Photos app very slow or non responsive

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Level 1

18 points

Photos app very slow or non responsive

I have a large photos library - 1.5TB on an external hard drive. The photos app is becoming very slow, unstable and at times unresponsive. Now every time I delete photos, the app takes around 1 minute to delete just one photo and after doing this the photo is still in the library.

I am running Mac Version 12.6 on a 2021 Mackbook Pro M1, 16GB RAM, 512SDD.

There is about 200GB free on my SDD and about 1TB free on the external hard drive.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Mar 10, 2023 10:17 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

martindevek Author

Level 1

18 points

Mar 10, 2023 10:51 AM in response to léonie

Thanks for the reply Léonie,

I am not using any smart albums, just normal album folders. I am not using iCloud photos.

Many thanks,

M.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

199,927 points

Mar 10, 2023 10:45 AM in response to martindevek

Are you using many smart albums? My Mac is showing a similar behaviour, when I am having many smart albums in a library. Then deleting a photo can take a very long time, because so many smart albums have to be updated.

Try to be frugal with smart albums.

Are you using iCloud Photos? If the library is highly optimized, and every photo needs downloading from iCloud, Photos may also be slow.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

199,927 points

Mar 10, 2023 11:10 AM in response to martindevek

You may want to test, if Photos is equally slow, when you create new, small library on your internal volume (Create additional photo libraries in Photos on Mac – Apple Support (UK)). Try to narrow down the problem by systematic testing, as the slowness might have many reasons.

Your Photos Library may be damaged and need repairing, or there may be a problem with some items in your library, or the external volume might be incompatible, or your user account might have problems.

If Photos is slow, even for a new, small library on your internal drive, your user account might have a problem. Then test in a different user account.
If Photos is slow, when you are creating a new test library on your external SSD, check the external drive. Is it prepared as described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support ?
If only your current library is having issues, check, if your library is containing items in a legacy format, that is no longer supported on your current system version, very old videos or photos in unusual formats.

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Answer 4

martindevek Author

Level 1

18 points

Mar 21, 2023 03:59 AM in response to martindevek

Update:

i created a new library in the SDD and in the external hard drive and works like a charm: fast and responsive.
Once I updated the system to MacosVentura the Photos worked perfectly well with the original 1.5TB library for about 10 minutes: it was fast and responsive, pictures where shown as full resolution and I could delete or organise them without any difficulties. However, after 10 minutes photos became slower (faster than before but slower than what it was when just upgrade it to MacOS Ventura) and after try to delete photos on an album they will still be here. I get a message saying 'removing photos from album' and after this message goes off, the photos are still there.

Any ideas?

Also, how can I check if my library has items in a legacy format, that is no longer supported on your current system version, very old videos or photos in unusual formats?

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Answer 5

martindevek Author

Level 1

18 points

Mar 10, 2023 10:20 AM in response to martindevek

I forgot to mention that everytime I double click on a thumbnail to open a photo, the photo remains blurred for about 30 seconds before it is shown at the normal resolution.

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Photos app very slow or non responsive

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