the only way I can find the photo app is in the finder, and it is empty. I am getting the message, "Photos cannot find the System Photo Library named "Photos Library.photoslibrary"" I have tried everything to locate it. the 5,535 pictures are still I'm my iCloud (thank goodness), but only accessible by losing into iCloud.com. I'd rather have easier access to them through the app. Help please.
iMac Pro (2017)
If your photos are still in iCloud Photos, you can easily recreate a new Photos Library in your Pictures folder. Your Photos Library needs to be in a local folder, not on iCloud Drive or in any other synced folder, like DropBox. If you keep the library on an external drive, the drive needs to be formatted as described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
To recreate a local copy of your iCloud Photos Library:
Creating a new library and making it your iCloud Photos Library will be faster than finding your previous library and having to sync it again with iCloud. iCloud would have to sync all photos from your previous library again with iCloud, which would be wasteful because of a lot of unnecessary network traffic. When you start over with a new, empty library, you will save the new upload to iCloud. But your projects (slideshows, books) will be missing and you may need to name some faces again. So you may want to try to find the old library as well.
If your photos are still in iCloud Photos, you can easily recreate a new Photos Library in your Pictures folder. Your Photos Library needs to be in a local folder, not on iCloud Drive or in any other synced folder, like DropBox. If you keep the library on an external drive, the drive needs to be formatted as described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
To recreate a local copy of your iCloud Photos Library:
Creating a new library and making it your iCloud Photos Library will be faster than finding your previous library and having to sync it again with iCloud. iCloud would have to sync all photos from your previous library again with iCloud, which would be wasteful because of a lot of unnecessary network traffic. When you start over with a new, empty library, you will save the new upload to iCloud. But your projects (slideshows, books) will be missing and you may need to name some faces again. So you may want to try to find the old library as well.
The Photos app is in the Applications folder, and it's usually available in the Dock and in the Launchpad.
The Library that has your pictures and data, by default named "Photos Library.photoslibrary," is usually located in the Pictures folder, but it can be moved.
You can do a Finder search for anything with the extension ".photoslibrary" like this:
so if you select the Library in the window, it's path will be shown below.
Be sure to look into Trash and iCloud Drive. It can't work in either of those places, and sometimes the get accidentally dragged along there, somehow. If you find it there drag it back to the Pictures folder.
You can also close Photos and then option click on the Photos icon to bring up a dialog that shows the Libraries that Photos knows about--
but Photos has already said it can't find yours, so this probably won't help.
Are you using an external drive? If so, look there, too.
Let us know what you find or if you still can't locate it.
I believe it is in your Pictures folder.
Photo app missing
