Photos Library repair
What if Photos library repair hangs? How can I tell? What can I do about it?
iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.14
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How long has it been hanging? For a large library yu may not be seeing any progress for many hours.
Is your Photos Library on a supported volume? The repair may fail, if there are issues with file system format of the volume, where you are keeping the library or permission issues. Also, you will need plenty of free storage on the volume with the library.
If your library is on an external volume:
- Check the file system format of the volume. It should be APFS or MacOS Extended (Journaled)
- Check, if the volume has been used by Time Machine. If yes, move your Photos Library to a different volume.
- Try to set the "Ignore Ownership on this volume" flag. If this flag is not available, the external volume is not compatible with Photos. How to set the flag is explained here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
Another possible reason for Photos hanging could be incompatible media items in your library. Not all image and video formats, that could be processed by Aperture, iPhoro, or earlier Photos versions are compatible with Photos on Catalina.