Photos library on external drive locked after macOS 26 update

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Photos library on external drive locked after macOS 26 update

I have updated both my phone and my computer recently. One of them being the iOS Tahoe update for my MacBook Pro. Now, my music and my photos reside on my external drive. So far I do not have issues at all with accessing my music folder. However, this morning when I went to go access my photos I got a pop-up saying that I was denied access and that it was locked. A pop-up screen did indicate to repair the album. When I tried to repair it it’s still denying access saying that the folder for the photos had been locked. Does anyone have any advice?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Locked photos album since Tahoe, iOS update

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Sep 25, 2025 1:13 PM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

200,525 points

Sep 26, 2025 1:48 AM in response to Yer_Man

You wrote "When I tried to repair it it’s still denying access saying that the folder for the photos had been locked. "

Could you post a screenshot of this error message, so we can see it? And a screenshot of the Info panel of the external disk, as Yer_Man has shown?

You may want to have a look at this knowledge base article by Apple: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Your external disk should be prepared exactly as described there - As Yer_Man pointed out the format of the external drive matters, but also how the external drive is connected matters - it needs a wired connection, and it must not have any system software or backup software installed or be used for Time Machine backups. Try to set the the "Ignore ownership on this volume" flag as described in the document. If you can't do that, something is very wrong.

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,870 points

Sep 25, 2025 2:37 PM in response to SF_Boy

What format is that external drive? To work with a Photos Library it needs to be formatted Mac OS X Extended, Journaled or apfs.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,870 points

Sep 25, 2025 11:26 PM in response to SF_Boy

Click once on the disk on your desktop and go File -> Get Info. You can see the format in the resulting window:

Having the Library on an inappropriately formatted disk can lead to dataloss. Apple have been making Photos more aggressive about checking the disk format in recent years.

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Answer 4

Sep 26, 2025 7:24 AM in response to SF_Boy

Here's what the "Ignore Ownership" flag looks like in the disk Info Window:

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Answer 5

SF_Boy Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 25, 2025 3:29 PM in response to Yer_Man

That’s a good question. I’ve been using it for years since 2019. It’s always worked. But I am notfamiliar about formatting, but it’s been working for a while now. since the update, though it now has this issue and I can’t log into it. Any advice?

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