Why must I update my Photos library?

Purler2012 wrote:

Thank you for opening up further possible explanations of the message which was mystifying me. If that is what was meant, i.e. that the OS needed updating before I next opened my copy of Photos, why was this not made clear by Apple? I did realise that it was the Library that was being referred to but, not being psychic - yet, but I'm working on it! - had no idea how to proceed. I am much obliged to this community for taking the trouble to respond and clarify.

I have always taken for granted that when there is a MacOS update, files/libraries such as the Photos Library and Music Library may have their formats updated, presumably to fix bugs or add features from that update. But all users are not necessarily aware of that. You went from 14.4 to 14.7, so that is a reasonably large increment and apparently updating the 14.4 Photos Library was required before it could be used within 14.7. When a MacOS update is applied, it does not update the format of the Photos Library (if that is required), that updating occurs when Photos is next opened by the user. The update can be quite fast and easy to miss, but sometimes if you watch carefully you will see a progress bar and a label such as "Updating Library ..." What Apple could improve upon here, I think, is the situation you had where you wanted images from the Photos Library to be incorporated into your wallpaper yet those Photos could not be accessed until the Photos Library was updated (as Luis pointed out), which in turn requires the user to take the extra step of explicitly opening and running Photos, which then opens and updates that Library. I think a better approach would have been for the wallpaper to initiate that Photos Library update behind the scenes so you would not have been perplexed as you were. That would be an improvement to the user interface.

One wrinkle here is that often the new updated Photos Library format cannot be used by the older version of the MacOS, pre-update. This can catch some users unawares who want to "roll back" their MacOS to a previous version, not realizing that post-update, their Apple Mail and Photos Library and any other number of key files/folders after updating cannot be used in the older MacOS.

My daughter often teases her mother:

Mother: ...what is this now doing? There is a prompt to click a button to proceed. What does that mean? What should I do??

Daughter: Click the button.

It is not the OS, and it is not your photos that needed updating. It is your Photos library, and this was probably done automatically for you, for example by merely opening Photos in the newer OS version.

Purler2012 wrote:

I did realise that it was the Library that was being referred to but, not being psychic - yet, but I'm working on it! - had no idea how to proceed.

Unfortunately I've been seeing a lot of confusing messages/notifications from macOS these last few years. It just seems to keep getting worse. I work in IT (over 25 years) and have a technical background, but I cannot always figure out my options or what Apple is trying to tell me. Sometimes a choice has to be made and sometimes I cannot even tell which is the safe choice to prevent any changes......that is sad for a company that used to be known as very friendly to non-technical average people who were afraid of computers back in the day.

"that is sad for a company that used to be known as very friendly to non-technical average people who were afraid of computers back in the day."

This a hot button for me and I lay almost all the blame at the feet of the “power user” class who constantly demand more features, more options, more complicated processes.

The next offenders are the hackers and malware thieves who have forced tech companies like Apple to constantly increase security and privacy measures. The “Are you sure you wasn’t to do this” popups, the “This may damage your computer” warnings are the bane of volunteers here. Tech average users are frightened to even tap a key.

Finally, since the dawn of the personal computer, software and hardware engineers have labored in vain to make the tech easy to use, the so-called toaster analogy. In a previous generation the symbol of that failure was the flashing 12:00 on the VCR sitting under the TV. It has only gotten worse. “Point and click” has become scary. But there is no turning back now is there.

Each update released fixes bugs and improves privacy, security. This may have been a bug in 14.4 that was fixed in later releases. No software is perfect and bug free.

Purler2012 wrote:

whatever happened to "It just works"?

Too many options and opinions about how "it just works". Maybe AI will read the users' minds and act accordingly in the future /s

Purler2012 wrote:

Yes indeed; whatever happened to "It just works"?

For the vast, vast majority of users everything still “just works” as always.