Viewing photos disappear after one second!

Question

Viewing photos disappear after one second!

Running Sequoia 15.6 on a Mid 2011..when viewing photos, each photo will suddenly "disappear".Tried the photos repair(command/option).This started before I downloaded to sequoia if that helps.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Aug 20, 2025 03:40 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 20, 2025 07:42 AM in response to bobfromwestfield

This is the sort of thing you might see if memory or storage is low. (Or power if there are battery powered components.)

How is your storage? In System Settings>General>Storage, mine says 750 GB of 1 TB used, for instance--about 25% free. Apple recommends that you have at least 10% of your storage free.

Or it could be power to a an external drive. Is your Photos Library on an external drive?

Let us know…

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Answer 2

Aug 20, 2025 09:00 AM in response to bobfromwestfield

So, not storage. Your Photos Library is in the Pictures folder on your internal drive, right? That's the best place for it. So this is very weird. How much memory do you have? Apple>About this Mac. My MacBook is 36 GB, for instance.

Are you using iCloud Photos? Do you use any "Cleaner" type apps? They are known to corrupt Photos Libraries.

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

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. This is a bit harder, because a new user can't access a different user's stuff. You would need to put some pictures in a new Library, or you can move your Library out of your own user's folder up to the general "Users" folder.
Rebuild your Photos Library--close Photos and re-launch by option-command-clicking the app icon. You did this, but maybe do it again.

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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Answer 3

Aug 24, 2025 05:59 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Photos library IS in the pictures folder on internal drive. I only have 8GB memory, this is a iMac mid 2011.(I know.. it's old!).So this might be the problem? No cleaners, and not using iCloud Photos. Thanks for the help!

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Answer 4

Aug 25, 2025 02:30 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

So going forward, I will increase my memory to 16GB, guess that can't hurt until I have the cash to upgrade to a new computer. Have not tried safe mode yet as I have been away from my computer for a few days.Will keep you posted

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Answer 5

Aug 20, 2025 08:49 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks Richard, I checked my storage and I am using 818mb for photos. Total is 141gb out of 500gb Internal hard drive.I do not have photos on my external drive. Maybe I should try to transfer ?

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Answer 6

Aug 24, 2025 06:33 AM in response to bobfromwestfield

8GB is low these days, but it should work. How about Safe Mode and the other things?

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