Apple Photos managed library on SSD: internal search, as well as people & pets etc not working

Question

Level 1

56 points

Apple Photos managed library on SSD: internal search, as well as people & pets etc not working

With the Apple Photos (managed) Library on an external drive, I understand that Spotlight doesn't search it (a pain, but there it is), but I don't know why even the internal Photos Search doesn't work (it doesn't find places, tags, or even words in the names of photos that I've tagged/added two minutes before).

The Library is designated as the System Library and is on an attached large SSD. (I'm not interested in having huge and unnecessary iCloud, so that feature is turned off.)

When I set up the Library (after previously abandoned attempts), in the beginning People and Pets identification seemed to get up and running: a month later, nothing updates there either.

I don't believe I should 'repair' the Library as, the last time I did this, it seemed to wipe or mess up all the hand-written metadata, leaving with now with all the Photos but not way, beyond endless scrolling (or date-targeting) to find anything.

Any ideas/experience. Should I start over and set up a new Library and import everything into that, or does that mean I'm back to square one again? I believe Spotlight doesn't index an external library, but I know the (Ai?) internal Photos search was working at one point, but no longer.

Sorry for the rambling question!

Many thanks

Posted on Jun 21, 2026 3:49 AM

Reply

Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

202,305 points

Jun 21, 2026 4:25 AM in response to baldoyler

What kind of Mac are you using? Is it always sitting on a desk, with the DDS connected, or are you frequently disconnecting the external SSD? Which system version is running on your Mac?

Your system photo library can be on an external drive, and the Photos.app will scan it, but you need to keep the external drive mounted an connected, whenever you ar signed into your user account, even if you are not working with photos.

Are you keeping the your Mac turned on over night to give Photos enough time to scan the library?

I take it, your external SSD has been prepared exactly as described here? Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 2

baldoyler Author

Level 1

56 points

Jun 21, 2026 10:55 AM in response to léonie

Many thanks for the reply.

I'm running 26.5.1 on a Mac Mini M4 with 32 GB and everything seems in order. The Photos Library is on a 4TB external SSD, connected to the MacMini, and Photos has been left open and running for the past two weeks. Still the Library search is not working and the People and Pets feature, which started to be built when I set up the Library stopped shortly after. The Library is Managed, all photos are copies to the library on Import, and the Library is chosen as the System Library. When the problem first occured I was persuaded to Repair Library but that only made the issue worse: for one thing, it seemed to wipe all the hand-entered metadata, and it also seemed to 'lose' many photos, so I had to import lots of photos again which took an age! Now I have all the photos, and no 'missing photos' (I set up a smart folder of Missing Photos to be sure -- it's empty). But the Library just doesn't update and, as I say, to find anything is a huge challenge as the internal Search function simply does nothing.

If the Library is somehow corrupted, should I (and how do I'm set up a new library and move everything to it. As I say, the last time I tried to 'fix' things it only made the issue worse.

Any ideas greatly appreciated. (By the way, I did set up the external drive as APFS and don't use either iCloud for photos or Time Machine, so neither should be the issue.

Many thanks again

Reply