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

There will be no synchronization between a library on the iCloud Drive and a local drive. You can periodically copy the local copy to the iCloud Drive for backup, but you should also have a few other backup sources, too.

This isn't true. I have been storing my Photo Library in the icloud drive for years because I have an iMac, macbook and phone that I need to access all of the same photos across all of the devices and this is how the Apple Store set it up for me. Very annoying that we weren't given the warning to move it before we did the update and is also annoying because it uses space even if it is storing a smaller image locally it is still taking up valuable HDD real estate ... just wish I had known this prior to doing the update!

This isn't true. I have been storing my Photo Library in the icloud drive for years because I have an iMac, macbook and phone that I need to access all of the same photos across all of the devices and this is how the Apple Store set it up for me. Very annoying that we weren't given the warning to move it before we did the update and is also annoying because it uses space even if it is storing a smaller image locally it is still taking up valuable HDD real estate ... just wish I had known this prior to doing the update!

I am confused, since a phone can't access a Photos Library. Are you sure you are not confusing keeping a library on the iCloud drive (which has *never* been supported - even if it "worked") vs syncing with iCloud Photos?

Keith Barkley everyone is confused. Unless it magically jumped to a different folder the photos library file has been sitting in an iCloud drive folder of my 2-year-old MacBook Pro since I got it and it appears from the comments here that many other's have been functioning just fine with this same setup which seems to have worked across devices. Maybe Sonoma upgrade did just that and moved the file to a different folder - I do know that I had to deal with a whole bunch of iCloud permissions on this stupid upgrade where I never had to do that before. On top of that, I tried to move the file to a different folder (it's 29gb) and an hour later I still saw a message saying it's "preparing" to move the file. I suspect it might take hours to do so if it's even possible. I've quit the process after an hour each time I've attempted it for fear of it going into some sort of death loop so now I'm stuck w/o access to my photos on my MacBook and no solution in sight. Apple doesn't seem to give a you know what as the last update on my Photos Library was 9/27 and it's now >2 weeks later and no solution seems to show up online. If anyone here knows Apple insiders, please contact them and get them to fix it.

Several months ago, when we were on Ventura and I first saw this "Photos Library on the iCloud drive" come up, I tried moving one of my Libraries to iCloud, and it seemed to work. But as, léonie pointed out, it was secretly hiding on my internal drive-- it only pretended to be working from the iCloud drive. I think that Keith and léonie may not be the ones confused.

In fact, my trial showed that it wasn't even working as a static cloud backup, because when I thought that I'd moved it to the iCloud drive, it wasn't really there, at all. I could get a copy of the package "TestLibrary.photoslibary" to iCloud drive only if I removed or replaced the ".photoslibrary" suffix, and then the library showed up as a folder. I could then copy the folder back, change the suffix back, and it would work with Photos. iCloud Drive really doesn't want the Photos library! I didn't try this, though, with a Library that was also syncing with iCloud Photos.

Do the following:

1 - create a new library on a volume with enough free space to hold your full sized library.

2 - make it the System Photos Library.

3 - enable iCloud Library in Photos/iCloud settings pane.

4 - for all full sized original (instead of optimized) do not enable Optimize Mac Storage. If you don't have enough room on your laptop to hold the full sized library enable Optimize Mac Storage.

5 - with Photos open and in the background have patience and let the download of photos proceed. Deppding on the size of the library ti could take up to a week or more. Leave the laptop on (not sleeping) all night with Photos open and in the background.

See page 3:

quote

Do the following:

1 - create a new library on a volume with enough free space to hold your full sized library.

2 - make it the System Photos Library.

3 - enable iCloud Library in Photos/iCloud settings pane.

4 - for all full sized original (instead of optimized) do not enable Optimize Mac Storage. If you don't have enough room on your laptop to hold the full sized library enable Optimize Mac Storage.

5 - with Photos open and in the background have patience and let the download of photos proceed. Deppding on the size of the library ti could take up to a week or more. Leave the laptop on (not sleeping) all night with Photos open and in the background.

Unquote

This was super helpful and worked for me. I had to open two different finder windows and then searched for "library.photoslibrary" in one and "Pictures" in the other. I might have created this pictures folder myself at some point so you may have to create your own "pictures" folder for this to work. Then I dragged the photos library icon into my pictures folder. It took a few minutes but now when I click my "photos" icon in my toolbar, it works.

This worked BUT..... NOW I cannot add photos to text messages on my Macbook, neither drag and drop nor using the messaging interface works to insert a photo into iMessage. This is like Whack-a-Mole, one problem solved and another pops up. Great job Apple.

Yes, I created a new photo library in a different folder and was able to view my photos again after the iCloud upload. However, I cannot insert a picture from photos into my iMessage text messages on my Mac any longer. Drag and drop doesn't work. Neither does using the interface inside iMessage on my Mac.

THIS and exactly my point. what is happening here. I need to access photos for my mother's funeral in 2 days and I am 1200 miles from home. The exact purpose of ICLOUD. My hard drive backup, via Time Machine and direct copy are in Texas as well.

exactly and add that small hard drives are the standard.

Now I have my mom's funeral in two days, and cannot get to the photo library. I am 1250 miles from my home, where my backup hard drive and Time Machine are located. Isn't this the purpose of ICLOUD.

I finally was successful at copying a Photos Library file to my hard disk drive and after numerous attempts got Photos to load it and designated it as the System Library. Now the problems are this library does not have all my photos of the previous two weeks - those photos are still "synched" on my iPhone and iPad - and also while Photos has my Albums it does not have any of my many "Shared Albums" which also still are on my iPhone and iPad.

This is absurd. I do lots of stuff with photos and it looks like it's been rubbed from my hard drive and is only available in iCloud!? Tried Time-machine workaround which didn't work. Tried laboriously manually downloading into new folder on desktop but iPhotos won't open it as they are greyed out?! Really basic pain in the arse. Not the first time lost huge amount (music) data after a OS upgrade and getting very very ****** off with spending ages trying figure out something that works for years, suddenly not working. Still not fixed and very very angry.