Can't export images from Photos app

Your photos are not stored inside the Photos.app package. Photos is creating a Photos Library, and by default this library is in the Pictures folder. Select the Photos Library.photoslibrary and ctrl-click it. Use "Show Package contents" there.

Is your Photos Library.photoslibrary in the Pictures folder or somewhere else? The icon of the Photos Library should be a stack of three pictures with the rainbow flower, like this:

Try to look inside the originals folder, but be very careful not to modify anything.

First, you may want to check the size of the originals folder, to see, if it is large enough to hold all your images.

"Originals" will have up to sixteen subfolders, named 0 to F. Look at the total number of all items in all subfolders. Is the total less the number of items that should be in your library?

Lots of people here offering great suggestions! When you say that all the original folders are empty, it makes me wonder if maybe you have more than one Photos Library. Maybe you're just seeing an empty one when there are really others? One way to tell is to close Photos and then option-click (⌥-click) the Photos icon. A dialog appears asking if you want to switch to a different Library, and it gives a list of the ones it knows about. Are there other Libraries? If so, you should try each to see what they have. It's a longshot, but worth a try.

HelpPhotos1 wrote: Moving forward, how can I fix that issue so future imported photos don't have this same problem?

To that question, the best thing to do is probably to again close Photos, option-click the Photos icon, and this time Create a new Library. You can name it New Library, or something you like better. It will automatically check the "copy items" thing, and you should be able to safely import pictures without worrying about the older corrupt library affecting them.

If you have an iPhone, it might be worthwhile to connect to iCloud so that the same pictures appear on both. If you connect to iCloud, then on the Mac, in the iCloud setting, you should probably check Download Originals (if you have plenty of space on your hard drive.) And you should use Time Machine with an external hard drive to back everything up without having to think about it.

Do you use a referenced library (which has problems)? Where are you exporting to (internal volume, external disk?)?

If those folders are empty it explains why you can't export the images - you're missing the masters.

Do you have a back up?

If the Photos Library is not in your Pictures folder but somewhere else, make sure, it is in a safe location. Photos can show you, where the library is. Open the Preferences in Photos and click "Show in Finder" in the "General" tab of the Preferences.

Well that pretty much depends on what happened to the original masters.

Are you running a Managed or a Referenced Library?

A Managed Library, is the default setting, and Photos copies files into the Photos  Library when Importing. The files are then stored within the Library package

A Referenced Library is when Photos is NOT copying the files into the Photos Library when importing because you made a change at Photo -> Preferences -> General. (You unchecked the option to copy files into the Library on import) The files are then stored where ever you put them and not in the Library package. In this scenario you are responsible for the File Management.

"Option" is the ⌥ key just away from the command ⌘ key. Right-click isn't the same. Right-click is like control-click and it opens a menu connected with the dock. This is the keyboard for my Mac Air showing the option key:

So close Photos, and hold the option key down while you click the Photos icon. That should bring up the Libraries dialog.

About "copy items"-- A "referenced" library leaves the pictures in place in folders on the Desktop or wherever. This is almost always a bad idea. If you move the folder, then Photos loses track of the pictures. So we use a "managed" library where the pictures are copied into the Photos Library, and it takes care of them and always knows where they are. In short: managed=good; referenced=bad. So we leaved "copy items" box checked, always.

I tried looking at the Show Package Contents, but there is no Masters file.

If your system version is macOS 12.7 Monterey, as shown below your question, there is no longer a "Masters" folder in the Photos Library.

The originals are now stored in a folder called "originals", and are even renamed by Photos with unique filenames. Also, the originals folder is no longer organised by the date of the Import session. We can no longer find our images files and videos by their original filename in the Photos Library package. This change happened with macOS 10.15 Catalina ( How Photos 5.0 on Catalina Manages original Files and Filenames). To be able to recover my photos, when Photos is not able to open the Library, and to retrieve my photos for me, I am archiving all original image files on an external drive, before I am importing them to Photos. Better be safe than sorry.

"I have Monterey, and when I try and copy a photo from my Photos Library app, it says "Export Complete with Errors. The export operation failed to create a file for the photo identified below:" "

Some more questions, so we can better understand what is going on on your Mac:

1. How are you exporting from Photos? Are you copying and pasting?
2. Are you using the command "File > Export? If yes, Are you using the "File > Export unmodified originals" or are you exporting the modified versions?
3. Does this happen for all your images or only for some?
4. And where are you exporting to? Are you exporting to an external drive? Can you export to your Pictures folder or any lokal folder in your user home folder ?
5. Is your library syncing with iCloud Photos?
6. What has happened, before the problem first occurred? Did you just upgrade your Mac to Monterey? Did you move your Photos Library or restore it from a backup? Did you run any cleaning operations to remove duplicates?

Can you view the image at full size in Photos?