Photos "Import All New Items" does not import all valid files, several import rounds on same folder are required

Question

Level 1

4 points

Photos "Import All New Items" does not import all valid files, several import rounds on same folder are required

Photos Library got somehow corrupted and have to re-import all originals, which is several TBs. Doing this in smaller junks but still experience a weird Photos behavior. After selecting the import folder on my Desktop, I can review all Photos prior to the import and the button on top reads "Import All". After clicking, the import ran and to be sure all was imported, I repeated the same steps and again got a list of photos and videos from the folder that were not imported. Selecting "Import All New Items" will import more files but not necessarily all. After one or two additional import rounds of the same folder I am left with a bunch videos only. This time the button changes to "Import All Videos". After that, all files are imported.

Anyone any idea why Photos has this weird behavior of not importing everything? If I hadn't checked again for completeness, I would have been left with hundres if not thousands of files missing. Besides, Photos crashed several times and somtimes the import window to select the import source shows all files as greyed out but they behave like normal. Using the most recent version of Ventura and Photos.

Mac Studio (2022)

Posted on Apr 27, 2023 5:51 AM

Reply

Answer 1

DerekM87

Community Specialist

May 1, 2023 9:09 AM in response to sn0brdr

Hi sn0brdr,

To clarify, do you recall if there was any specific error or message when the library was original corrupted? Or any errors during the consecutive import processes afterwards?

Let us know, as these details will help us determine our next steps.

Cheers!

Reply

Answer 2

sn0brdr Author

Level 1

4 points

May 26, 2023 3:57 PM in response to DerekM87

The original library that I wanted to import was from a previous MacOS version as the old machine did not support Ventura anymore.

As I could not import the old library I created a fresh library. In the fresh library I see this behavior. I can import photos form a folder and import completes with no error. If I repeat the step on the same set of photos, I get agains a list of not yet imported ones. Have to repeat several times until there are no more new photos to be added.

Update. Same behavior observed when importing new photos from iPhone. Here too I had to import more than once.

Reply

Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

193,396 points

May 27, 2023 12:50 AM in response to sn0brdr

Photos may stop the import, if you have two items with the same filename included in one import session. If you import in very small groups, it is less likely that the selected items to import will include two files with the same filename.

How are you importing from the old, corrupted Photos Library? Are you importing directly from the library or did you copy the originals folder out of the library?

Just to be sure, have you tried to repair the library with Photos?

Have you checked, if the old library is on a compatible external volume? repairing the library will not help, if you are trying to keep your Photos Library on an unsupported volume. The library needs to be on a locally mounted volume, not a network share, the file system format should be either macOS Extended (Journaled) or APFS, and the volume must not have been used for Time Machine backups or have other backup software installed. Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 4

sn0brdr Author

Level 1

4 points

May 27, 2023 3:20 PM in response to léonie

I was using the photo library on the same disks for years on my old Mac. I just connected the drive to my new Mac where Ventura corrupted my library on import attempt. It is an external LaCie Thunderbolt 2 drive with AFPS formatted disks in Raid 0. After the corruption I re-connected the drive to my old Mac from where I did the repair successfully.

On the new Mac I deleted the current Photos library and created a new one to start with a clean library. This time I did not attempt to import the old library but instead opened the Photos library folder on the Thunderbolt 2 drive and copied the Originals folders over to my OWC Thunderbolt 3 SSD Raid 0 in AFPS format. It was around 14 folders with Originals that I had in my old library (a bit more than 4 TB all together). Then I started to import folder by folder but on each of the 14 folders I had to run the import several times. It is well possible that there were photos with the same name but the import never stopped. It always completed and the photos missing were not the ones in the end but scattered across the import.

Reply

Photos "Import All New Items" does not import all valid files, several import rounds on same folder are required

Similar questions