Mac Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck

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  • There’s no software to download, all you have to do is hold down the OPTION and COMMAND buttons while launching Photos. You’ll need an Administrator name and password for the computer to authorize.
  • After you repair photos library on Mac, you can use this amazing app again. Repairing the library solves most of the issues in Photos app. However, if your problem still remains, maybe you have to opt for a different app in Mac OS for the time being. Reinstalling Mac could fully resolve the issue.
  • After a library repair, each photo is being verified against the iCloud library copy. This Apple support document 1 states: If you repair a library that's automatically updated with iCloud Photos, the entire contents of the library re-updates with iCloud after the repair. Just like a normal iCloud library upload, this can take a very long time.
  1. Mac Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck In Space
  2. Mac Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck In Safe Mode

Reader Celia Drummond had a Mac crash so severe, she had to upgrade her system from Mavericks to El Capitan—I didn’t ask about Sierra—although she was able to recover her data from Time Machine.

Library

However, after using the iPhoto Library Upgrader, Apple’s recommended path for converting iPhoto 7 and earlier libraries to a newer format that iPhoto 8 and 9 can use, “The result is photos a fraction of their original size—most were between 1MB and 7MB each—and all are pixelated.”

I never used the utility, so I don’t know what went wrong, but something did if that’s the outcome, or something is missing in the Time Machine backup. Because she can’t run the older version of iPhoto, she can’t simply rebuild the library, which is the usual suggestion. (I’d make sure you had version 1.1 via the link above, as older versions are out there, too.)

I’d normally suggest for forward version compatibility to try to find an intermediate version of software, which has been useful for folks with various older releases of the iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote). However, the only course of action with an iPhoto 7 library is apparently to run it through the upgrader; you can’t just try to open it in iPhoto 8 (or 9). (I don’t have older libraries to check this out, so I’m relying on Apple and forum posters.)

If the upgrader just won’t work with the old library, the only real solution is to crack open the library and extract ones photos.

A Photos Library can be damaged beyond repair, when being used on a NAS - it has not been designed to work on a network share, see: Sharing photo libraries among multiple users - Apple Support Connect an external USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt drive which has enough free space to contain the library. Be sure to choose a locally mounted drive.

  1. Control-click the iPhoto Library.
  2. Choose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu.
  3. Drag (to move) or Option-drag (to copy) the Masters folder to the Desktop or to another drive.
  4. Launch the latest version of iPhoto 9 and import that Masters folder. Or launch Photos and do the same.

Unfortunately, you’ll lose a lot of information associated with photos and video that’s stored within the library, such as metadata, potentially some edits, albums, and other organizational elements. But this is better than losing the high-resolution versions of your media.

Mac Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck In Space

Mac Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck

After importing the images and videos and making sure they’re the high-resolution ones you want, you can then use a de-duplication program, like PowerPhotos or Photosweeper 3 (review coming), which can clean up the low-resolution images and possibly help fix the missing metadata.

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Mac Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck In Safe Mode

Glenn Fleishman is the author of dozens of books. His most recent include Take Control of Your M-Series Mac, Take Control of Securing Your Mac, Take Control of Zoom, and Six Centuries of Type and Printing. In his spare time, he makes Tiny Type Museums. He’s a senior contributor to Macworld, where he writes Mac 911.