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

I remember doing that when going through the steps and I just checked again and the "use as system photo library" button in the settings interface is grayed out so I'm assuming that means it's already being used as that. The only thing I can think of is that I didn't click download originals to Mac. It's hard to imagine that this is the issue considering how much Apple goes on about the Cloud and how many people don't have large hard drives on their computer but I'm putting it out there as a possibility. See settings screenshot below

The Photos application is located in your Applications folder.

To find out where your library is located launch Photos with the Option key hed down and when you click on a library in the Choose Library window it's location will be shown just below the section box:

Just so you know a Photos library must be located on a local volume that's formatted either APFS or OS X Extended (journaled) and, if on an external drive, connected directly (by cable) to the Mac.

OMG I love you! Thank you for your help!

This thread is now 7 pages long and hard to follow. I suggest you start your own thread and describe exactly what you did and what is not syncing.

It will depend on your system version, what will happen, when the library is on iCloud Drive or in a Dropbox folder, or similar. Earlier system versions (up to macOS big Sur) did not give an error message and let us keep the library on iCloud Drive where it might get damaged. It is much safer now, with Photos preventing us from storing the library in a folder where the cloud syncing can break the internal links or the the database transactions will not be properly synchronized.

I got this same error message trying to use Photos after the MacOS Sonoma update. I'm struggling to find my photo library on my iCloud Drive though. I'm not sure what I should be looking for - there's no folder there named Photos or any other folder that might look like it might be hosting my photo library. Can I search for it in Finder? Is it named Photos or Pictures or ?

I am having same issue. The answers are somewhat helpful but can someone give a detailed step by step on how to do this? I have clicked settings - Apple ID - iCloud - and then I see a page that from top to bottom, iCloud, Account Storage, Optimize Mac Storage, then a box labeled "Apps Using iCloud" which has (from top to bottom) Photos, iCloud Drive, eCloud Mail and Passwords and Keychain and below that a box labeled iCloud+. If I click on iCloud Drive and then on "Apps syncing to iCloud Drive" I see the photo icon and it is already clicked to sync along with 11 others including Mail, messages, Quick Time Player etc.

Nothing that I click on seems to give me the option to put my photos that I had organized by album back on my desktop.

Sorry, I did finally find it - it was where it always was I guess, just I wasn't aware of where that was. It seems like after previous updates, the Mac Photos app was always able to remember where the Photo Library was and opened it. After this Sonoma update, Photos acted like it couldn't find the Photo Library and was asking me to point it out. Just took me awhile to find it.

David Estes wrote:

In my Photos app I have selected the preference to "Download Originals to this Mac." Shouldn't that be the same as storing copies outside the Photos app folder?? Doesn't seem to work.

"Download Originals to this Mac." is telling iCloud Photos to download all originals from iCloud to your Mac and not to use the "optimize Storage" option. The downloaded originals are stored inside your Photos Library and not in a folder outside the library. All originals will be mirrored on your Mac and you will have a complete photos library and can work with your photos, even without an internet connection. And Time Machine can make backups of your photos. It is the way I like to use iCloud Photos, just for syncing my devices, not for saving storage.

Photos has an option to store the photos outside the library and referencing them in the original location, but then you cannot use iCloud Photos. This is controlled by "Photos > Settings > General > Importing: Copy items to the Library". It is a left-over from iPhoto and Aperture, when we could import photos without copying them into the library and reference them in the original location. If Photos would not support this we would not have been able to migrate iPhoto and Aperture Libraries to Photos. But I cannot recommend to use Photos this way. There are no tools to relocate the referenced files to a different external drive when we need to replace the drive because it is failing, or when we need to restore referenced files from a backup. After migrating a referenced library to Photos we should instantly consolidate it and turn it into a managed library. It will be much easier to maintain, particularly, if we want to be able to sync the Photos Library with iCloud Photos between our devices.

Thank you for all of the helpful comments. I'm experiencing a similar issue with a slight twist. I am working on a 500 Gig hard drive that is backed up via an old time capsule on my local network. I also subscribe to iCloud+ and have plenty of room. When I first read this reply, I thought the file might just be misplaced. I found one sitting outside of my Pictures folder, but still in my User group. However, that library is my daughter's library (???). There are no other libraries on my personal drive. So, my next step was to create a new library as suggested. However, when I did that it will not let me set the new library up as my "System Library" because I have obviously misplaced it?? I can still see all of my photos on iCloud.com and my iPhone 13 pro. My next step would be to turn off photos in system settings, and then re-boot (with fingers crossed). I am concerned though about the warnings that tell me I might lose all my data. FYI, I also tried to find the library on an old backup. I was having trouble a few months' ago with one of the kids' laptops not backing up. Therefore, I wiped the whole time capsule (3tb) and started over. I have backups for the entire family from June 8th, 2023. So, I was looking for library file. Strange as it may seem, the only library file I have going back to June (pre-Sonoma and pre-issue) is the one I mentioned earlier (my daughter's). It's same exact byte size (6.09) throughout. Another interesting point here is that there is no "Photos.app" on any of those backups. I have to assume that Sonoma somehow erased / replaced the library with my daugher's and that replicated in the backups???? I have no idea. I knew better than to upgrade before the first couple of updates, but I did it anyway. Hoping someone out there can help.

You can use an external drive, it just needs to be locally attached to the Mac.

It is iCloud Photos that lets you share with iOS devices, not using your iCloudDrive to store your library.

iOS devices have never had direct access to the library.

I got this exact same error message the first time I opened Photos after the upgrade to Sonoma 14.0. I didn't know much about where the Photos Library was located, or supposed to be located, on my MacBook so I did some research. I believe the default location is on your Macintosh HD\Users\[YourUserName]\Pictures folder. For my experience, the Photos Library was moved from this location by the upgrade (not sure why). Then I searched via Finder for "Photos Library" and found that after the upgrade my Photos Library was moved to my iCloud Drive\Documents\Miscellaneous folder. It was there intact but on the iCloud Drive thus producing the error message when I opened Photos. All I had to do was to drag the Photos Library from the iCloud Drive location back to the Macintosh HD location where it was supposed to be. You get challenged by the move request ("are you sure") and also again when I re-opened Photos ("Photos doesn't have permission") but you just select the Photos Library and I was back in business again.

Is the Photos Library on an external drive used for Time Machine backups? Then Photos cannot work with it, because Time Machine volumes are having limited access rights. In that case you would have to move the library to a different external drive.

to quote eli@mac "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!"

Yes, and me too!

I also do experience that my photo library cannot be found after upgrade Sonoma. When I try to drag the photo library from my iCloud drive to my pictures folder I get the response "Are you sure that you want to remove your library from iCloud Drive?" .

This worries me because I do not know the consequences that my data get lost. I copied it first but there is no synchronization after I altered a picture.