems I'm stuck doing a risky partitioning my 2T SSD into a 1+1 where the 869GB library remains on one terrabyte as ExFAT, the new partition is erased and reformatted as APFS, I move the library to the APFS partition, delete the ExFAT partition, and resize the APFS to consume the old partition to get me to a full 2T APFS formatted situation. But I'm no OSX sysad.


Risky without having somewhere to back up my library.

Feb 4, 2023 8:38 AM in response to Shooters95

I wanted to copy some photos from library A to library B to keep file sizes down - this used to be REALLY simply but ive had to resorting to a) Create a new library C, copy the files i want from Library A to the new library from my exfat drive, then import the complete librbary B contents into the new library as well - takes an age but sorts it. I will get another hard drive at somepoint im sure but its an expensive way to deal with bad programming. What makes it really rubbish is apples insistence that we have to work all this rubbish out ourselves


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Photos 8.0 "Another import session is in progress. Please try again when the current task is complete." error

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