Updating people in Photos 5.0 (161.0.120)

Question

Updating people in Photos 5.0 (161.0.120)

I have an iMac, Late 2012 model, with a Samsung SSD drive installed after the original drive went kaputt. Running Catalina 10.15.7 (19H2026). I have slightly less than 19 000 photos.

I get a very strange behavior in Photos app. The people section is "updating while in the background" for months now. When I open the app, it displays all the thumbnail pictures of the "people", but as soon as I try to rearrange or move anyone the thumbnails go blank, just showing the name and the outline border, all of them, and they don't come back on until I restart the app.

I have just recently left the app open, but minimized hoping that is what is meant by "in the background". I also have my hard drive set, in the energy setting, to never shut off.

Any suggestions?

Thankful for any ideas

This is the path to my library

Posted on Mar 16, 2023 6:12 AM

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Answer 1

bryanr14

Community Specialist

Mar 17, 2023 5:48 PM in response to Svenskapojken

Hello Svenskapojken,

Thank you for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. If you're using a VPN network or a third party security software on your Mac, we recommend to temporarily turn it off and see if the update for the People tab in the Photos app complete the update in the background. Having a VPN network or a third party security software can interfere with completing the update for People.

If that doesn't help, we recommend for you to restart the Mac in safe mode. This is a step that helps verify your startup disk, deletes some system caches and more. Once the Mac is in safe mode, please restart it as normal and see if you continue to experience the same behavior. If needed, here's how to restart your Mac in safe mode:

Intel processor

1. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key as your Mac starts up.

2. Release the key when you see the login window, then log in to your Mac.

3. You might be asked to log in again. On either the first or second login window, you should see ”Safe Boot” in the upper-right corner of the window.

These steps can help and is outlined here: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

Kind regards.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

203,653 points

Mar 18, 2023 12:51 AM in response to Svenskapojken

Perhaps it will help, if you gave us some more background information, if you should still be seeing the problem after your Mac returns from Safe Boot mode, as bryanr14 recommended.

Are you using iCloud Photos, or are all photos stored locally? I am asking, because it would help a lot, if you simply could restore your library from iCloud.
How did you recover your Photos Library, after you had to replace the internal drive? Did you restore the library from a Time Machine backup or did you use an older copy of the library? Could the backup you used already have been damaged by the trouble with the old internal drive?

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Answer 3

Mar 20, 2023 5:07 AM in response to bryanr14

Thank you for your suggestion, I will try that. I've been gone over the weekend, so the Photos app has been updating in the back ground - now it is showing that there is less than 200 pictures still to scan. Also the "disappearance" of the thumbnail pictures doesn't seem to happen any more. I guess I wasn't patient enough. Really appreciate your response.

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Answer 4

Mar 20, 2023 5:14 AM in response to léonie

Thank you for your suggestion. Please see my response to brynar14. I certainly appreciate your taking the time to respond, and I will try your suggestion, if the problem persists.

I had a computer repair shop replace the hard drive, so I am not sure how it was recovered. I did not feel confident enough to break the seal on the iMac to get to the hard drive on my own.

I do have the "Download Originals to this Mac" checked in the preferences.

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Updating people in Photos 5.0 (161.0.120)

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