After MacOS Sonoma update, Photos app is unable to open my Photos Library because it's stored in iCloud Drive.

1. When I try to move the photos library to a different folder I get a message saying that my IOS devices will no longer be able to access the photos. On top of that, I will now have to download 29GB back onto my computer which will take quite some time and wifi bandwidth. So what gives?
2. What settings do I need to change in order to sync photos across my devices AGAIN, because the fact is it worked before, and my photos were happily residing in iCloud, but now they will both be not in iCloud AND not syncing across my apple devices - devices I bought partially BECAUSE they sync things across the devices. Sorry for the annoyed tone but this is really a nuisance and not at all the Apple experience we've come to expect and enjoy.
3. The icon next to my photo library in iCloud says it's "ineligible" for download - it's a cloud that is crossed out. What does that mean? What in the world is going on?
4. So now because of this "upgrade" I have to do a bunch of manual tasks that are not clear and it feels just like the days of Windows, a big drop of the ball here by Apple.
5. I think I speak for many people when I say that this is terrible on all fronts

Just to be clear, prior to Sonoma, I never once thought about or knew where my photoslibrary file was. I didn't even know there was one. Then when I tried to launch Photos in Sonoma, I got the same error message as the OP. I hope these notes are useful:

1. I found my photos library file here: iCloud Drive/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary
2. I dragged it to the Macintosh HD/Users/<my name>/Pictures folder.
3. I opened Photos app--it opened and updated my library without me having to hunt for the file or take any other action.
4. For those of you worried about space on your local drive, it should not make any (negative) difference. It takes up the same 100 GB (in my case) on your local drive whether you have it in the iCloud Drive or not--because there's a local copy of the file anyway, so moving it is a net zero operation. There's a benefit, though: You'll get that 100GB (or whatever) back from your iCloud storage, because this one (giant) file will no longer need to take up room in the cloud.
5. For those of you worried about syncing your photos with your phone/tablet/whatever, that should also not be a problem. If you do the first 3 steps above, your photo library connection to the iCloud Photos service should still be intact and everything will still sync.
6. The reason for 4 and 5 is that this Photos Library.photoslibrary is just your local copy of all your photos. When you sync photos from the cloud, this is where they are stored so you can have quick access to them. There's still a separate copy of all your photos in the cloud (if you use iCloud Photos service).

I don't know whether Sonoma installation moved my Photos Library.photoslibrary file from my local Pictures drive to iCloud Drive/Pictures or whether it had always been in iCloud and Photos just hadn't complained about it before. The primary answer on this page, while technically accurate, is a bit insulting as it implies that customers who encounter this have done something wrong by moving the file to the iCloud Drive--that is not the case. And also, it doesn't provide instructions or the information needed to fix the situation that installing Sonoma caused (not the customer who installed it). I hope this post addresses this gap for folks.

Hello @marmeaux. I hope this helps.

For my step 1:

a. Open Finder

b. Look on the left side for "iCloud Drive" and click that. You should now see a list of folders and files to the right.

c. In the list of folders on the main (right-hand) section, look for Pictures and click that. You should now see a list of folders and/or files that are in the Pictures folder.

d. Look for a file called "Photos Library.photoslibrary". Depending on your settings, it might just show as "Photos Library".

e. If you see this file, you have successfully completed Step 1. This is where all your photos are stored locally.

Step 2:

a. Open another Finder window (from the Finder menu at the top of your screen, choose File and then New Finder Window)

b. In the left pane, look for "Pictures" under Favorites. If you don't have that, look for Macintosh HD, then choose "Users", then choose the folder with your account name, then look for "Pictures" under that.

c. The Pictures folder you found is where you want to move your photo library in the next few steps.

d. Position both Finder windows so that you can see the Photos Library file you found in step 1 and the Pictures folder of both on your screen at the same time. Resize them if necessary.

e. Move your cursor to the Photos Library and click on it once to select it. Then click and hold so you can drag it. Move your cursor a little to make sure it's getting dragged.

f. Drag the file over to the Pictures folder you found in the other window, and drop it into Pictures by releasing your mouse button (or raising your finger on the touchpad).

At this point, you'll get a warning about the file not being available on other devices. Don't be alarmed; this file is only local storage so you really don't want it in iCloud anyway.

Note: There are probably easier ways to do this, but this is the most explicit set of instructions I could think of that will work for everyone and doesn't require using terminal. If someone else has a better way, I'd love to hear it.

My photo library has been happily sitting on my iCloud drive ever since there was an iCloud drive. I never had an issue with it. In fact that was a reason i opted for the 2TB monthly fee. Now the sonoma upgrade forces me to move it locally where i really have no room for it, so i have to attach another drive to a usb port which i don't have so I have to attach another usb hub to my existing usb hub! And for the entry level macs with small drives there has to be constant resolution conversions (optimizations... HA!) for image manipulation? Why am i not convinced that this is progress in this day and age that EVERYTHING else lives on the cloud?

Please enlighten me!

Apple has warned against storing a photo library on iCloud Drive or in any cloud storage (Google Drive, DropBox, etc. ) right from the first release of Photos. A Photos Library is a package of linked files and databases, and the syncing can break these internal links. This warning has appeared in several Apple Support documents: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

"You can't store your library on a storage device used for Time Machine backups. And to avoid possible data loss, don't store your library on a removable storage device like an SD card or USB flash drive, or on a device shared over your network or the internet, including over a cloud-based storage service."

I tested this with several small test libraries a few years ago. DropBox just needed half an hour to make mincemeat out of my test library. iCloud Drive needed a few days before I could no longer open the library. Then it has been damaged beyond repair. We had the same limitations with iPhoto Libraries and Aperture Libraries.

Instead Apple offers iCloud Photos Library, the only safe way to keep a Photos Library in iCloud. iCloud Photos has been designed to sync the library properly between different system versions and across different platforms.

And Apple has now made it impossible to move a library onto iCloud Drive to prevent us from putting our libraries at risk. If we move a Photos Library onto iCloud Drive, it will not be uploaded and no syncing will happen to protect it.

Athletic-Supporter wrote:

Hi Keith,

... I disagree with Richard.Taylor's statements "It cannot be on a network drive. This has always been true." Prior to the installation of Sonoma, my Mac synced with my iPhone just fine, and my photos were NOT resident on my hard drive. I only have a 500 TB hard drive, and I'm using about half of it. I keep most of my records on external hard drives that are backed up in triplicate. One in a fire safe AZ, one in a fire safe MN, and one copy that I keep with me. I'd love to hear a technical explanation of what happened when Sonoma was installed and why I can't set this up the way it was prior to Sonoma.

Even when you are using iCloud Photos you still need a local copy of your Photos Library. The local Photos Library does not need to be on the internal drive of your Mac. You can use an external drive, as long as it has a wired connection and a compatible file system format and has not been used for Time Machine backups or has system software installed. This is necessary, because the Photos.app has not been designed to work with a network database. As you probably know, the Photos Library is a package of your original image files, edited versions of the image files and database files, describing the the adjustments and relations between the images and the albums and folders. These internal items are linked, and the links can break, when the library is on a synced volume. And the network access can cause race conditions and dataloss, when working with the internal database files over a network. Database transactions need to be designed for network access by using synchronised transactions. Given Apple's warning, that remote access to the Photos Library is not supported, I can only infer, that Apple did not implement the the synchronisation for network access in Photos, because this can make the access slow. It has always been this way in Photos, and even in the predecessor iPhoto and Apple's flagship photo software Aperture.

The technical reasons in short:

• Cloud syncing of the library package can break the internal links, if not done by iCloud Photos.
• Accessing the library over the local network can cause race conditions and inconsistent database entries and data loss.
• if the library is on a volume used for Time Machine backups or has backup software installed, there will be problems with the file ownership.

If your Photos Library is also on iCloud Drive, drag the Photos Library in the Finder from iCloud Drive to the Pictures folder or another folder in your user home folder. You may get a warning, if you really want to remove the library from iCloud Drive. Confirm this.

Some of us aren't tech savvy at all and don't understand all of the instructions. Even Apples instructions tell you to click on things that don't exist.

I wish Apple would just change this one back to how it was. It worked.

The Photos Library must be available locally-- either on your Mac or on a properly formatted hard wired external drive. It cannot be on a network drive. This has always been true. In fact, you can't even move a Photos Library to the iCloud drive for a backup-- when I've tried that, it pretended to move it there, but really it was still stored on my computer.

The "iCloud Drive" is different from iCloud Photos, which is a syncing service. It stores your pictures and makes sure that your local Photos System Library has exactly the same pictures in it. And you can access them through iCloud.com. But to run the Photos app on a mac, it must use a local Library.

By selecting "Optimize Storage" in Photos Settings, you can save space by having Photos keep only smaller picture files on your computer as necessary -- it will automatically load full sized images to the Mac whenever you need to edit or print.

I wonder what you've tried in the past? For reference, you can check out these sources:

Apple Photos external drive

Optimize storage in Photos on Mac - Apple Support

Athletic-Supporter wrote: Prior to the installation of Sonoma, my Mac synced with my iPhone just fine, and my photos were NOT resident on my hard drive.

As Keith Barkley (and I) have said, keeping a Photos Library on remote storage has always been unsupported. Apple has always said that this could result in corruption. Of course, since Apple didn't enforce this, many people came on this discussion forum wondering why Photos didn't work for them, and we had to quote Apple's documentation. And, of course, there were also people who were just lucky.

With Sonoma, Apple, apparently tired of all the complaints from folks who didn't read the warning, included a routine to ensure that the corruption wouldn't happen. That's where we are and why.

This is a long meandering thread, so it is unclear what "worked", but did you make your new library the system library?

I assume you mean to add images from Photos into your messages.

Designate a System Photo Library in Photos - Apple Support

The technical explanation is that this is what Apple recommends for Photos Library Storage:

"Make sure that your external storage device, such as a USB drive or Thunderbolt drive, is formatted for Mac: either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

You can't store your library on a storage device used for Time

Machine backups. And to avoid possible data loss, don't store your

library on a removable storage device like an SD card or USB flash

drive, or on a device shared over your network or the internet,

including over a cloud-based storage service."

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

And the iCloud Drive does not meet those requirements. It might have "worked*" before, But Apple has decided to enforce the rule that was already in place.

*Database corruption is not easily seen and may lurk for years before manifesting itself.

Thanks for your feedback. What I am looking for is a step by step procedure to make my photo library available again without loss of data.

As a test I created a second library just to see how is was setup and how is was presented in the box listing the libraries (it has the extension name.photoslibrary). I opted for a location of the library in the map Pictures. This was easy and I could drag some photos in it. The photo app on my MB pro worked perfectly and there is no synchronization of these photos to the Cloud. By using the option key + double click the Photos icon in the dock I could switch between the two libraries. That worked well, I could switch between the two libraries although the original one was still the same result.

When I login via iCloud.com the original pictures are still in the cloud and my iPhone is still showing my original photos and new iPhone pictures are uploaded as well. So there is still communication between my iPhone and the iCloud using the original library.

The local iCloud drive on my MB still contains my photo file after the Sonoma update. So how to proceed, what steps do I have to take to make my original photo library alive again on my MB.

I do not possess much computer skills so I do need help.

How can I make my original library alive again (without losing my photos) like my second test library: original.photoslibrary?

1. Make backup of the original photo library via iCloud.com to a SSD?
2. Move the original photo library to the map Pictures and say yes to all the questions "Are you sure you want to remove your library from the iCloud drive?"
3. Synchronise the original library on the MB enabling communication with iCloud and other devices?

Some additional information on iCloud Drive: any file placed on iCloud Drive is mirrored on the Mac in the User/Home/Library/Mobile Documents folder:

It's syncing service so that all of your devices that have iCloud Drive enabled can access the same documents. It's not off computer storage.