I thought I would pass this on about my Photo Library problem. Perhaps it will be of some help to someone. I apologize in advance that it so wordy but like I said maybe it might help someone else.
I upgraded to Catalina and had problems with Photos Library. My Photo Library is on an external drive.
Never an issue with Mojave. Under Catalina my Photo Library refused to load completely. Got a black screen repeatedly. First Aid unsuccessful on external via Utility. Tried Pram on boot,,,no difference. Tried repair (when booting) in Photos, black screen after two hour repair. At one point Photos tried to restore (that took 2-3 hours), result was a black screen. I was on a 90 minute chat with Apple, no resolution. A scheduled call appointment for the next morning with Apple was made. .
But.....I checked some things on my own. Opened the external, then Right click on the Photo Library and went to show contents. In there I was able to verify that my masters, originals and such were there, and viewable. So I knew that the drive and library were actually there and not lost. This was at 2 am and the call from Apple was scheduled for 1030 in the morning.
So before bed, I tried something that actually caused the Photo Library to restore successfully. I right clicked the external icon, and went to get info. I simply unlocked (at right lower corner) at the info screen after entering my apple id. And, then I clicked photos library from inside the external and then Restore started and completed within 45 minutes, successfully. No black screen.
When I spoke with Apple later in the morning they looked at my computer from via wifi, they said they never heard of that solution, but it looked like it worked. Hmm who knew.
The drawback.....the entire library is still uploading to the iCloud. Even though the entire library is actually on the iCloud, it automatically begins an upload, and iCloud will look and disregard what it has a copy already (it is a loooooong process but happens when restore is initiated). My library is 84,000 photos. It will be several days. Some may ask why have a photo library on the external if you have the photos on iCloud, but I really am a believer in redundancy. My usual course is to plug in my iPhone and download photos to the external (even though the photos go to iCloud after each picture is taken).
Hope all this made sense.
I upgraded to Catalina and had problems with Photos Library. My Photo Library is on an external drive.
Never an issue with Mojave. Under Catalina my Photo Library refused to load completely. Got a black screen repeatedly. First Aid unsuccessful on external via Utility. Tried Pram on boot,,,no difference. Tried repair (when booting) in Photos, black screen after two hour repair. At one point Photos tried to restore (that took 2-3 hours), result was a black screen. I was on a 90 minute chat with Apple, no resolution. A scheduled call appointment for the next morning with Apple was made. .
But.....I checked some things on my own. Opened the external, then Right click on the Photo Library and went to show contents. In there I was able to verify that my masters, originals and such were there, and viewable. So I knew that the drive and library were actually there and not lost. This was at 2 am and the call from Apple was scheduled for 1030 in the morning.
So before bed, I tried something that actually caused the Photo Library to restore successfully. I right clicked the external icon, and went to get info. I simply unlocked (at right lower corner) at the info screen after entering my apple id. And, then I clicked photos library from inside the external and then Restore started and completed within 45 minutes, successfully. No black screen.
When I spoke with Apple later in the morning they looked at my computer from via wifi, they said they never heard of that solution, but it looked like it worked. Hmm who knew.
The drawback.....the entire library is still uploading to the iCloud. Even though the entire library is actually on the iCloud, it automatically begins an upload, and iCloud will look and disregard what it has a copy already (it is a loooooong process but happens when restore is initiated). My library is 84,000 photos. It will be several days. Some may ask why have a photo library on the external if you have the photos on iCloud, but I really am a believer in redundancy. My usual course is to plug in my iPhone and download photos to the external (even though the photos go to iCloud after each picture is taken).
Hope all this made sense.
