Photos library corrupted after rename & move

I renamed my system photo library and then moved it to the desktop. After renaming, it wouldn't move so I restarted. After restarting, I moved it to the desktop, tried to open it but Photos became unresponsive, so I restarted again.

The library was originally 1.02TB and now it's 30GB.... I believe that the restarts I did interrupted background processes related to the renaming and moving of the library and may have resulted in most of my photos being permanently lost (not to mention corrupting the photoslibrary file).

I don't have Time Machine turned on :/

Can anyone recommend a possible solution or is all hope lost?

Posted on Dec 12, 2023 1:35 AM

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léonie

Level 10

204,377 points

Posted on Dec 12, 2023 5:39 AM

Which system version do you have installed? And do you by any chance have iCloud Drive enabled in the System > Settings, with the Desktop and Documents folder enabled as well?

If your Desktop folder is syncing with iCloud Drive, it would explain, why Photos could no longer open the library. A Photos Library must not be moved to iCloud Drive, because the syncing can break the internal links.

Have you tried to drag the library back to your Pictures folder? If it is currently still on your Desktop and the Desktop is on on iCloud Drive, drag the library back.

Since you do not have a backup, stop using your computer instantly, so data recovery software will have a chance to recover any remaining image files or videos.

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Photos library corrupted after rename & move

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