Knight @ ASAP
Level 1 (4 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: photos for mac suddenly acting like first time opened

I've been using Photos on my work iMac without issue since it was updated from iPhoto. However, today when I opened Photos, I was greeted with a Welcome screen as though I had never used it before! My 9 GB Photos Library is still in the Users > Pictures folder where it's always been, so I clicked the Get Started button on the Welcome screen to see if maybe it would just re-import the library. After several minutes of nothing seeming to happen, I Force Quit out of Photos and restarted it. This time I checked to see if I could File > Import the library, but all options are grayed out.

 

I opened Disk Utility and repaired permissions in hopes that might help, but when I re-opened Photos I was greeted with the same Welcome screen.

 

I am not syncing any of these photos to iCloud at this time.  Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

Screen Shot 2016-09-12 at 12.55.04 PM.png

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Sep 12, 2016 10:02 AM

by John Galt,Solvedanswer
John Galt John Galt
Level 8 (48,715 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Uninstall "Avira" according to its instructions. Use no other technique, procedure, or utility to uninstall it.

 

Like all ill-conceived "anti-virus" garbage its uninstaller is not completely effective. The following files and folders will remain and require manual removal:

 

~/Library/Application Support/Avira

/Library/Application Support/Avira

~/Library/Saved Application State/com.avira.uninstall.savedState

~/Library/Saved Application State/com.avira.controlcenter.savedState

/var/log/com.avira.helper.watchdox.log

Posted on Sep 12, 2016 12:38 PM

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Knight @ ASAP

Q: photos for mac suddenly acting like first time opened

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  • Helpful answers

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 12, 2016 10:19 AM in response to Knight @ ASAP
    Level 10 (84,261 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 12, 2016 10:19 AM in response to Knight @ ASAP

    Double click on the Photos library to open it - What exactly happens?

     

    LN

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 12, 2016 10:26 AM in response to Knight @ ASAP
    Level 10 (105,935 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 12, 2016 10:26 AM in response to Knight @ ASAP

    Are you signed into the same user account as before?

     

    Did you have an external drive connected?  Sometimes Photos will open a copy of the  library on an external drive, it it cannot access the library and may continue to use this library, until the drive is dismounted.

  • by Knight @ ASAP,

    Knight @ ASAP Knight @ ASAP Sep 12, 2016 10:42 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 12, 2016 10:42 AM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks for that idea! Unfortunately, when I double-click the Photos Library, the Photos icon in the Dock bounces for a few seconds and then appears to be open (with dot underneath Dock icon), but nothing happens for a few minutes, then the same Welcome screen I've been getting appears.

  • by Knight @ ASAP,

    Knight @ ASAP Knight @ ASAP Sep 12, 2016 10:48 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 12, 2016 10:48 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks for replying! Signed in to same account as always for over two years. Only external drive is a Time Machine backup...I ejected that and tried opening Photos again. Same issue.

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Sep 12, 2016 11:26 AM in response to Knight @ ASAP
    Level 10 (105,935 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 12, 2016 11:26 AM in response to Knight @ ASAP

    I opened Disk Utility and repaired permissions in hopes that might help,

    Try Photos's own repair tool instead.

    See this Help page:  Repair your library - Photos Help

    Important: You should back up your photo library before repairing your library.

     

    • If Photos is open, choose Photos > Quit Photos.
    • Press Option-Command and double-click the Photos icon in the Applications folder (or click the Photos icon in the Dock).The Repair Library window opens.
    • Click Repair to rebuild your photo library.

    If that does not help, try to restore your Photos Library from your backup.

     

    Something must happened, to render the Photos Library unreadable. 

    Did you run a system update? Install any new software? Did you run any cleaning applications to free storage?

  • by Knight @ ASAP,

    Knight @ ASAP Knight @ ASAP Sep 12, 2016 11:32 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 12, 2016 11:32 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks for taking me further with this! I tried opening Photos in repair mode as directed above a few different times, and each time the Repair Library window did not open. Basically, nothing would happen for about three minutes, then the usual Welcome screen would appear. Huh. Do you think there's something wrong with the app itself, rather than the library?

     

    Nothing has changed on this computer since I was last on it this past Friday. It's my work computer in our small office, password protected. I haven't run any updates, installed any software or any apps for cleaning in a couple of weeks at least, and Photos has been working fine consistently (I use it every day, as photos are a big part of our work, and I'm the marketing coordinator).

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Sep 12, 2016 12:59 PM in response to Knight @ ASAP
    Level 10 (105,935 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 12, 2016 12:59 PM in response to Knight @ ASAP

    Where is the Photos Library stored? In your Pictures folder, as is the default?

    Check the size of the Photos Library in the Finder - is it still large enough to be holding all your photos?

     

    Do you still have sufficient storage on your iMac?

     

     

    Do you think there's something wrong with the app itself, rather than the library?

    Test this, by importing a few photos into the new library with the welcome screen. Does Photos work as usual?

  • by Knight @ ASAP,

    Knight @ ASAP Knight @ ASAP Sep 12, 2016 12:23 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 12, 2016 12:23 PM in response to léonie

    Photos Library is stored in Pictures folder, since beginning. Library size is 10.39 GBs which is correct, have 895 GBs free on hard drive.

     

    Couldn't import any photos into Photos. Tried dragging photo onto icon in Dock (no luck), into Welcome screen window (no luck), and Import under File in Menu Bar is grayed out.

     

    As a further attempt, I clicked Get Started button in Welcome screen again and am getting spinning status wheel under the button, so I'll let that run for the next hour and a half if necessary to see if it loads library (though that still won't explain what's happened here!).

     

    Thanks for this info, and any other thoughts you might have!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 12, 2016 12:30 PM in response to Knight @ ASAP
    Level 10 (105,935 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 12, 2016 12:30 PM in response to Knight @ ASAP

    You have already restarted the Mac?

     

    If you cannot get past the welcome screen, test if there is a problem with your user account by trying to launch Photos from a different user account.

     

    You may want to read this Support document:

    Isolating an issue by using another user account

     

    If the problem is system wide, I'd tr to reinstall Photos by reinstalling the system.

  • by John Galt,Solvedanswer

    John Galt John Galt Sep 12, 2016 12:38 PM in response to Knight @ ASAP
    Level 8 (48,715 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 12, 2016 12:38 PM in response to Knight @ ASAP

    Uninstall "Avira" according to its instructions. Use no other technique, procedure, or utility to uninstall it.

     

    Like all ill-conceived "anti-virus" garbage its uninstaller is not completely effective. The following files and folders will remain and require manual removal:

     

    ~/Library/Application Support/Avira

    /Library/Application Support/Avira

    ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.avira.uninstall.savedState

    ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.avira.controlcenter.savedState

    /var/log/com.avira.helper.watchdox.log

  • by Knight @ ASAP,

    Knight @ ASAP Knight @ ASAP Sep 12, 2016 1:17 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 12, 2016 1:17 PM in response to léonie

    Thanks, léonie for all your help! John solved it below with the suggestion to remove Avira anti-virus!

  • by Knight @ ASAP,

    Knight @ ASAP Knight @ ASAP Sep 12, 2016 1:23 PM in response to John Galt
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 12, 2016 1:23 PM in response to John Galt

    Thanks, John! That did the trick! Avira anti-virus was the culprit, and now the Photos library loads fine and appears to all be intact! Thanks so much!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 12, 2016 1:37 PM in response to Knight @ ASAP
    Level 10 (105,935 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 12, 2016 1:37 PM in response to Knight @ ASAP

    You're welcome

     

    John has the better eyesight - brilliant!  I am sorry, I did not spot the tiny umbrella in your first screenshot

    The clue has been there all along!

    Screen Shot 2016-09-12 at 22.33.25GMT.png

  • by Knight @ ASAP,

    Knight @ ASAP Knight @ ASAP Sep 12, 2016 2:02 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 12, 2016 2:02 PM in response to léonie

    Ah haha! I wondered how he figured that out!