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Photos suddenly frozen with error message I don't understand

After considerable length of time with Apple Support person by phone in order to consolidate two Photo Libraries, the next day my Photos app was frozen with the following error message:


I dare not try any deleting! iPad, iPhone Photo adds work and all photos are there. But it appears that until I take action on this error, I cannot open Photos on my MBP.


Please advise!







MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 13, 2019 8:28 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 13, 2019 9:51 AM

That is right, you cannot use this library at all, unless you click "Delete incomplete items".


This message will usually be shown, if you open a Photos Library, that used to sync with iCloud and used the option "Optimize Storage". Then you have optimized items in the library, where the original file is missing from the library. If iCloud Photos becomes disabled for this library, Photos needs to delete the incomplete items from from the library, because they are useless without the iCloud connection. But if you turn on iCloud again for the library, the items will download from iCloud back to the library, unless you deleted the items in iCloud.


2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 13, 2019 9:51 AM in response to Pr N

That is right, you cannot use this library at all, unless you click "Delete incomplete items".


This message will usually be shown, if you open a Photos Library, that used to sync with iCloud and used the option "Optimize Storage". Then you have optimized items in the library, where the original file is missing from the library. If iCloud Photos becomes disabled for this library, Photos needs to delete the incomplete items from from the library, because they are useless without the iCloud connection. But if you turn on iCloud again for the library, the items will download from iCloud back to the library, unless you deleted the items in iCloud.


Nov 13, 2019 6:51 PM in response to léonie

What?!? A. I cannot even boot up Photos on the MBP. How would I delete anything, and what would I delete? B. In System Preferences, iCloud is active, and Photos is checked in the iCloud item. C. In Finder, Photos Library (2) is shown; in double clicking it, Photos is activated with the same error message. In Time Machine (for the date/time before the issues occurred, and for the email ID which I use for this) Photos is one of the several that are locked out for me. This is news to me, since I don't recall ever locking or password-protecting such files. ∏lease advise in step-by-step format, pleas -- and thank you for your willingness to respond initially so quickly! N

Photos suddenly frozen with error message I don't understand

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