Error: "The library “Photos Library” has inconsistencies that must be repaired."

[greg97]

Hello All!
I have a mid 2010 Mac Pro v5,1 OSX 10.14.6. Until today my Photos app (version 4.0) has been running fine, when today I tried to download pictures from my iPhone into it, and it wouldn't show any of the photos on my iPhone on the app. I called Apple support and they said to run a repair on the Photos app by clicking Option - Cmd - Photos. This ran for a good hour as I watched the timer reach 99% finished but then stayed on 99% for a few hours after. I figured it wasn't doing anything anymore so I quit out of Photos and then went back into it. Once opened it came up with a box saying "The library “Photos Library” has inconsistencies that must be repaired." I hit repair but then the box would keep reopening to click on the 'Repair' button over and over without actually going into doing the repair. So I called Apple support again and they put me up to some higher level support person who basically laughed at me for having such an old machine and said I'd have to buy a new mac to get my Photos to work again. I have 15 years' worth of photos that I can no longer access. There's got to be an easy solution to this? I thank you in advance for your help!!

 

[fatTribble]

I’m not sure I have a fix, but before you do anything….where are your backups? Are all of your photos in iCloud? Do you have Time Machine backups?

 

[greg97]

I’m not sure I have a fix, but before you do anything….where are your backups? Are all of your photos in iCloud? Do you have Time Machine backups?

Yes I do have Time Machine backups, but I’m not sure which files I’d need to bring over?

 

[lindros2]

Sorry b/c this doesn't directly help, but I cross-backup my photos (and videos, but those are tricky) in Google Photos.
You can do a library migration/export; I do it once a quarter.

 

[fatTribble]

Yes I do have Time Machine backups, but I’m not sure which files I’d need to bring over?

Oh I’m glad to hear you have backups. I’ve only made Time Machine backups. I’ve never had to restore. Hoping someone with experience in that will chime in. I guess that’s the way I’d proceed unless others have better options

 

[ignatius345]

Oh I’m glad to hear you have backups. I’ve only made Time Machine backups. I’ve never had to restore. Hoping someone with experience in that will chime in. I guess that’s the way I’d proceed unless others have better options

If you have backups, your photos are still there (phew).

If it was me, I'd try this:

- restore the entire most recent Photo Library file in your Pictures folder (~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary)
- When Time Machine asks if you want to replace it, keep BOTH copies: the one you're restoring and the corrupt one
- Rename the restored one to Photos Library_recovery.photoslibrary or something, so you keep it straight which is which.
- Launch Photos with the Option key held down as it launches. Then when it asks you to pick a library navigate to the one you just restored

At that point, you should be seeing your whole set of photos, as of the time of your last backup.

 

[greg97]

If you have backups, your photos are still there (phew).

If it was me, I'd try this:

- restore the entire most recent Photo Library file in your Pictures folder (~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary)
- When Time Machine asks if you want to replace it, keep BOTH copies: the one you're restoring and the corrupt one
- Rename the restored one to Photos Library_recovery.photoslibrary or something, so you keep it straight which is which.
- Launch Photos with the Option key held down as it launches. Then when it asks you to pick a library navigate to the one you just restored

At that point, you should be seeing your whole set of photos, as of the time of your last backup.

That’s great, thank you, I will try that…but apart from not loosing all of my photos, how will I be able to add photos to the folder in the future, if this happens again? The original issue was when I plugged in my iPhone, I could see my iPhone on the left hand side of the Photos app, but none of the photos from the phone were showing up? Apple support seemed to think it was a connectivity issue between Mojave and the latest iOS. I’d be curious to see if this has been occurring to anyone else lately with a similar setup? 🤔

 

[Nermal]

I think it's probably best to do the restore and get Photos starting up properly. Then, if the import issue happens again, we can troubleshoot that. At present we're a bit "blind" due to the attempted repair putting Photos into a different state.

 

[greg97]

So I was able to bring back the photo library from Time Machine onto my Mac. When I then opened the Photos app for the first time it again asked me to do a repair before proceeding, but this time it took only about half an hour and went right through to completion. It then opened up okay with all my photos there. I then tried to connect my iPhone to it and it immediately recognized it but once again would not display any of the photos on the phone within the app. I then tried to select a random photo on my phone and Airdrop it to my Photos app and it went just fine. So my question now is why all of a sudden is cable transfer of photos to my Mac not possible??

 

[ignatius345]

So I was able to bring back the photo library from Time Machine onto my Mac. When I then opened the Photos app for the first time it again asked me to do a repair before proceeding, but this time it took only about half an hour and went right through to completion. It then opened up okay with all my photos there. I then tried to connect my iPhone to it and it immediately recognized it but once again would not display any of the photos on the phone within the app. I then tried to select a random photo on my phone and Airdrop it to my Photos app and it went just fine. So my question now is why all of a sudden is cable transfer of photos to my Mac not possible??

I'm not 100% certain. Maybe an iOS/macOS version compatibility thing? Have you updated the OS on the phone recently?

If you're interested in a workaround, you should be able to pull photos from your phone using Image Capture (pre-installed on your Mac).

I'm not sure if Image Capture will let you save directly to Photos or whether you have to save them to a folder first and then import to Photos from there.