After upgrading to Mac 10.11 El Capitan, when I open Photos App I get the the window of Updating Library. The process continues normally until the progress bar reaches 85% then I get the following error.

• Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck In Computer
• Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck In Icloud

• Downloaded El Capitan. Opened Photos for 1st time and it went straight to Updating library but every time it gets to 18% complete it stops and freezes. I can't quit Photos and have to shut down iMac.
• Or Manually copy your photo library to an external storage device: Drag the Photos library (by default in the Pictures folder on your Mac) to your storage device to create a copy Press Option-Command and double-click the Photos icon in the Dock or in your Applications folder The Repair Library window opens.
• Photos app stuck while updating its library after updating to macOS Sierra Mac I updated my macbook pro to macOS sierra yesterday and when I opened my photos app it says 'updating library' and it's been stuck on 13% for a day now.

Dear Donia, How do I remove old photo album paper from the backs of photos? Dear Donia, My grandmother had an old photo album made up of black pages in which she'd glued her photos. Since I'd heard this paper could be harmful to photos, I carefully removed the photos from the pages. However, there are black splotches of paper still attached to the backs of the photos where the glue had. Quit Photos and re-launch it. Using the Terminal to “kill” certain Photos-related background agents and jobs. (This is a little tweaky and can cause problems, so I hesitate to recommend it.

If I quit and reopen the Photo App, the process of updating starts agian until it reaches 85%, then I'll get the error again.

My library was functioning normally on the latest Yosemite. iCloud Library is off.

I've tried to repair the library by holding cmd+option keys while opening Photos App but I get that the Library is not recognized, which makes sense since the updating process was never completed. Thus, Photos App on El Capitan will not be able to recognize the library created on Yosemite without updating. I'm no expert in this matter but, at least, this what my basic understanding tells me.

Any Suggestion ?

Thanks..

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 2, 2015 4:47 PM

Reader Celia Drummond had a Mac crash so severe, she had to upgrade her system from Mavericks to El Capitan—I didn’t ask about Sierra—although she was able to recover her data from Time Machine.

However, after using the iPhoto Library Upgrader, Apple’s recommended path for converting iPhoto 7 and earlier libraries to a newer format that iPhoto 8 and 9 can use, “The result is photos a fraction of their original size—most were between 1MB and 7MB each—and all are pixelated.”

I never used the utility, so I don’t know what went wrong, but something did if that’s the outcome, or something is missing in the Time Machine backup. Because she can’t run the older version of iPhoto, she can’t simply rebuild the library, which is the usual suggestion. (I’d make sure you had version 1.1 via the link above, as older versions are out there, too.)

Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck In Computer

I’d normally suggest for forward version compatibility to try to find an intermediate version of software, which has been useful for folks with various older releases of the iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote). However, the only course of action with an iPhoto 7 library is apparently to run it through the upgrader; you can’t just try to open it in iPhoto 8 (or 9). (I don’t have older libraries to check this out, so I’m relying on Apple and forum posters.)

If the upgrader just won’t work with the old library, the only real solution is to crack open the library and extract ones photos.

1. Control-click the iPhoto Library.
2. Choose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu.
3. Drag (to move) or Option-drag (to copy) the Masters folder to the Desktop or to another drive.
4. Launch the latest version of iPhoto 9 and import that Masters folder. Or launch Photos and do the same.

Unfortunately, you’ll lose a lot of information associated with photos and video that’s stored within the library, such as metadata, potentially some edits, albums, and other organizational elements. But this is better than losing the high-resolution versions of your media.

After importing the images and videos and making sure they’re the high-resolution ones you want, you can then use a de-duplication program, like PowerPhotos or Photosweeper 3 (review coming), which can clean up the low-resolution images and possibly help fix the missing metadata.

Ask Mac 911

Photos Repairing Library Is Stuck In Icloud

We’ve compiled a list of the questions we get asked most frequently along with answers and links to columns: read our super FAQ to see if your question is covered. If not, we’re always looking for new problems to solve! Email yours to mac911@macworld.com including screen captures as appropriate. Mac 911 can’t reply to—nor publish an answer to—every question, and we don’t provide direct troubleshooting advice.