Photo library unavailable, error 3142

Question

Photo library unavailable, error 3142

Hi,

I own a MB Air, a recent iPhone and a desktop iMac. They are linked via iCould.

My desktop iMac is unable to open Photos and displays an error message with code 3142.

I have tried :

reconstructing the library : this has led to a full 24 hours of little rotating wheel, with no effect at all. I ended up doing a "force quit".
importing a "working" photo library from my MB Air into my iMac : it has been copied onto my iMac HD (not in the cloud), I renamed it to make sure it would not accidentally delete anything similar. When I ask Photo to open this library instead, I get this message :

"Relinquishing photo library to writer"

I have to admit I had to use a dictionary there, asEnglish is not my primary langage...

And it leads to the same result : an endless rotating wheel...

Thanks in advance.

iMac 24″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Oct 8, 2024 1:32 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 8, 2024 7:43 AM in response to Jazzy_Marydor

Well, I've never seen the "relinquishing" message, before!

Your troubleshooting steps seem great to me. To eliminate some possibilities,

Are you using an external drive or network for your Photos Library?
- if so, how is it formatted. An external Library must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
- Network drives can't be used
Is your Library designated as the System Library in Settings>General?
Do you have "Optimize" storage for Photos turned on?
What percentage of iCloud storage is free?
What percentage of your Mac's storage is free?

You tried copying a Library to the new iMac. Try creating a new test Library with a few pictures in it and see if the same thing happens. You can create a new Library by closing Photos and then option-clicking on the Photos icon. Create the new Library in the Pictures folder on you Mac's internal drive.

Have you tried restarting in Safe Mode? This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Let us know…

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Photo library unavailable, error 3142

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