(Desktop Mac) Photos cannot start editing

Question

Level 1

4 points

(Desktop Mac) Photos cannot start editing

A recent issue is occurring. I had no problems until a couple of days ago when I updated my Mac from Monterey to Ventura. When I go to edit a photo in the Photos app, this message appears & the photo is unable to be edited- all the editing tools are disabled. Weirdly this doesn't happen on all the photos, the photo next to this one I screenshotted where this message came up actually edited fine, but in most cases they don't.

Also certain photos are now unable to be exported. This error message comes up. I'm really scared that this means something very wrong is going on with my computer. I use photos a lot and need this fixed as soon as possible.

I do not understand why. I have asked friends who know about the more technical aspect of Macs & they have never seen this before. Likewise I haven't been able to find a satisfactory answer as to what is potentially going on or how I might be able to fix this

I have tried running repair photos library but this hasn't fixed the issue.

I also tried First Aid on Disk Utility but this hasn't fixed it either.

Does anyone know what is going on, if there is a fix to this, and if so, is it something that I can easily do myself?

Some help would be much appreciated

Thanks

iMac 24″

Posted on Jan 15, 2023 1:30 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 16, 2023 8:45 AM in response to Mr_SHW1

Do all the problems pictures have the IMG_E tag? The E means it's an edited version of the original file. It is probably superfluous, sort of a backup. You showed IMG_E9612.JPG.. Do you have IMG_9612.JPG? without the E? Does it edit?

Usually Photos keeps the original file, but it does not keep the edited version. Instead, it records the instructions for editing the image, and it re-applies those instructions on the fly when you look at the edited version. That way you can change the editing without going back to the original. The E tab means it had a problem with that, so you can't un-edit it. It's the best Photos could do to save your edits.

Check to see if this is an edited duplicate and you have the original.

(Some of this is inference-- I'm not totally sure that both pictures should be there....)

Reply

Answer 2

Mr_SHW1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 16, 2023 1:35 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

I phoned up Apple support.

The files were corrupted somehow. What happened was I updated from Monterey to Ventura & then reset the computer but it installed Monterey back. Then I had to re-update to Ventura because none of the web browsers were working.

Apple support advisor said to go back to the day before the updates occurred and recovered the Photos library from that date. I did this. It took about 2 hours but the photos are all there, fully editable & able to drag onto desktop. It is working as it used to so thankfully this issue is now resolved.

I could not have done this without Time Machine backing up to my external hard drive. I would also advise against resetting the computer after a major update.

Not sure entirely why I did it but I'm not massively knowledgable about computers and I didn't know it would mess with it. It was clearly a mistake that has caused me a good few days of unnecessary stress & problem solving that was completely avoidable.

If this problem comes back I will contact Apple again and get the matter investigated further, but for now it seems that the Mac is back working again.

Thanks for replying though Richard.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 16, 2023 2:29 PM in response to Mr_SHW1

Glad it worked!

Reply

(Desktop Mac) Photos cannot start editing

Similar questions