HELP! I saved my photos library on an external drive and now getting this message and it won’t open, even after trying the repair: “this photo library is locked or you do not have permission to make changes to it. Photos can try to repair the permissions.”
under “get info” the permissions are listed as “read and write”!
iMac 27″, macOS 12.7
Did you see "Ignore Ownership" with the drive's permissions? How is your external drive formatted? To avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. The drive must be connected directly to the Mac by cable, not networked, clouded, NASed, etc. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
If this drive is in a an incompatible format, stop running Photos with it immediately! A Photos Library can sit on an incompatible drive, but running it may corrupt the database.
You might also want to check the permissions for your drive, if you're sure it's properly formatted. This is not usually a problem, but it sometimes comes up. Click on the drive icon, and open the Info window with command-i. Go to the bottom:
If “Ignore Ownership” is there, then it should be checked.
Did you see "Ignore Ownership" with the drive's permissions? How is your external drive formatted? To avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. The drive must be connected directly to the Mac by cable, not networked, clouded, NASed, etc. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
If this drive is in a an incompatible format, stop running Photos with it immediately! A Photos Library can sit on an incompatible drive, but running it may corrupt the database.
You might also want to check the permissions for your drive, if you're sure it's properly formatted. This is not usually a problem, but it sometimes comes up. Click on the drive icon, and open the Info window with command-i. Go to the bottom:
If “Ignore Ownership” is there, then it should be checked.
Photos library on external drive locked
