Can’t open Photo Library after updating macOS? Especially when you store the Photo Library on an external disk to save your Mac Startup storage space. The old version of the database and Photo Library can’t be updated on the new macOS. Another reason is that Photos can't find the System Photo Library on the system disk After the macOS upgrade, how to find and open it with Photos application? If so, how to fix this issue? If not, how to rescue original photos and photo metadata in Photo Library.
If you haven't changed your photo library storage location before, by default, the Photos application stores the photo library in /Users/~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary.
1. Check the permission of Photo Library
If you’ve ever moved the photo library from one storage location to another(such as from an old Mac to a new Mac), please check the permission of Photo Library to see if the current user can read/write it. Right click the Photos Library.photoslibrary in Finder, and choose the Get Info menu item. Check the privilege under the Sharing & Permissions tab, if the current user can only read, click the lock icon to make changes and change the “Read only” privilege to “Read & Write”.
2. Move Photo Library from external disk to Mac
If you store the photo library in an external disk, the external drive may be not compatible with new version of Photos for Mac, when the file system format of the external drive is not MacOS Extended (Journaled) or APFS, or if the drive has been used for Time Machine backups or other backup software is installed, you cannot use it for storing a Photos Library.
3. Designate a System Photo Library in Photos
If your Mac has multiple photo libraries, you need to choose one to be the System Photo Library. The System Photo Library is the only library that can be used with iCloud Photos, Shared Albums, and My Photo Stream. First quit Photos, and hold down the Option key and open Photos. One of the photo libraries is already designated as YourLibraryName (System Photo Library). Choose the library you want to designate as the System Photo Library. After Photos opens the library, choose Photos > Preferences from the menu bar. Click the General tab. Click the Use as System Photo Library button.
4. Use Photo Exifer to extract original photos and photo metadata
If Photos still can’t be able to open the photo library, how to rescue original photos and photo metadata? We recommend using the third party application - Photo Exifer to open the photo library and extract original photos and photo metadata. Download and install Photo Exifer on the Mac.
Run Photo Exifer, go to product menu File -> Open Photo Library… to select the photo library.photoslibrary to open and scan photos. After the scanning has completed, it will display all photos in the photo library.
And then select all photos to export all photos from the photo library. If you need to only export original photos, please click Quick Action -> Export original photos from the Photo Library. If you need to export original photos with photo metadata in photo library, click Quick Action -> Export original photos with all photo library metadata
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