Photos attempted to repair the library. MacOS Photos.app tutorial 2015-12-30 11. How to fix Photos has attempted to repair the library Photos Library.photoslibrary, but is unable to open. The library could not be opened—here's the fix. May 06, 2018 I've had to repair her Mac photos database a few times to resolve this issue, and at one point completely remove the library and re-download it. She rarely uses the Mac, and what seems to happen is that if her Mac account is not logged on for a while, the local library gets too far out of sync from the iCloud one, and they can't reconcile.
| Click here to return to the 'Rebuild the iPhoto Library' hint |
- Jan 24, 2016 Repairing a Corrupt Apple Photos Library TWiT Tech Podcast Network. HOW TO REPAiR CORRUPT/BROKEN PHOTOS AND iMAGE FiLES. Mac Tip: How to migrate your iPhoto Library to the new Photos app.
- Step 6: If your Mac contains multiple photo libraries, for each library you can separately run repair library process. Reinstalling Mac helps to resolve Repairing library problem. Solution 3: Repair Photos Library in Photos App for Mac OS X Before going to repair the photo.
- Jun 07, 2015 Because the migrated library takes little additional space, you don't need to delete the original library. So don't do it, even if you're tempted to. You can still use your original photo library with iPhoto (version 9.6.1, as of this writing) and Aperture (version 3.6) after you've migrated it to Photos.
- Sep 24, 2019 The easy and the established approach to viewing all your photos again in Photo Library is to employ a professional Photo repair software that is supported in Mac. Alternatively, you can also try Apple’s inbuilt Photo Library Repair tool but that may not fix your severely corrupt photos.
I wish I knew about that when iPhoto pooped out on me a few weeks back. I thought it was strange considering I have less than 100 photos stored in the application. Anyway, I ended up removing the library file. iPhoto rebuilt the library on the next restart and it started working again. I'm glad there's a more elegant way of doing this.
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Gypsy <gypsyx@manson.vistech.com>
robg comments that he's not sure when you would need to rebuild the library. The Apple forums are full of users who have 'lost photos'. Rebuilding the libary recatalogs them.
Note that changing a file name of a JPG file using the finder will make it 'invisible' to iPhoto. Changing the name back doesn't help. You must import the photo back into iPhoto. Loose enough photos this way and 'rebuild' option becomes quite attractive.
I wonder if iTunes has this feature? My library self-corrupted a while back (scattered tracks suddenly are marked as unknown/unavailable in the middle of sequences, although the files are still in place). (these are classical albums, nine piano trios in a folder for example, with two of them 'lost' by iTunes).
Hand-navigating to each folder for each 'lost' track is impossible til I reach retirement age some years hence.
It's all beta and I'm tired of it.
I rebuilt my library, having had a few problems with reimporting a backup I made.
It really messes with the ordering of photos, in a way that seems totally bizarre... so I'd advise anyone doing this to watch out. You may have a slightly screwy library, but rebuilding it may make it really screwy :-
If you want to go back to the old library, just go to your com.apple.iPhoto.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences/ and look for the line:which in my file is line 171, and delete the _1
No wucking furries :-)
I rebuilt my library, having had a few problems with reimporting a backup I made.
It really messes with the ordering of photos, in a way that seems totally bizarre... so I'd advise anyone doing this to watch out. You may have a slightly screwy library, but rebuilding it may make it really screwy :-
If you want to go back to the old library, just go to your com.apple.iPhoto.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences/ and look for the line:which in my file is line 171, and delete the _1
No wucking furries :-)
K0o bebuild a busted iPhoto library. I start by holding down SHIFT+OPTION as I launch iPhoto. Everything moves along fine while it loads maybe 10-15 pics that have the default name they were given on my camera - such a PC1200012.jpg. Then the hole process just stalls when it comes to a pic that I've named - such as ses3.JPG.
It just stalls the whole iPhoto library rebuilding process. Would anyone have a clue what's up here? Thanks!
Also ever since my original iPhoto library crashed, every time I try to import from my camera, iPhoto says, 'No camera is selected'. My camera is hooked up fine and I can locate the pictures, copy and everything. just can't import into iPhoto.
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Why would you need it?
Well you might have a desktop and a laptop Mac and your might have a program like FoldersSynchronizer and you might say to yourself, 'Self, it sure would be great to have the exact same iPhoto libraries on both Macs, wouldn't it?' and you might think that FoldersSynchronizer would be a good way of doing so.
Of course, I'd never try that with my data...
... I did it with a friend's.
Pulling all the originals out of those 'dated' folders (thank goodness they were there, even if iPhoto didn't see them), trashing everything else and then re-importing them (wow! iPhoto must have used the EXIF data and not just dated them by the day you imported them ... DOH!) was a real pain-in-the-but-tocks.
Or you might just be plain stupid and try the syncing yourself, ignoring a warning dialog ('There is a Folder blah blah blah'), and suddenly the Library info is gone.
Of course something stupid like that would NEVER happen to me!
Thanks for this great tip! It really helped, and is better and faster than just importing the pictures from a backup!
Alex
My library currently has 4100 photos and about 500 rolls, dating back to 1998. Doing the rebuild speeded up things dramatically on my Cube. But, the renumbering of the rolls makes rebuilding the library inacceptable for me. Just can't find anything any more. I wish there were a trick to maintain or reconstruct the roll information.
If you give each roll a name, it will retain that name after the rebuild.
HMM
Just upgraded to iLife 5.0.1 and wanted to have my thumbnails (Library) rebuild since some of the thumbnails are looking a lot worse than others - even though they're all shot with the same Nikon D100 at the same settings.
Anyways it seems that the shortcut to invoke the Library rebuilding is CMD-OPT - not the before mentioned SHIFT-OPT.
The latter - or just SHIFT - gives you they upportunity to create a new album or choose another preexisting album.
Anyways I'll hit the 'Rebuild Library' button now and see how long time it takes to have 2.300 6 megapixel images rebuilded on my old TiBook ;-)
Hmm - the thumbnail-files are NOT rebuild, I wonder how you can acheive that WITHOUT having to re-import all the images
BINGO - with iPhoto 5.0.2 you now get four different items to choose from when you hold CMD-OPT down during the launch of iPhoto - one of them being 'Rebuild Thumbnails'.
It took a whole hour (with 100% CPU-load) for my 867 MHz TiBook to rebuild everything (2.700 six megapixel Nikon D100 shots) - but it was definately worth the wait since my bad looking thumbnail-problem is SOLVED now.
I guess someone should rewrite the hint, anyways - now it's in a comment ;-)
PS.: I guess it (still) helps to tell Apple what features/bugs you find (I did :-)
...And in iLife '06 the rebuild modifier keys are <command><option><shift>.
I have a question related to this hint.
I ran out of space on my powerbook, and started burning pictures off to DVD before importing them, with the 'copy files to library...' feature turned off. This created a bad situation where iPhoto gets stuck looking for files that it can't find because their volumes aren't mounted. For image files, this only happens when you select them to do something with them, but apparently there's a bug in iPhoto in which if you have a movie file on an unmounted disc, it immediately looks for it at startup of iPhoto and hangs up with the Spinning Beach Ball of Death unless you have the volume available. So my iPhoto has become essentially unusable.
So, i took an old 120GB drive out of my old G4 tower, wiped it, and have repurposed it as a photos-only drive. I know i can just move the iPhoto Library to that drive and then point iPhoto at it, but i'd also like to rebuild it so that all of the originals are moved into the iPhoto library, basically returning it to a normal state with the 'copy photos to library...' feature enabled.
Another way to put it that I think makes sense is this: I want to perform a function that does the same thing as iTunes' 'Consolidate Library' command. This command in iTunes takes all of your dispersed music files and puts them in the correct place in the iTunes Music Library folder. That's what I want to happen with iPhoto - take the files that aren't in the iPhoto Library folder and move them into their correct location in there.
Is there a way to use the Rebuild Library function to do this? Has anyone experienced this before?
Thanks
Max
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107947
Back up your library
Before following any of these steps, it's a good idea to create a backup of your photo library, even if you use iCloud Photos. You can use Time Machine, use a third-party backup solution, or copy the library to an external drive. By default, your photo library is stored in the Pictures folder within your home folder.
Make sure that your software is up to date
Photos is part of the Mac operating system. You can avoid or fix many issues by running the most up-to-date version of macOS. Learn more about updating the software on your Mac.
If you use RAW images in Photos, learn more about the digital camera RAW formats supported by iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
If you have trouble migrating an existing iPhoto or Aperture library to Photos
You might see an alert message when you first open Photos or migrate an existing iPhoto or Aperture library. Learn what to do if Photos can’t copy or create a library.
How Long To Repair Photo Library Mac Os
If the Media Browser isn't showing your photos and videos
Use the Media Browser to make images from your photo library available in other apps, like Pages and iMovie. The Media Browser shows only the contents of the Photos library designated as the System Photo Library. If you have more than one Photos library—and the one you're using isn't set as the System Photo Library—the Media Browser won't show its contents.
Follow these steps to designate the current library as the System Photo Library:
- Choose Photos > Preferences.
- Click the General button at the top of the Preferences window.
- Click Use as System Photo Library.
If you're having other issues with Photos
If you're experiencing other issues—like missing or blank photo thumbnails, unexpected behavior, or if Photos won’t open—try to see if it's an issue with your library by following these steps.
Create a new Photos library and see if your issues persist:
- Quit Photos.
- Press and hold the Option key while you open Photos.
- In the dialog that appears, click Create New.
- Give your new library a name, then click OK. Note whether Photos opens successfully with this new library.
To return to your main Photos library, quit Photos. Then open it again while holding the Option key, select your main library, and click Choose Library.
Alternatively, you can open Photos in another user account on your Mac and note whether Photos opens successfully.
If Photos opens with the new library, or in a different user account, it might mean that there's an issue with your library. Follow the steps to use the Photos library repair tool on your main Photos library.
Repair Photo Library On Mac
Learn more
Rebuild Photo Library Mac
- Learn how to create and order print products like books or calendars in Photos with Project Extensions.
- Get help with iCloud Photos.