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User profile for user: Orj
Orj Author
User level: Level 1
66 points

Meaning of error 5401 in Photos.app ?

Hi, in the middle of searching pictures in an fat photoslibrary with pictures dating 2 years ago (but meticulously updated through the different photos.app versions...), my Photos.app (version 8.0) decided it had to quit.

Now when I try to reopen that library, it aborts after a few seconds, with an error message 5401.


Can someone tell an oldtimer like me what the "manpage" of photos.app should tell somwhere: what is the meaning of that error?


Thanks!

MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Jun 26, 2023 10:16 AM

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User profile for user: leroydouglas
leroydouglas
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
188,604 points

Posted on Jun 27, 2023 10:05 AM

Orj wrote:

Hi, in the middle of searching pictures in an fat photoslibrary with pictures dating 2 years ago (but meticulously updated through the different photos.app versions...), my Photos.app (version 8.0) decided it had to quit.
Now when I try to reopen that library, it aborts after a few seconds, with an error message 5401.

Can someone tell an oldtimer like me what the "manpage" of photos.app should tell somwhere: what is the meaning of that error?

Thanks!



? " fat photoslibrary " —is this a refence to PowerPhotos https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/ (?)



For the baked in Photo.app (version 8.0) —

If necessary you can repair a Photo Library and try again — relaunch holding the Option Command Key






ref

Repair your library in Photos on Mac - Apple Support


How to use the Photos Repair Library tool on your Mac




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User profile for user: leroydouglas
leroydouglas
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
188,604 points

Jun 27, 2023 10:05 AM in response to Orj

Orj wrote:

Hi, in the middle of searching pictures in an fat photoslibrary with pictures dating 2 years ago (but meticulously updated through the different photos.app versions...), my Photos.app (version 8.0) decided it had to quit.
Now when I try to reopen that library, it aborts after a few seconds, with an error message 5401.

Can someone tell an oldtimer like me what the "manpage" of photos.app should tell somwhere: what is the meaning of that error?

Thanks!



? " fat photoslibrary " —is this a refence to PowerPhotos https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/ (?)



For the baked in Photo.app (version 8.0) —

If necessary you can repair a Photo Library and try again — relaunch holding the Option Command Key






ref

Repair your library in Photos on Mac - Apple Support


How to use the Photos Repair Library tool on your Mac




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User profile for user: Orj
Orj Author
User level: Level 1
66 points

Jul 2, 2023 9:00 AM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks! Indeed repairing the library did the job.

When I wrote "fat", I meant ~50,000 pics, ~300Gb library.


But indeed, I have also been using PowerPhotos, though not when the problem occured.


The problem originated from having my photolibrary on an external SSD disk, which can stand a superfast USB3.2 connection, while using a thin USB-C data cable, which probably was not up to it.


Using photolibraries on external disks leads to all sorts of corruption if the connection is flaky. I still have a lot of pictures on that library which are greyed out, although the file is physically on the disc, at the expected place...

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Meaning of error 5401 in Photos.app ?

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