Sonoma upgrade and iPhoto storage?

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,

  1. How do I do that? Don't want to mess up or lose all my photos.
  2. Do I create a folder and all my photos will go there?
  3. Isn't that unbelievably memory hungry?
  4. Why? It was working just fine before.

Thank you



MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Sep 28, 2023 03:14 PM

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Posted on Oct 28, 2023 11:28 AM

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.

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Oct 28, 2023 11:28 AM in response to nycm

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.

Sep 28, 2023 03:35 PM in response to hapsione

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.

Oct 3, 2023 07:34 AM in response to FoxFifth

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!

Oct 28, 2023 09:47 AM in response to hapsione

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.


Sep 29, 2023 11:41 AM in response to hapsione

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.


Oct 3, 2023 09:07 AM in response to hapsione

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.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Sonoma upgrade and iPhoto storage?

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