I stored my photo library on an external SSD drive and after synching I'm getting an error

Did the external drive have Time Machine on it? You can't have other stuff on a Time Machine Volume.

Richard.Taylor wrote:

1. Did the external drive have Time Machine on it? You can't have other stuff on a Time Machine Volume.

No its a separate external drive

f that's not it, how did you "create a system photo library?" Did you close and then option-click Photos and choose "Create New?" Or was there something else, like did you drag a previous library to the new drive? If you dragged the library over, was it the System Library, was it connected to iCloud, and was "Optimize Mac Storage" checked?

"Create New" and then selected the root on the external drive

ou don't mention how you put pictures into the new library. You also specifically say the new library is the "System Library." Is it connected to iCloud? Did you export pictures from a previous library and then import them? Did you import them directly from the previous library?

I then enabled iCloud on that and the process of synchronizing started which took probably 4-6 days to fetch all photos and videos. Keep in mind I want the original size on my external drive

ry these things:

Restart the computer (of course)

2. Rebuild your Photos Library by closing Photos and re-launching by option-command-clicking the app icon.

3. Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it

4. Use another library if you have one, or make a small test Library with a few pictures in it and see if the same thing happens.

5. Start in Safe Mode (different for different computers) This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes.

           Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support 

Let us know...

1. Restarted and did not help, meaning I restarted then connected the drive then started photos and I got the above message
2. I'll try that
3. I'll try that
4. I'll try that with just a few pictures and NOT enable iCloud
5. I'll try that

As mentioned above 3. helped. then I ejected the drive (after 1 hour) and I logged with the previous user and now things work. Great help thanks a lot. In summary this is what I did

1. I ejected the SSD drive
2. Created a new mac user with admin rights
3. Signed out from previous user
4. Signed in as new user
5. Inserted the SSD drive
6. Opened the Photo library without making it system library
7. After a few mins I was able to see the photos
8. Then Photo app went and started "indexing" all pictures and videos
9. Waited for about 1 hour and then stopped Photos and ejected the SSD (waited until it informed it was safe to eject)
10. Signed out from new user
11. Signed in with previous user (the one was causing issue)
12. Inserted the SSD
13. After a few mins I openened the Photo app and it was able to show picture
14. Then sync process started

Thanks for the help

Number 3. helped in the sense that with a new user on the Mac (I did not restart the Mac) I'm able to access the photo library and thus the first thing it started was processing the images, which this might take several days considering the fact that we have thousands of pictures. Now it does not actually tell me why it works with a new user and not with my existing use on the Mac. Any ideas how to fix it with the different user, because that's the one that has iCloud enabled