Q: The new Photos app on OS X keeps crashing

It seems to be choking on a movie. Open the library in iPhoto, export and delete all movies, then try again to import.

There are many reports that Photos is crashing while trying to import an iPhoto or Aperture library. What I would do is to delete both the Photos library and the migrated iPhoto library, restore the original iPhoto library from the backup you made before starting the migration, send a crash report to Apple, and stick with iPhoto until Photos becomes more stable in a future release. Otherwise, you're dependent on Apple or someone else who knows more than I do for a solution.

Is there a way to get Photos to restart the import of my iPhoto Library?

The migration left your original iPhoto Library nearly untouched. You will find it in its original location, probably in the Pictures folder.

The filename extension will have been changed to "migratedphotolibrary".

iPhoto Library.migratedphotolibrary

Ctrl-Click this library and select "Open with > iPhoto"

You will see this panel:  Now select "Open iPhoto".

This test run will tell us, if the problematic videos can be played by iPhoto on MacOS X 10.10.3, or if iPhoto will also crash after the system update.

If iPhoto works well, you could try to back up the iPhoto library, rebuild it,  and then try to migrate again. Or wait, as Linc Davis rightly suggested.

Both the iPhoto Library and the Photos library are using the same media files - they are hard linked. Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support

I am not sure however, if this also applies to videos or only to image files. Are your videos QuickTime Movies or in another video format?

If the videos are QT movies and the Photos Library used hard links to them, there might be a problem with the media fork in the QuickTime container, if it has not been linked as well.

This line in the crash report suggests a possible problem with referenced media files:

[QTMovieModernizer checkMovieModernizeRequired:isReferenceMovie:]

Same thing happens to me. But it occur when there is no disk space left. It seems that the Photos library takes up a lot of space, maybe some kind of bug here? There should be hard links but it doesn't seem to work. When I free up some space the app starts work and continues to update the library and then crash again when the disk is full..

The Aperture library is about 470 GB and the Photos is about 400 GB.. I had about 100 GB free when I started to update to Photo (and I have the optimised storage option checked).

I am glad I am not the only one. There was even the short freakout before hand when iPhoto disappeared and there were no photos in photos. Then I started to drag an event with the result of a spinning wheel of death with nothing else using RAM. FAILWARE that frightens is not usually in Mac's DNA.

This isn't working for me. iPhoto.app is now greyed out and has a cross bar over it. When I try to open it I get an error message.

"The version of iPhoto installed on this Mac is not compatible with OS X Yosemite. Download the latest version for free from the Mac App Store."

Luckily I have my computer backed up but this would be a major issue for someone who doesn't and has limited computer skills.

With MacOS X 10.10.3 you need the latest iPhoto release, iPhoto 9.6.1.

Apple stopped selling iPhoto, but anyone who bought iPhoto from the AppStore or updated it to a version sold at the App Store (iPhoto 9.4.5 or later) will be able to reinstall from the App Store by downloading from the Purchases tab.

If you have any version of iPhoto, that has been updated from the AppStore and is associated with your Apple ID, try to reinstall from the "Purchases" page. 

• Unhide iPhoto, if it is hidden on your Purchases page (See this link: Mac App Store: Hiding and unhiding purchases)
• Trash the incompatible iPhoto version, but don't empty the Trash.
• Reload your Purchases page at the App Store with ⌘R
• Then download from that page.

The step "Trash the incompatible iPhoto version, but don't empty the Trash."  must not be skipped. If Spotlight sees a version of iPhoto installed, the AppStore will try to update instead of reinstall, which does not work.

Unfortunately for me, and I'd guess thousands of others, I didn't buy iPhoto from the App Store.

I've been using it for years – it was included with the original system software of my iMac.

I'd been holding off moving up to Yosemite from Mavericks until I was confident any issues had been resolved.

Having upgraded just 24 hours ago I'm unable to access my image library.

The version of iPhoto I have won't run and it would appear there's no way I can get a copy of iPhoto 9.6.1

I don't think it's a space issue - as I have over 900 g/bytes free on my 2TB drive - and my library only ran to 55 g/bytes.

On conversion to Photos - which crashes around the 71% mark - this increased to over 70 g/byte.

Is there any way I can access my images?

Apple appear to have really screwed up.

Please make iPhoto 9.6.1 available for everyone.

@Linc, What part of the crash log shows that it's a movie? My daughter successfully imported her iPhoto library after upgrading and it works fine, at least until she clicks on the Project tab, then it crashes. Here's the beginning of her crash log. I see a "Range or index out of bounds" that doesn't appear in Greg's. She has plenty of disk space left. This is a new iMac and was migrated from a backup of her 2011 MacBook Pro that Apple finally fixed because of the GPU issue. I don't believe she ever created a Project in iPhoto. I got the same error multiple times whether I had any photos selected or not. I could successfully click on every Photos tab until I got to the Projects one. I'll confirm that with her.

Would the best thing to do be to delete the Projects.db from within her Photos Library bundled app? It should create a new one shouldn't it?

Process:               Photos [48487]

Path:                  /Applications/Photos.app/Contents/MacOS/Photos

Identifier:            com.apple.Photos

Version:               1.0 (209.52.0)

Build Info:            PhotoApp-209052000000000~4

Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)

Parent Process:        ??? [1]

Responsible:           Photos [48487]

User ID:               502

Date/Time:             2015-05-05 11:07:36.756 -0700

OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.10.3 (14D136)

Report Version:        11

Anonymous UUID:        1FACF930-E90C-DD3E-63B4-04D445F4E0B2

Time Awake Since Boot: 600000 seconds

Crashed Thread:        0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)

Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:

Photo Foundation logging:

2015-05-05 11:07:32.775: Received changes notification alert: <LiModelChangeGroup: 0x61800107c780>  alert flags : Replay Complete (__59-[RKFaceChangesHandler startListeningForChangesFromMarker:]_block_invoke_2:173)

2015-05-05 11:07:34.378: no image provided for RDVersion(0x60800093c480) modelId=4555 uuid=EdtoETgwQdO+62cFJ78qiw tableName=RKVersion state=persisted,local (-[PAPreviewWriter _imageForImageStyle:version:imageProxyState:inputImage:inputImageSize:descripti on:render:largePreviewIsEmbedded:canceler:previewMaker:]:214)

2015-05-05 11:07:34.417: no image provided for RDVersion(0x618000b35360) modelId=4551 uuid=CCQAQqeCQjuIu0ulzHh3HQ tableName=RKVersion state=persisted,local (-[PAPreviewWriter _imageForImageStyle:version:imageProxyState:inputImage:inputImageSize:descripti on:render:largePreviewIsEmbedded:canceler:previewMaker:]:214)

2015-05-05 11:07:34.434: no image provided for RDVersion(0x6000009390a0) modelId=4549 uuid=bIPGgr7QRo+tZXEziWPwLA tableName=RKVersion state=persisted,local (-[PAPreviewWriter _imageForImageStyle:version:imageProxyState:inputImage:inputImageSize:descripti on:render:largePreviewIsEmbedded:canceler:previewMaker:]:214)

Crashing on exception: *** -[NSConcreteTextStorage attributesAtIndex:longestEffectiveRange:inRange:]: Range or index out of bounds

Application Specific Backtrace 1:

0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff91cfd03c __exceptionPreprocess + 172

1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff94a4676e objc_exception_throw + 43

2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff91cfceed +[NSException raise:format:] + 205

3   UIFoundation                        0x00007fff9191fef8 -[NSConcreteTextStorage attributesAtIndex:longestEffectiveRange:inRange:] + 137

...lots more after this

I have the same problem.  I cannot Export or share to FaceBook or Flickr without a crash.  Not even one time!  It's perpetually crashing with this stupid app, and to think Apple dumps gasoline in this fire by graying out the "Show Referenced File in Finder" command in the File menu too!

Here's the crash log I get when I attempt to EXPORT two photos (which I must do since the stupid app won't show me their whereabouts in the Finder):

Process:              Photos [28461]

Path:                  /Applications/Photos.app/Contents/MacOS/Photos

Identifier:            com.apple.Photos

Version:              1.0 (209.52.0)

Build Info:            PhotoApp-209052000000000~4

Code Type:            X86-64 (Native)

Parent Process:        ??? [1]

Responsible:          Photos [28461]

User ID:              502

Date/Time:            2015-05-23 11:16:08.834 +0900

OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.10.3 (14D136)

Report Version:        11

Anonymous UUID:        7261DCC0-E660-E772-8350-D224DDECC199

Sleep/Wake UUID:      09452450-483E-4D3D-B2F1-CF8E50AA085F

Time Awake Since Boot: 95000 seconds

Time Since Wake:      600 seconds

Crashed Thread:        0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)

Exception Codes:      0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:

Photo Foundation logging:

2015-05-23 11:15:11.603: Received changes notification alert: <LiModelChangeGroup: 0x618000c7a080>  alert flags : Replay Complete (__59-[RKFaceChangesHandler startListeningForChangesFromMarker:]_block_invoke_2:173)

2015-05-23 11:15:38.739: error while trying to load video asset for version:gTF5MFXcS+qY2ylb%qPReQ error: Error Domain=PAImagingErrorDomain Code=105 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (PAImagingErrorDomain error 105.)" UserInfo=0x60800146c1c0 {English Error String - Not Localized=asset needs modernizing} (+[PAAVSupport _ensureNaturalDurationIsPresentForPlaybackSettings:version:assetURL:error:]:54)

2015-05-23 11:15:38.740: unabled to load playback settings: <_PACachedEditSession: 0x600000cb5780> error: Error Domain=PAImagingErrorDomain Code=105 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (PAImagingErrorDomain error 105.)" UserInfo=0x60800146c1c0 {English Error String - Not Localized=asset needs modernizing} (-[PAVersionEditSession _videoPlaybackSettings]:561)

2015-05-23 11:15:39.389: no image provided for RDVersion(0x600000b25f00) modelId=10215 uuid=gTF5MFXcS+qY2ylb%qPReQ tableName=RKVersion state=persisted,local (-[PAPreviewWriter _imageForImageStyle:version:imageProxyState:inputImage:inputImageSize:descripti on:render:largePreviewIsEmbedded:canceler:previewMaker:]:214)

Crashing on exception: NSXPCSharedListener unable to create endpoint for listener named com.apple.view-bridge

Application Specific Backtrace 1:

0  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8dac803c __exceptionPreprocess + 172

1  libobjc.A.dylib                    0x00007fff8b99976e objc_exception_throw + 43

2  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8dac7e1a +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 106

3  Foundation                          0x00007fff8bc6a8cb -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 195

4  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff85ba2af8 +[NSXPCSharedListener connectionForListenerNamed:fromServiceNamed:] + 151

5  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff85b80fc1 -[NSRemoteViewBase serviceMarshalConnection] + 286

6  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff85b81d10 -[NSRemoteViewBase advanceToConfigPhase:awaitingWindowRights:] + 414

7  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff85b905db -[NSWindowCentricRemoteView advanceToConfigPhase] + 947

8  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff85b82883 -[NSRemoteViewBase viewServiceMarshalProxy:withErrorHandler:] + 88

9  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff85b78eb8 -[NSRemoteViewBase bridge] + 207

10  AppKit                              0x00007fff83b9571d -[NSVBSavePanel init] + 303

11  AppKit                              0x00007fff83b95571 +[NSSavePanel newRemotePanel] + 301

12  AppKit                              0x00007fff83b95373 +[NSSavePanel _crunchyRawUnbonedPanel] + 74

13  Photos                              0x0000000104c86bd1 Photos + 3308497

14  Photos                              0x0000000104c859f7 Photos + 3303927

15  Photos                              0x0000000104ce00b7 Photos + 3674295

16  AppKit                              0x00007fff83bc264a -[NSWindow _endWindowBlockingModalSession:returnCode:] + 255

17  libsystem_trace.dylib              0x00007fff85936cd7 _os_activity_initiate + 75

18  AppKit                              0x00007fff83b94fb1 -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 452

19  AppKit                              0x00007fff83baaa46 -[NSControl sendAction:to:] + 86

20  AppKit                              0x00007fff83baa962 __26-[NSCell _sendActionFrom:]_block_invoke + 131

21  libsystem_trace.dylib              0x00007fff85936cd7 _os_activity_initiate + 75

22  AppKit                              0x00007fff83baa8bf -[NSCell _sendActionFrom:] + 144

23  libsystem_trace.dylib              0x00007fff85936cd7 _os_activity_initiate + 75

24  AppKit                              0x00007fff83ba8db3 -[NSCell trackMouse:inRect:ofView:untilMouseUp:] + 2821

25  AppKit                              0x00007fff83c0145f -[NSButtonCell trackMouse:inRect:ofView:untilMouseUp:] + 770

26  AppKit                              0x00007fff83ba7466 -[NSControl mouseDown:] + 714

27  AppKit                              0x00007fff841112fc -[NSWindow _reallySendEvent:isDelayedEvent:] + 14125

28  AppKit                              0x00007fff83aa0d76 -[NSWindow sendEvent:] + 470

29  AppKit                              0x00007fff83a9d312 -[NSApplication sendEvent:] + 2504

30  AppKit                              0x00007fff839c6c68 -[NSApplication run] + 711

31  AppKit                              0x00007fff83943354 NSApplicationMain + 1832

32  libdyld.dylib                      0x00007fff892d55c9 start + 1