User profile for user: scottschmidt
scottschmidt Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Vexing Problem with Photos - Scrolling Crashes

Hi folks. In the last couple of months, I've developed a problem with the Photos app on my Mac. I've got an M1 Mac Studio, which is a marvelous machine and all of my software is up-to-date. For a long time, the Photos app has worked perfectly but several months ago I noticed that after the program has been running for a while you can no longer scroll down through the photos in your Library. If I am viewing my library and use the scroll up or down wheel on my mouse, the photos don't scroll, but the text at the bottom of the library that states the number of photo and videos does move around a little bit. In order to restore function, I have to quit Photos and relaunch it. Then it works perfectly again for a while before the problem returns again. I have several different mice, and this problem is the same on all of them, including on my Apple mouse. One clue is that this seems to happen when Photos is synchronizing. I know this because sometimes immediately after quitting and restarting the program, new photos appear in my library as they would at the end of a synchronization. Is anyone else having this problem? And if so, what can I do to correct it? Thank you.



Mac Studio, macOS 15.3

Posted on Mar 20, 2025 3:56 AM

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User profile for user: Richard.Taylor
Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 6
12,642 points

Mar 21, 2025 7:51 AM in response to scottschmidt

This continuous crashing is not normal. Is your Photos Library in your Pictures folder on your internal drive? If not, is the drive that it's on formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format? If this drive is in a an incompatible format, stop running Photos with it immediately!  A Photos Library can sit on an incompatible drive, but running it may corrupt the database.


Have you used any 3rd party apps that claim to do system-wide processes like cleaning? Those are known to cause corruption problems like you describe.


To narrow things down, try these steps:

  • Restart the computer (of course)
  • Re-start in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this: 

           Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support 

  • Rebuild your Photos Library--close Photos and re-launch by option-command-clicking the app icon.


Those are the easiest things to try first. Then try these:

  • 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. You can create a new Library by closing Photos and then option-clicking on the Photos icon.
  • Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it.


The idea is to find out if the problem is with the Library, with your account, or with caches and login items, and stuff like that. One of these steps may fix the problem, but their failure to work also helps figure out what's happening.


Let us know what happens…





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Vexing Problem with Photos - Scrolling Crashes

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