Catalina Apple Photos editing broken? Cannot Start Editing, Photos cannot load adjustments

[MrSimmo]

Whenever I try to edit a photo in Apple Photos in Catalina, I get the following error pop up and then editing doesn't work (save doesnt save etc). This message sometimes pops up once per photo or sometimes tens of times.

- Catalina 10.15.1 fresh install (same error on dosdude patched 2011 Mac Mini and 2018 Macbook Pro)
- No photos extensions installed/enabled
- Photos set to download and store full photos locally (same issue happen when its set to save space as well)
- Photos I'm trying to edit are HEIC and JPG from iPhone caputres

In case the screenshot doesn't show up -

Error title is: Cannot Start Editing
Message is: Photos cannot load adjustments. Please try again later.


The only conversation I can find on this is unhelpful - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250771558


Anyone else seen this or know if there is a way to fix it?

 

[iBug2]

I don't have this particular issue with Photos but in general Photos is terribly broken in Catalina. Right now I'm waiting for export of 2 edited photos to desktop. I have been waiting for 10 minutes now.

 

[MrSimmo]

Its a shame as Mojave (for me) Photos was broken as well, kept failing to download, got stuck at 3999 photos etc.

There is so much potential to use it as our DAM for photos/videos for those of us who use iPhones as the primary camera; but with all these problems, I'm being forced to keep going back the previous way of working with other products 😢

 

[mpitman]

Just wondering if you found a solution to this problem. I have the problem affecting many photos in Catalina, my version is the one in which I CAN revert to original but then have to redo everything. It is going to be huge to fix. I am considering upgrading to Big Sur and crossing my fingers, but am not feeling confident about that. Apple Support's records do not show this problem as being fixed in Big Sur. However, their engineers won't look at it until I upgrade to Big Sur.

So... anyone reading this.... have you found a solution rather than a workaround. Did Big Sur fix it? Is there a better way to get back to having editable (and therefore exportable etc) photos without doing this upgrade first?

 

[threeleggeddog]

I had the same issue in Photos:

My symptoms include:

1. Cannot export the photo (unknown error 4)

2. Cannot edit the photo (photos cannot load adjustments for this image error)

I opened a support case with Apple on 10-Aug-2020.

They confirmed that the issue was real and they escalated the issue to Apple engineering.

Their only response so far has been "try upgrading photos", which I always did whenever a new release was available, but which never fixed the issue.

Over the past few months they have stopped responding to my e-mail asking about the status of the case (which is still open).

It appears to be a common issue:

How can I fix exporting errors/missing reference photos in the Mac Photos app?

I'm using the Mac Photos app on macOS Catalina (10.15.4) I have a Photos library that dates back to 2007 and was originally an iPhoto library. Ever since it was migrated to a Photos library, there ...

apple.stackexchange.com

"Photos cannot load adjustments for this image" error since upgrading to Catalina

Steps to reproduce: Migrate large photos library from a MacBook 2016 running Photos Mojave to a MacBook 2020 running Photos Catalina (in my case 120,000+ photos) A subset of photos (in my case 10...

apple.stackexchange.com

"Photos cannot load adjustments for this … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Certain images visible in Photos, but can… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Catalina Photos "The export operation fai… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Editing in Photos - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

problems with photos in update to Catalin… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Photos not exporting pictures, Unknown er… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

"Photos cannot load adjustments for this … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

What does "Cannot Start Editing: Photos c… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Export with errors in PHOTOS - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Catalina Photos "The export operation fai… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Photos 5.0 imac, Catalina Failed to dow… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Duplicating Photos - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Cannot export my photo from Photos to my … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[mpitman]

I had the same issue in Photos:

My symptoms include:

1. Cannot export the photo (unknown error 4)

2. Cannot edit the photo (photos cannot load adjustments for this image error)

I opened a support case with Apple on 10-Aug-2020.

They confirmed that the issue was real and they escalated the issue to Apple engineering.

Their only response so far has been "try upgrading photos", which I always did whenever a new release was available, but which never fixed the issue.

Over the past few months they have stopped responding to my e-mail asking about the status of the case (which is still open).

It appears to be a common issue:

How can I fix exporting errors/missing reference photos in the Mac Photos app?

I'm using the Mac Photos app on macOS Catalina (10.15.4) I have a Photos library that dates back to 2007 and was originally an iPhoto library. Ever since it was migrated to a Photos library, there ...

apple.stackexchange.com

"Photos cannot load adjustments for this image" error since upgrading to Catalina

Steps to reproduce: Migrate large photos library from a MacBook 2016 running Photos Mojave to a MacBook 2020 running Photos Catalina (in my case 120,000+ photos) A subset of photos (in my case 10...

apple.stackexchange.com

"Photos cannot load adjustments for this … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Certain images visible in Photos, but can… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Catalina Photos "The export operation fai… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Editing in Photos - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

problems with photos in update to Catalin… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Photos not exporting pictures, Unknown er… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

"Photos cannot load adjustments for this … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

What does "Cannot Start Editing: Photos c… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Export with errors in PHOTOS - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Catalina Photos "The export operation fai… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Photos 5.0 imac, Catalina Failed to dow… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Duplicating Photos - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Cannot export my photo from Photos to my … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Thanks so much for your detailed reply and including all the links. Most helpful. I had seen some of these online in my searching so was aware there was a known issue. Mind you, Apple didn't seem to think so when I rang a very patient and helpful (but ultimately unhelpful) person this week. They 'apparently' had no idea about the problem. Sigh....

My version is the Unknown Error (-1) (and an occasional Unknown Error (0) but they are more manageable).

I think I only have 100s of problems on my laptop libraries but have several large libraries on an iMac running High Sierra and fear that when I replace that I will have a major problem with those libraries. It's rather hard to know what will happen, but one thing for sure - it isn't acceptable to have photos unable to be exported. I have used Apple iPhoto and Photos since around 2006 and think this has to be related to Catalina 'no longer supporting iPhoto and Aperture' although there is a big difference between no longer supporting those apps and no longer supporting certain types of edits. I can honestly say I have NEVER encountered photo issues with a system upgrade before. Mind you, I delayed going from iPhoto to Photos for as long as I could hold out.

More by fluke than anything, I've just found that the pattern for my photos with error (-1) is:
- The original is intact (phew), I can revert to original and reapply edits but identifying them is a nightmare (exporting the whole library should do it but it will only list the first 100 in the error report), and some of them had substantial edits so not a trivial job. Nevertheless I am thankful for small mercies.
- There is a .plist file in /library_name/resources/renders/first_letter_of_nonsense_file_name
- When I view in the library a photo that doesn't have the problem, a .jpg file is created in the same folder (the rendered photo) but for the problem photos this isn't created. Presumably the instruction in the .plist file (nicely encrypted) isn't readable by Catalina but was readable by Mojave.

But going back to my question. I'm presuming that you have upgraded to Big Sur and the problem still exists. I have just purchased a MacMini with Big Sur to replace the iMac (and let the fun begin :-(( ) so will be able to test a copy of the library there and see what happens. If the problem still occurs I should be able to send sample files to Apple that specifically highlight a problem. Not sure I have the patience to try to get them to fix it but the alternatives aren't great.

 

[threeleggeddog]

No, I have not yet upgraded to Big Sur; I am still on Catalina (currently 10.15.7).

Unfortunately, software quality at Apple has become so bad that I no longer dare to upgrade when a new major version of macOS comes out.

I don't just do photo editing on my Mac, but also code development. Compilers etc. are notoriously sensitive to new code signing restrictions etc.

I wait at least several minor versions, and even then, I only do it when I absolutely positively need something in the new OS.

If I knew for a fact that the photos issue was fixed in Big Sur, I would upgrade. Otherwise, I would rather deal with the devil I know.

 

[StrictlyBagel]

The problem for me started with Mojave. Up to then, I was using Aperture. Still, with Photos becoming more stable and Aperture showing its age and lack of support from Apple, I decided to migrate my extensive library end of 2017.

Around mid-2018, I realized that some photos refused to open when I wanted to perform further edits. Luckily I had backups. I didn't look further into the problem.

End of 2019, and running Catalina, I became aware of a new folder in Photos entitled "Unable to Upload." The folder contained some 20,000 images that Photos refused to open, and reverting to the original was impossible. Both actions resulted in the spinning beachball of death. Forever. I started panicking when I found that even my backup libraries from as late as 2017 had the same issues. Further research revealed that Photos had problems with images either edited by Aperture or third party apps other than iPhotos. The Catalina version of Photos couldn't revert to the original for some reason. However, I could extract the originals from an old Aperture library that I kept for sentimentality reasons. Thank God!

Yet, I didn't have the time nor the mood to re-edit all those 20,000 images, tag them with names (some of which I'd forgotten by then) and locations, name them... the whole she-bang. I was angry with Apple to create such a mess and show that level of disrespect to its users who had migrated their entire photo library to Photos after using the excellent Aperture for more than a decade. Photos had stored the originals, but I couldn't access them. The low-res JPGs were also impossible to edit or export.

Then came Big Sur. Nothing changed. Except, I found through a forum entry on the Apple Community that Photos suddenly could revert to the original and didn't hang up anymore. I'm still unable to get access to the edited image. Yet, now Photos shows a pop-up window that "Photos cannot load adjustments for this image," which is a step forward and provides much-needed information about what's going wrong (remember, under Catalina and Mojave, all I got was the beachball of death).

I'm still stuck with the task to re-edit all my 20k images, but at least I can revert to the original now and do that. Sadly, Apple still hasn't acknowledged the problem. I wonder if they continue working in the background and whether future versions of Photos will be able to read the adjustments?

 

[mpitman]

Thanks for sharing your story @StrictlyBagel and I feel the pain. I have just bitten the bullet and replaced a 2009 iMac with a 2021 M1 Mac mini on Big Sur.... will be looking to see if anything is better...

At this stage I haven't explored the 'unable to edit' issue on the Mac mini but I'm expecting it will be there. The easiest way to detect it that I have found is to try to export the whole library and see how many export errors it gives. I'm frustrated, though, that it does have the same problems as Catalina on my MacBook in that People/Faces have been messed around. One library had 10 people disappear altogether, many faces are removed, especially manually added ones, others are re-evaluated and assigned wrong names (in a family history photo library that is hell!). Fortunately for most photos of 1 person I have the name in the photo title, and the photos of groups I have learnt to put the names into the description field, both of which seem intact. But faces.... grrrrrr.........

 

[StrictlyBagel]

No need to look into error logs. Since Mojave, Photos has a smart folder that shows images that are "Unable to Upload" to iCloud. These are the ones affected by the bug. You'll be surprised how many images are in there if you've edited with Aperture, iPhotos, and other third-party apps before 2017.

Faces: Yes, I forgot those. I spent months tagging school photos and the like. Most faces I can't remember the names anymore. Also family photos that have lost their name tags. On top of that, to make matters even worse, AI (short for Apple Incompetence) assigns incorrect names to untagged faces!!!

Another issue that I've identified: If people in your contacts book pass away and you delete their information, they also disappear from Photos!!! How stupid is that???

Whoever is working on Photos should be sacked.

 

[StrictlyBagel]

Really annoying, but I had to open yet another thread in the Apple community as Apple seems to close threads about this problem without fixing them. This has been going on for years now!

Anyway, to all you poor souls out there dealing with the "Photos cannot load adjustments for this image" bug that most likely occurred after importing a previous Aperture library:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...r-this-image-error-since-upgrading-to-catalin

A couple of interesting observations on the bug. Albeit, no solution.

 

[mpitman]

This bug isn't affecting me any more

After over 15 years of iPhoto/Photos (the latter reluctantly) I have made the big decision to walk away from using Photos libraries. Too much pain, not enough hope!

My alternative of choice is Mylio (see https://mylio.com). There have been a few losses compared with Photos, but many many wins. Some of the losses (eg smart albums) are on the radar for Mylio to address.

The big (huge) gain is the ability to sync across multiple computers and phones as well as a cloud service and FINALLY have an easy way to share a library with my partner. Apple has never addressed that issue.

 

[StrictlyBagel]

Moving forward mylio might be a solution, albeit an expenive one at USD 100.- per annum in subscriptions. However, it doesn't solve the problem how to get access to 6,000 images that Photos refused to load adjustments for without editing each and every single one of them again.

APPLE HAS TO RECOGNIZE THIS BUG AND DELIVER A FIX! PHOTOS SIMPLY NEEDS TO READ APERTURE ADJUSTMENTS PROPERLY!! HEY, IT'S EVEN A FORMER APPLE PRO APP!