My mac photos library goes corrupt approximately twice a year

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Level 1

8 points

My mac photos library goes corrupt approximately twice a year

Is there a maximum amount of photos? or anything else I could not doing right? I do have ~45K photos, could that be the problem?

It has been happening on multiple macbooks and various macOs version, since the last 5 years. Of course I can create a new library and recover from icloud but that is not the way it should be.

I have no issues on my phone and/or ipad, it's just MacOS, currently: Macbook pro M1 2020, Ventura (13.4.1).

MacBook Pro (M1, 2020)

Posted on Aug 8, 2023 8:32 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

217,802 points

Aug 8, 2023 11:49 AM in response to johanteekens

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

Download and run Etrecheck. Be sure to give it Full Disk access before running.

Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can evaluate the report to see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

217,802 points

Aug 10, 2023 8:51 AM in response to Keith Barkley

Yes, that could contribute to the problem. With that in mind download and run Etrecheck. Be sure to give it Full Disk access before running.

Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can evaluate the report to see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

Reply

Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

217,802 points

Aug 9, 2023 11:14 AM in response to johanteekens

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

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Answer 4

johanteekens Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 9, 2023 11:15 AM in response to Old Toad

yes. clean my mac seemed convenient to me. Would that be a or the problem?

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Answer 5

Aug 8, 2023 10:59 AM in response to johanteekens

Are you using an external drive? If so, how is it formatted?

Do you have multiple users?

I have never had a corrupted library.

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Answer 6

Aug 9, 2023 7:37 AM in response to johanteekens

johanteekens wrote: Of course I can create a new library and recover from icloud but that is not the way it should be.

Starting new from iCloud is a great idea. It's possible that you have a single picture or video that's causing the problem, crashing the Library only when Photos happens across it. iCloud works like a filter, only accepting compatible files.

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Answer 7

Aug 9, 2023 11:21 AM in response to johanteekens

It has been known to not understand the library very well and delete needed files in the name of "removing duplicates".

Get rid of it, it adds no benefit to your Mac.

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Answer 8

Aug 11, 2023 1:23 PM in response to johanteekens

Have you tried a smart album to see which files are not working?

Luckily, I don't have any (knock on wood 🪵)

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Answer 9

johanteekens Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 8, 2023 11:09 AM in response to Keith Barkley

Hi Keith,

Thanks for your suggestion, but I have nothing external, just everything on my macbook and as plain vanilla as possible to avoid disruptions like this. I have a 2 TB iCloud account which is used for less than 50%, so that can be eliminated as well.

Today again, I repaired my library twice but after 20 minutes it was corrupt again, so I threw it in the bin and created a new photos library and made it system library and re'synced my iCloud photos.

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