Photoanalysisd has been running for 6 months

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Photoanalysisd has been running for 6 months

I have an iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019) with 8 GB Ram. My Photos Library is on an standard, not SSD, external usb hard drive.

I upgraded to Catalina, from Mojave, right out of the box in Late December and Photoanalysisd has been running ever since. The only way to get it to stop is to unmount the drive.

I have 6404 photos and 102 videos.

When I click on People the message reads:

2 Photos Scanned

Photos will continue scanning your remaining 6402 photos when you are not using the app and your Mac is connected to power.

Even though it says it has done only 2 pictures, When I click the View People Album button it shows 17 people with many photos found for each person.

Has anyone had it run this long? Does it ever stop?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 6, 2020 6:46 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,321 points

Jul 6, 2020 11:07 AM in response to R_Davidson_

photosanalysyid will always run, after you import new photos or add adjustments to photos.

The initial scan fo my library with 53000 photos and 350 videos took roughly three weeks, when I kept the Mac up and running day and night.

If Photos does not finished it might be caused by legacy media in your Photos Library. Could it be that older videos or photos have been migrated from iPhoto or Aperture and now are blocking the analysis? Catalina does no longer support all media formats, that we could use on older systems. When you remove the videos, try to reimport them individually to check , if some of them are incompatible, see: How to Weed out Legacy Media in Photos for Mac - Apple Community

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

197,321 points

Jul 6, 2020 1:37 PM in response to R_Davidson_

Yes, the formatting of the drive could be causing the problems.

Your external volume should be formatted as described here (Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support) and must not have been used for Time Machine backups.

When you copy the library to a volume with a different file system format, you may encounter copy errors and file ownership errors. It will help, if both volumes have the "Ignore Ownership" flag set.

If you are still encountering "error -36" when copying, see here: How to avoid the Error -36 when copying a Photos Library - Apple Community

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

210,615 points

Jul 6, 2020 9:58 AM in response to R_Davidson_

Yes. I've read other user's accounts of it running that long or longer. You have a lot of videos and Photos examines each and every frame of every video for faces, items (i.e. tables, cars, chairs, etc.).

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Answer 4

R_Davidson_ Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 6, 2020 11:14 AM in response to léonie

I'm thinking you are correct. While I am removing videos from the library I came across a couple that reported the resources were no longer available. I did notice a number of video formats.

I think my strategy will be to finish removing all videos. Then, when the photos have finished processing, add back newer videos first and then older videos and see where it hangs up.

Thanks for responding.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

197,321 points

Jul 6, 2020 11:21 AM in response to R_Davidson_

You're welcome. 😊

A problem with a missing resource for videos could also be caused by permission errors or problems with the file system format of your external volume, for example a case-sensitive file system format can cause problems with videos.

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Answer 6

R_Davidson_ Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 6, 2020 11:47 AM in response to léonie

I think I have discovered another problem, and possible the cause of my initial one. While I explored formatting issues when I moved my Final Cut Pro libraries to an external SSD, I mustn't have been as careful a couple years back when I moved Photos to my standard external drive.

Just realized my external is formatted ExFat. Looks like I have to move Photos to the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatted external SSD drive, correct?

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Answer 7

R_Davidson_ Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 6, 2020 2:01 PM in response to léonie

Thanks once again. My SSD drive does have the "Ignore Ownership" flag set and neither of my drives have been used for Time Machine, so we will see how it goes.

I don't see the ownership option in Get Info of my exFat drive. Under Sharing and Permissions there is a statement that says, "You have custom access," but not the permissions chart. Disk Utility reports Owners as disabled.

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Answer 8

R_Davidson_ Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 6, 2020 5:32 PM in response to R_Davidson_

Progress report.

Photos library now on external SSD Mac OS Extended (Journaled) drive. Opened quickly and I don't see any errors. Currently scanned photos is at 272. Consider it was at 2 for 6 months, that's encouraging.

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