My Photo Library Wont Open On My Mac

09.04.2020
79 Comments
My Photo Library Wont Open On My Mac 4,5/5 4727 votes

Jul 26, 2009  I keep trying to close my iphoto on my macbook pro but it says that there are pictures being imported so I can't. But there aren't any pictures being imported. I don't even have a camera plugged in. I can't shut down my computer either because of the 'pictures being imported'. I tried letting the computer run out of battery. That was a waiste of time. Help me please!!!!

  1. Jul 12, 2017  Maybe it’s become corrupted and Photos won’t open, or maybe you just want to start fresh and archive your old one. Regardless, to create a new System Photo Library, first open the location where your current system library is and drag it to a backup spot if you want to keep it (recommended). Drag it to the Trash if you don’t.
  2. Feb 01, 2016  Hi, For some unknown reason the Photos app has stopped working. I cannot open the app directly (hangs for 2 seconds and crashes). Photos App Won't Open (Windows 10). I cannot do anything with my photos app since the last upgrades/updates. It will not uninstall. It will not do anything.

We take a lot of photos with our iPhones and even DSLRs and other cameras. Photos are great for capturing memories with others, or when you just want to get a snapshot of something beautiful. Photos on Mac can help you keep all of your photos in one place, and even help you organize them.

How to add pictures and videos to albums

If you have a lot of photos and videos, one of the simplest and easiest ways to start organizing everything is to make use of albums, especially when you give them good names. And if you use iCloud Photo Library, all of your albums in Photos for Mac get synced to your iOS devices too.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Click on Photos in the sidebar, under the Library section.

  3. Pick out the photos you want to add to an album, either new or existing.

    • Hold down the command key on your Mac and click to select multiple photos.
  4. Right-click on your chosen photos and videos.
  5. Move the cursor to Add to.

  6. You can choose an existing album, or create new album.

    • If making a new album, give it a good, easy-to-remember name.

Optionally, you can make a new album at any time by clicking the + button that appears in the sidebar next to My Albums. Drag-and-drop the albums in whatever order you want to rearrange them in the sidebar.

How to organize albums and folders

When you have a lot of albums, it may be better to clean it all up by organizing albums into folders, which are like collections of albums. It's easy to do.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Either right-click on My Albums in the sidebar, or hover above and then click on the + button that appears next to My Albums.

  3. Click New Folder.

  4. Give your folder a name.

  5. Drag the albums that you want into that folder.

How to use Smart Albums

Smart Albums are like regular albums, but smarter, obviously. They're great for helping you quickly organize images without the need of manually adding each one to an album because it's all automated.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Right-click on My Albums or click the + button that appears next to My Albums.

  3. Select New Smart Album.
  4. Give your Smart Album a name.

  5. Choose the parameters for your Smart Album.

  6. Click OK to confirm.

Smart Albums have a large number of different parameters, such as photos, faces, aperture, ISO, Live Photo, RAW, Portrait, and more. With all of these options, you can create many different Smart Albums to suit whatever it is you need.

If you're not satisfied with the Smart Album, you can always tweak the settings by clicking on the gear icon that's next to the Smart Album's title, then re-select the parameters you want to use.

Unfortunately, Smart Albums do not sync to your other devices through iCloud Photo Library, as they're only available on your Mac.

How to navigate Photos for Mac faster with the sidebar

The Sidebar in Photos is a great way to quickly jump between various areas in Photos quickly and easily. Plus, it helps you find albums that may otherwise be hidden, so this was a design choice made by Apple.

However, if you are running macOS Sierra and older, you can actually hide or unhide the sidebar as you wish.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
  2. Click on View in the menu bar.
  3. Select Show Sidebar in the menu.
  4. The sidebar will appear on the left side of the screen.

  5. Follow the steps above to hide it (make sure Show Sidebar is unchecked).

How to navigate moments, collections, and year views in macOS Mojave and earlier

One of the coolest things about Photos is that it intelligently groups all of your photos and videos into moments, collections, and years.

This means that your photos appear in a timeline and are grouped by things like location, or even event. It's a great way to take a look back at your memories and relive those specific moments in time.

The Moments, Collections, and Year views are only available in macOS Mojave and older.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.
  2. Make sure that you're in the Photos view from the sidebar.

  3. Click on Photos, Moments, Collections, or Years buttons at the top of the window.

  4. Click on a section of a Year to move to that Collection, or a section of a Collection to drill down into that Moment, or an item in a Moment to view that image or video in closer detail.

  5. You can also use your keyboard's arrow keys to move between photos and videos in a Moment.

  6. A single click on an item selects it, while a double click takes you to view it.

In the Year and Collections views, thumbnails can be small. You can click-and-hold and then drag the cursor in any direction over the thumbnails to get a larger preview. Letting go will take you directly to the image that the cursor was last on.

How to navigate through Years, Months, and Days in macOS Catalina

To replace the previous Moments/Collections/Years view, Catalina changed it to Years, Months, and Days for simplicity.

  1. Launch Photos on your Mac.

  2. Make sure you're in the Photos section in the sidebar.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click the Years, Months, or Days buttons at the top of the window. The default view is All Photos.

  4. Clicking on Years lets you see each year as a block. Double-clicking the year takes you into Months.

  5. When you double-click on a Month, you'll drill down into the Days view.

How to create a new library with Photos for Mac

You can create a new library for your photos at any time with Photos for Mac. To do so, make sure that you quit Photos and reopen it with the following method to get the Library options.

  1. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
  2. Double-click on Photos on your Mac.
  3. Click on the Create New button in the Choose Library window.
  4. Name your Library.

  5. Click OK.

You've now created a brand new Photos Library. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to migrate over photos and video, so you will need to export the content you want, and then import it back into the new library.

How to switch between Libraries in Photos for Mac

When you create a new library, you may still want to go back to a previous library for something. Fortunately, it's easy to switch between multiple libraries.

  1. Make sure that Photos is not open (quit if it is).
  2. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
  3. Double-click on Photos.

  4. Click on the name of the library you want to open.

Voilá! Just make sure to repeat this process each time you want to switch to a different Photo library.

How to move your Photos library to an external hard drive

If you're low on storage space on your Mac, you can just move your Photos Library to an external hard drive. Keep in mind though, that you will need to have this external drive plugged in to access your Photos Library, even if you have iCloud Photo Library enabled. And you aren't able to create a second Photos Library that has iCloud Photo Library enabled on your Mac, so be wary.

  1. Launch a Finder window on your Mac.
  2. Click on the Mac hard drive (Macintosh HD) in the sidebar.
  3. Double-click on the Users folder.
  4. Double-click on your username.
  5. Double-click on your Pictures folder.

  6. Mac remove temp library files. Click on the Photos Library file and then drag it to your external hard drive in the sidebar.

This process may take a while, depending on how big your Photos library is.

A note on reference libraries

The Photos app technically supports the management of images that aren't locally stored within its library — that is, you can keep a set of images in a folder called 'October Trip' and manage them within Photos without having to make a separate copy of them. You can do this by navigating to Photos > Preferences from the menu bar, selecting the General tab, and unchecking the 'Copy items to the Photos library' box under Importing.

That said, reference libraries won't play nicely with iCloud Photo Library users; you may run into problems when syncing, or not be able to sync at all. So if you plan on using a reference library, you'll have to opt out of iCloud Photo Library.

I also didn't have any luck getting referenced files to sync properly with Photos — I'd delete a photo, but the reference file would stay in its original location, even after deleting it from the 'Recently Deleted' folder. Not sure if that's a bug or just not how Photos wants us managing referenced photos, but worth noting.

Questions?

My Photo Library Won't Open On My Mac Computer

Sound off in the comments below!

October 2019: Updated for macOS Catalina.

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'I downloaded Catalina and now find my iPhoto does not work any more! How can I get it to work? DESPERATE!'

If you are facing the iPhoto not working on Mac Catalina issue, it is because that is the way things are designed. iPhoto has actually been retired and Apple no longer supports it. As a replacement to the app, you now have the Photos app that does pretty much all the tasks as the iPhoto app.

But if you have been an iPhoto user and you are now confused as to what to do to access your photos as the app no longer functions, you might want to look for solutions. The following guide should provide you with some tips on how you can overcome the issue and get access to your iPhoto photos. There are actually multiple ways to resolve the issue so you should not have any issues.

Problem 1. iPhoto Not Working/Opening, How to Access Photos in iPhoto?

'Can I retrieve all the photos I still had in iPhotos? Once I downloaded Catalina, iPhotos could no longer be opened. I didn't realize Catalina had that feature. My thousands of iPhotos seem lost. Is there anything I can do?'

If you are like the above user and the iPhoto not opening on Mac Catalina at all, it is because the update is preventing that from happening. Any Macs that runs macOS Catalina or later will not let you launch iPhoto because the app has been retired long ago and Apple does not support it any longer.

The following are some of the things you can do to access your photos that were stored in the iPhoto app on your Mac.

Solution 1: Migrate to the Photos app that comes with Catalina

iPhoto does not work starting with Catalina and there is no chance it will work in any future macOS updates. Therefore, your best solution is to get your photos migrated to the new replacement app you have on your Mac.

The new Photos app lets you easily import your photos from iPhoto. The following shows how to do the task.

Step 1. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.

Step 2. Launch the Photos app from the Launchpad on your Mac.

Step 3. A prompt will appear asking you to select the library you want to access. From this list, choose your iPhoto library and click on Choose Library.

Your iPhoto library along with all of your photos will launch in the Photos app. You can now manage your photos in this app from now on. That is how you get the images from iPhotos library to Photos library.

Solution 2. Recover Missing Photos in iPhoto If You Failed to Migrate

In an unfortunate case if the migration procedure did not go well and you ended-up losing your photos, you will need to use a recovery software to recover your photos.

Tenorshare UltData - Mac Data Recovery, a software that lets you easily and quickly recover lost files on your Mac. You can use it to recover your lost photos in a few clicks as shown below.

Step 1 Download and install the software on your Mac. Launch the software when it is installed. On the main interface, click on the drive you want to scan and then click on the Scan button.

Why Won't My Photo Library Open On My Mac

Step 2 Select Photos in the left sidebar and you will see your photos in the right-hand side pane. Select the ones you want to recover and click on Recover.

Step 3 Choose the folder where you want to save your recovered photos.

Problem 2. How to Upgrade iPhoto on Catalina?

'I upgraded to Catalina and I need to use iPhoto. How do I upgrade it?'

Soon as you notice that iPhoto no longer works in Catalina, you will likely start finding ways to get the app to somehow work on your Mac. Not only with iPhoto but you will do it with any other app when it refuses to run on your machine.

Solution: There is no solution

Unfortunately, there is no solution to your issue. iPhoto is retired and no matter how hard you try to run it on your Mac running macOS Catalina, the app will just not run. It is because the app uses an old framework that Apple no longer supports.

Problem 3. Is There an Application like iPhoto?

'I prefer using iPhoto over Photo. Is there an application like iPhoto that will run using the new OS Catalina?'

It is natural to look for alternatives when an app does not work on your machine. Since iPhoto has stopped working on your Mac, you might want to see if something similar is available in the market for you.

Solution: Use iPhoto Alternative Software like Google Photos

Fortunately, you have a great alternative to iPhoto available for your Mac. It is Google Photos and it allows you to upload, manage, and keep your photos on the cloud. It provides 15GB of free storage for original quality photos and unlimited storage for photos that are set to high-quality.

Problem 4. How to Backup iPhoto library Before Catalina Upgrade

'How do I find my iPhoto library on my hard drive? I want to put all my iPhoto library on an external disk before I even think about upgrading as I have read iPhoto will no longer work when Catalina is installed. I genuinely hate the photos app and much prefer the ease and control I have with iPhoto. When I click on the iPhoto in my applications folder, there isn't any library there.'

My Photo Library Won't Open On My Mac Drive

If you already know that iPhoto is not going to work in Catalina, you might want to backup your iPhoto photos to an external hard drive before you proceed with the Mac update. This is actually the best way to keep your photos safe as well as easy to import into the Photos app when the update is installed.

Solution: Backup iPhoto libraries to External Hard Drive

Your Mac lets you easily backup your iPhoto photos to an external hard drive and you do not even need an app to do the task. Everything that you need is already available on your machine

Step 1. Open a Finder window and head into /User//Pictures. Right-click on the file that says iPhoto Library and select Show Package Contents.

My Photo Library Won't Open On My Mac Pro

Step 2. Open the Masters folder on the following screen and you will see all your photos organized by their years.

Step 3. Copy these folders and paste them onto your external hard drive using Finder.

You have successfully created a backup of your iPhoto photos on your hard drive.

Sum Up

If you are wondering 'how to access my photos in iPhoto after Catalina upgrade', there are a few easy ways to do the task as described above. You should be just fine with using any method available in the above guide.