Photos will not import to library on external drive

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Level 1

4 points

Photos will not import to library on external drive

I have reviewed many threads on this but I cannot find one with the same issue as mine

I have a Macbook air M2 running Sequoia 15.6

I moved my photos app to an external drive a few years ago and it worked well. Recently I tried to upload pictures in the photos app. I clicked import and after hours it had made no progress.

I ended up moving my library back to my mac and was able to import but I do not have the space to leave it there. I moved the library back to my external drive (San disk 1 TB) formatted to APFS.

Library opens fine and I have this selected as my main library. Despite all of this when I press import, nothing happens.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

I have tried moving the library to another drive, reformatting, and restarting and have the same issue but when I move it back my internal drive it works just fine.

Thanks in advance!

MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

Posted on Sep 21, 2025 8:22 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Matti Haveri

Level 6

19,706 points

Sep 21, 2025 10:00 PM in response to CWA7

That is weird. So the external drive is formatted as APFS, GUID, case insensitive, Ignore ownership on this volume? Not any cloud drive or Time Machine drive?

No 3rd party virus apps or "cleaners" that often corrupt the system?

Just plain .jpg that fail to import? Does it work if you create a dummy new Photos library on that drive?

An EtreCheck report would eliminate more guesswork:

Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community

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Answer 2

Sep 22, 2025 10:19 AM in response to CWA7

CWA7 wrote: …Ignore ownership on this volume?

As Matti says, this is so weird! More questions:

The question mark is confusing-- did you check that the "Ignore Ownership" box was checked?

Is this a simple drive, not part of a NAS system or other network?

More unlikely possibilities:

USBc cables come in various qualities-- is this the one that came with the drive? Have you tried others?
Is the drive solid state?
Are you using a hub?
Have you used Disk Utility's First Aid?
What do you get with BlackMagic Disk Speed Test?
Can you edit pictures in Photos?
By "upload pictures" do you mean that you are using File>Import?

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Answer 3

Sep 22, 2025 11:17 AM in response to CWA7

Does safe boot help? Or maybe giving Photos.app Full Disk Access via System Settings (I have never had to do that to Photos and quite rarely to any other app, though)? Anything suspicious when you Finder > Get Info about that Photos library vs the dummy new library that works? Does Repairing the library help any (make a backup before trying, just in case)?

Repair your photo library on Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 4

CWA7 Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 22, 2025 9:36 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Yes the external drive is formatted as APFS, GUID, case insensitive, Ignore ownership on this volume? Not any cloud drive or Time Machine drive? No 3rd party virus apps or cleaners (that I know of).

Yes the photos we jpg

I created a dummy on that drive and it DID upload to that library! I have never looked into EtreCheck.. I will look at that today thanks

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Answer 5

Sep 23, 2025 6:39 AM in response to CWA7

7 or 8 hundred is usual for an SSD. It's reading and writing normally.

Matti suggested restarting in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Other things to try:

Use another library if you have one, or make a small test Library with a few pictures in it and see if the same thing happens. You can create a new Library by closing Photos and then option-clicking on the Photos icon.
Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it. This is a bit harder, because a new user can't access a different user's stuff. You would need to move your Library out of your own user's folder up to the general "Users" folder.

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Answer 6

CWA7 Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 22, 2025 11:03 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Sorry the question mark was an error. Yes, "ignore ownership" is checked

Is this a simple drive, not part of a NAS system or other network? Simple drive attached via usbC and previously worked just fine

More unlikely possibilities:

USBc cables come in various qualities-- is this the one that came with the drive? Have you tried others? Yes came with the drive and transfers other data just fine. I have not tried others.
Is the drive solid state? Yes it is a 1 TB solid state drive by San disk
Are you using a hub? No
Have you used Disk Utility's First Aid? Yes and there were no problems identified
What do you get with BlackMagic Disk Speed Test? I had not done this but just did it now:

Can you edit pictures in Photos? Yes photos that are already imported can be edited
By "upload pictures" do you mean that you are using File>Import? Sorry, Yes it was meant to say import

[Edited by Moderator]

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