Unable To Write To Iphoto Library

Prepare your external drive

If there is more than one photo library file, removing the non-essential one could solve this problem. There is a possibility that the photo library without any images has been set as the System Photo Library. If that is the case, it is obvious why you are unable to see any photos. The steps to remove the System Photo Library is as follows.
Where iPhoto Pictures Are Stored. IPhoto pictures are stored within the home /Pictures/ directory, in a file called iPhoto Library. But with newer versions of iPhoto, iPhoto Library became a package file rather than a folder, so in order to access the original picture files you have to go one step further in one of two locations.

You can store your library on an external storage device, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). However, you can't move your library to a disk that's used for Time Machine backups.

I first tried rebuilding the iPhoto database (see iPhoto 4 or later: Rebuilding the iPhoto Library ), but that didn’t help. Then I came across this document on Apple Support: iPhoto 6: Image appears when browsing but is blank or exclamation mark when editing. Apparently, the exclamation mark indicates that iPhoto is unable to find the file. The issue is that the photos I want to upload (from the external hard drive) are part of an iPhoto library. When I navigate to the appropriate location on the external hard drive trying to upload, the iPhoto library is 'grayed out.'

To prevent data loss, Apple doesn't recommend storing photo libraries on external storage devices like SD cards and USB flash drives, or drives that are shared on a network.

Move your Photos library to an external storage device

Quit Photos.
In the Finder, go to the external drive where you want to store your library.
In another Finder window, find your Photos Library. By default it's stored in the Pictures folder located at /Users/[username]/Pictures.
Drag Photos Library to its new location on the external drive. If you see an error, select your external drive's icon in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info. If the information under Sharing & Permissions isn't visible, click the triangle , then make sure the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' checkbox is selected. If it's not selected, click the lock button to unlock it, enter an administrator name and password, then select the checkbox.*
After the move is finished, double-click Photos Library in its new location to open it.
If you use iCloud Photo Library, designate this library as the System Photo Library.

Make sure that the drive is turned on and available to your Mac before opening Photos. If Photos can't find your drive, it stops using the Photos Library stored there.

Delete original library to save space

After you open your library from its new location and make sure that it works as expected, you can delete the library from its original location.

In a Finder window, go back to your Pictures folder (or whichever folder you copied your library from) and move Photos Library to the trash. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash to delete the library and reclaim disk space.

Open another Photos library

If you have multiple libraries, here's how to open a different one:

Quit Photos.
Press and hold the Option key while you open Photos.
Select the library that you want to open, then click Choose Library.

Photos uses this library until you open a different one.

Learn more

If you have a permissions issue with your library, you might be able to resolve the issue by using the Photos library repair tool.

* If the volume isn't formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or has been used for Time Machine backups but hasn't been erased, this checkbox will either not be present, or it won't be selectable after unlocking. Erase the drive for this option to be available.

Martha Helena writes in with a problem that may have a few different angles. Her startup drive started to fill. Her Photos Library file is 12.5GB, and she had just a few gigabytes left on the drive. While she was able to copy an older iPhoto Library to the other drive, the Finder kept hanging up during the Photos Library transfer with this error:

The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “Photos Library” can’t be read or written. (Error code -36)

A decent number of people have received this error with an iPhoto or Photos Library, possibly because the media library folders are big folders full of other folders. This increases the odds that if you have a faulty file, it will scotch the copy. Because the library files are packages which look like files, the error gets reported for the package name, rather than revealing which file within the package is at fault.

You have a lot of possibilities to fix this. For starters, while this is an oddball one, some of the people who have had this failure have solved their copy operation holdup by fixing the destination drive’s format type.

Some external drives come preformatted for Windows in FAT32 format if they’re not listed as being specifically intended for Macs. Some iPhoto/Photos filename or related data may be incompatible with FAT32. (Some forum posts are from folks who thought it was in NTFS format, but Macs can only read, not write, to NTFS without additional software, so you wouldn’t be able to start copying at all.)

You can check whether you have a FAT32 partition on the external drive as follows:

Launch Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
Select the volume beneath the drive. The drive will be named something like Seagate, WD, or the like, followed by a model number. The volume appears indented named something else and, if mounted, with an Eject button next to it.
In the main view, Disk Utility shows the volume’s name, and beneath it the capacity and then should read “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.

If the volume shows FAT32, you need to reformat the drive. Make a complete backup of the volume, because erasing and reformatting a partition deletes all the stored data on it. Then and only then:

Unable To Write To Iphoto Library Check That You Have Permission

In Disk Utility with that partition selected, click Erase.
In the Format pop-up menu, change the item to “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.
Click Erase and the confirm. This will delete everything on that partition.

When the volume mounts on the Desktop, if you can copy the media library successfully now, hurray, that was the problem.

If that doesn’t solve the problem, I have two more suggestions:

Run Disk Repair from Recovery. Apple lets you boot from a special partition on your startup drive into the Recovery mode. Follow Apple’s instructions here, and then after restarting into macOS, try to copy the library. If that fails, then…
Rebuild the Photos Library using Apple’s instructions here. In Martha Helena’s case, that may require freeing up more than 3GB on the startup volume for temporary storage while it rebuilds. If that fails, then…

You can open the media library package and copy items in small groups to see if you can identify which file or folder is corrupt. Follow these steps:

Unable To Write To Library Iphoto Library

Launch Photos with the Option key down.
Click Create New, and save the new files on the external drive.
Quit Photos.
Control-click on that new library file on the external drive and choose Show Package Contents.
Select everything in the revealed folder, move to the trash, and delete it.
On your startup volume, select an iPhoto or Photos Library and select Show Package Contents.
First try copying everything to see if the Finder will report the problem: select everything in the folder, and drag to the new library’s folder.
If nothing fails, great! If you receive an error, you should be able to see which folder it failed with. Grab all the folders except that one that didn’t copy and drag them to the new library folder. (Repeat with failures as necessary.)
Open folders that failed to copy and try to copy elements within them until you diagnose which file is bad. If it’s an image file and not a database or other file, you may have to just do without it.
When you’ve completed copying everything you can, launch Photos with the Option key held down.
Select the library on the external drive.
If it fails to open appropriately, try to rebuild it per instructions above.

This is a lot to try, but it’s likely one of these solutions will move you along your way to success.

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