Hi After upgrading to sonoma I'm getting this message: “Photos Library.photoslibrary” is in iCloud Drive, and needs to be moved to a folder on your Mac to open."
So,
Thank you
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.0
I finally called the genius bar and a very nice person helped me to resolve it in an hour on the phone. So it wasn't a simple answer. I wish I could tell you all the steps, but we had to keep switching back and forth between things. Just call them. It's worth it. And it now works as though it never happened.
Open Finder; click iCloud Drive in the Finder sidebar (or in the Finder Go menu);
Open a 2nd Finder window (Finder File menu > New Finder window).
In the new Finder window navigate to the Pictures folder in your home folder (this is the default folder for photos but you can use something else)
Drag your Photos Library from the iCloud Drive folder to the Pictures folder.
When you next try to open the Photos app you will need to direct it to the new location. If you hold down the option key while opening the Photos app it will ask you for the new location.
If you want your photos to sync with iCloud, rather than using iCloud Drive turn on iCloud Photos. See: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
If you want to potentially reduce the storage used for photos on your Mac, turn on Optimize Mac Storage (open the Photos app, click Settings in the Photos menu, click iCloud at the top of the Settings window, put a check mark in front of Optimize Mac Storage.
Before my reply above, I found the following but have never used it and have no other knowledge other than what is in the article:
Import photos from another library in Photos on Mac – Apple Support (UK)
Thank you, but I have the attached images and when I try to open the photos app, just get the same message. All working as normal on iPhone and iPad. I tried to move the library from the cloud to the mac, but it said all the photos would be stored on the mac- and would stop syncing.
Am I missing a step? Thank you
Thank you for your help, but I'm still having trouble. I was able to import the old ( up to 2015 pictures from the "iPhoto library" app, but not the more recent Photo Library.
From what I can determine the Photo library isn't in the iCloud Drive anymore, but will not 'go' to the photo app?
everything is on my phone and iPad as normal.
I attach pictures of the predicament.
Thank you!
The iCloud Drive is not a supported location to hold a Photos library. Some have made it work temporarily but in the end it always fail like you're experiencing.
It MUST be loaded on a local volume that is formatted as shown in this screenshot:
and be directly connected to the Mac via cable.
Just so you know the iCloud Drive is not off computer storage. It's a syncing mechanism so all devices that are signed into the same iCloud ID an have access to those files. On Macs the files are mirrored on each device in the Users/Home/Library/Mobile Documents folder. So you're not saving any space by putting the library in the iCloud Drive. That being said you can turn off the iCloud Drive and select the option to keep a copy of the iCloud Drive's contents on your Mac.
The message is clear. The Library should never have been on iCloud Drive but stored locally only. You need to move it to your Mac. And yes, you will need to store the photos, locally - on your Mac or an attached hard drive. Syncing Is done via the iCloud Photo Library, not by putting your local library on iCloud Drive.
The first step is that the photos library needs to not be in iCloud Drive. And that means that it will stop syncing with iCloud Drive and all photos will be stored on your Mac. Once you have done that, you will then have the option/ability to turn on iCloud Photos and have them sync with iCloud Photos (that is not the same as iCloud Drive).
The error message in your screenshot indicates that the photos library is currently in iCloud Drive but I can't verify that from the rest of your screenshot as it shows the the photos library is in the Pictures folder but not what folder the Pictures folder is in. I'm assuming that you have the Pictures folder in the iCloud Drive folder but can't verify that from your screenshot.
Assuming that it is in fact in iCloud Drive as indicated by the error message, see my previous post and move the photos library to your Mac. You may as well move the entire Pictures folder to the Home folder on your Mac to avoid future confusion.
The original post was about opening a photos library that was on iCloud Drive.
This post seems to be about merging two photos libraries. Unfortunately that isn't something I have any knowledge that might be helpful. If someone else here doesn't reply soon, you may want to make a new post for the latest issue with "merging" somewhere in the title of the post to see if that will attract knowledgable help.
You can't import one library into another, it won't allow ot for very good reasons - namely it would be a mess of duplicates.
What you can do is export from one library to another - so open that library normally and send the images to the target library.
No, the message is incorrect. My Photos Library has always been synched to iCloud Drive, not stored there, but I am getting this same error message. With synching, only thumbnails should be on your Mac, to save space.
Nothing has changed on my system, except that I upgraded to Sonoma.
I opened iCloud drive and don't see a photo library there. I'm getting the same msg.
Also getting msg that the folders locked or I don't have permission. Tried to repair. Then get same msg about library being on iCloud drive. There's a photo library in pictures but I can'y get that to work either.
Sorry I updated to Sonoma!
I’m having the same problem. What a nightmare!!
The posts below are not working to resolve the problem for me. What resolved it for you?
Sonoma upgrade and iPhoto storage?
