You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Mishi_007 Author

Level 1

5 points

Photos App looking for original photo files

Hi! I have a recent problem with Photos app, likely to be linked with today's Sonoma update.

I have 3 libraries: 2 on my local drive (M3 MBP) and 1 one an external SSD. I've been using the Photos App for several year now and I always follow the same pattern: I dragged the photo file (raw+jpg) to the app but kept the original files on an external drive. The drive was not connected to my laptop and I was still able to edit my pic in the Photos app. As I understood, this was not necessary, as the pics dragged into Photos would be "incorporated" into the library file. I never had issues until today, when I suddenly get the message: "Photos cannot be opened if the original files associated with the photos are not available. The original photo "IMG_4926.JPG" is offline or cannot be found. Click on "Find original" to reconnect." If I attach my external SSD, everything is fine. But this is obviously not the way to go, I don't want to keep about 1TB of photos "duplicated" on my Mac (i.e. both in individual folders and the Photos App). Any idea?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.1

Posted on Dec 1, 2023 6:14 AM

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,303 points

Posted on Dec 1, 2023 9:53 AM

You may want to check the Photos > Preferences (Or Settings). Open the "General" tab of the Setting.

Is the checkmark for "Importing: Copy items to the Photos Library" still set?

If not, your recently imported files have been imported as referenced and not copied into the library package.

In that case you may want to consolidate them - select all photos in Photos, that have not been copied into the library and use the command "File > Consolidate" to copy them now into the library.

To find all photos that need consolidating, you could create a smart album:

File > New smart album
Set the rule to "Photo is referenced".

Is this smart album empty, or do you have many photos that have not been copied into the library?

View in context

Photos App looking for original photo files

Similar questions