Well, I don't really have an answer. Photos is evidently taking some time to process the image. How is the storage on your drive? Do you have at least 15% free storage?
I have had a similar issue with jpgs from my Nikon Z8. (I don't process RAW files in Photos. Rather I use Lightroom or Nikon's NX-Studio.) Each jpg will be blurry, and after a little circle fills, it is fine. But next time, same thing. This happens on Libraries not connected to iCloud and using only the internal drive. I don't know why. However, frustrated, I used another program to 100% convert the jpgs to jpgs (!) and the converted files work fine. I infer that the Nikon jpgs somehow have something in them that Photos isn't dealing with very well. Again, I don't know why. I'm still doing the conversion thing. I'm using an M3 MacBook Pro with No storage problems.
I would suggest that you try using Adobe's free Digital Negative (DNG) converter to make a universally acceptable RAW picture files. This is the format that Lightroom uses when it creates a new (edited) RAW file, and Apple and Photos supports it.
If you want to try some things, I suggest
- Restart the computer (of course)
- Re-start in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this:
Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support
- Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it
- Use another library if you have one, or make a small 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.
The idea is to find out if the problem is with the Library, with your account, or with caches and login items, and stuff like that. One of these steps may fix the problem, but their failure to work also helps figure out what's happening.
I tried them, and it didn't help in my case.
Let us know what happens…
