My apple Macbook was updated today to macOS Tahoe 26.5.1. When I opened my Photos App on my apple MacBook it displayed a message saying it couldn't find the Photo library and to create a new one. All my photos are not accessible any more. Hopefully, this can be rectified. Thank you.
Your Photos Library should be in the Pictures folder where Photos can find it. Sometimes, with an accidental flick, a Library can get moved somewhere else, maybe even the trash, so you may need to look around. You can use Finder's search field to hunt for a Library's exension, ".photoslibrary," (include the leading . in the search.)
The path to the selected find is shown at the bottom.
A Photos Library can't work in the trash or in the iCloud Drive folder or in some special use folders, so if you found it in a crazy place, you should move it back to the Pictures folder. Once it's settled, you can double click on it to open it in the Photos app.
If you are using iCloud Photos to synchronize your Photos Library, then a safe option would be to create a new empty Photos Library, designate it as the System Library, turn on iCloud, and wait for it to fill. You can see this:
Make a New System Library connected to iC… - Apple Community
Your Photos Library should be in the Pictures folder where Photos can find it. Sometimes, with an accidental flick, a Library can get moved somewhere else, maybe even the trash, so you may need to look around. You can use Finder's search field to hunt for a Library's exension, ".photoslibrary," (include the leading . in the search.)
The path to the selected find is shown at the bottom.
A Photos Library can't work in the trash or in the iCloud Drive folder or in some special use folders, so if you found it in a crazy place, you should move it back to the Pictures folder. Once it's settled, you can double click on it to open it in the Photos app.
If you are using iCloud Photos to synchronize your Photos Library, then a safe option would be to create a new empty Photos Library, designate it as the System Library, turn on iCloud, and wait for it to fill. You can see this:
Make a New System Library connected to iC… - Apple Community
Where is your library stored?
Did you make a back up before updating?
Hi Richard, Many thanks for your helpful reply. Having done the searches using the search term you suggest, including checking the Bin and other folders, I haven't located the photo library in my photo app. It was deleted by the upgrade I am sure, so there is not much I can do about it now. It does make me wary of upgrades though. The same upgrade also changed my settings in YouTube - so the history had vanished but I have reinstated that.
Best wishes and thanks, Odette
Odetomusic wrote: It was deleted by the upgrade I am sure, so there is not much I can do about it now. It does make me wary of upgrades though.
Since that hasn't ever happened to me when I've upgraded, I'm hesitant to fault the OS. I wonder what's different between our systems.
In any case, as Apple suggests, it's best to have a recent backup before such system-wide changes. Time Machine is a great tool for backing up a Mac to an external drive. I've have drives go belly up, so I backup to two of them, with other archive drives for older stuff.
Hi Richard, thank you. I do have a Time Machine backup so will now check that for restoring my photo library. Cheers, Odette
Unable to Access Photos following macOS Tahoe 26.5.1 update today.
