An error pops up when you are trying to access images from multiple devices using an iPhoto. An error stating “this photo library is locked or you do not have permission to make changes to it”. Although the iPhotos app has seen quite a few updates, this old problem/error still haunts us to date. Starting your Mac in Recovery mode and running your disk repair utility, to resolve the error might not always work, here are some more things you can try.
To try to fix the problem with the Photos app, please try this restoring the default libraries. Open File Explorer Right click the navigation pane in the left and see if the Show Libraries option is checked, if not check it. Right click 'Libraries'. Click 'Restore Default libraries'. Relaunch the Photos app. Top 5 Best Photo Repair Software for Mac. For Mac users who are looking for a photo repair tool, you can check this part to learn the top five best photo repair software for Mac. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac #2. Stellar Photo Repair #3. Mac Photos library repair tool #4. OneSafe JPEG Repair #5. Rescue Digital Media - Photo Repair; 1. Jul 05, 2021 Apple provides a repair tool to address a corrupt Photos library. The repair tool examines the library's database and repairs any conflicts it senses. Depending on the magnitude and size of your library, the whole process could take a bit of time. When the process is done, Photos opens the library again, with your files intact.
Apple’s Photos Library repair tool detects any discrepancy in the library’s database and repairs the same. Depending on the number and size of your library photos, and the network speed, the process might take some time. For instance, a 150GB photo library may take about 24 hours. So you need to be patient to get it finished.
What are the reasons behind the error “this photo library is locked”?
- When you are trying to access iPhoto from multiple devices: So, if you are accessing a library that is already open on multiple devices, you might receive an error. Close the iPhoto on the other devices, when you are trying to access iPhotos from your current device.
- Conflict of ownership on removable drives: If your iPhoto Library is stored on an external drive that is used by many Mac users, there might be a permission dispute on that drive that disables other users or devices from accessing it. Specify read and write permissions to access external drives on Mac to correct this factor.
- iPhoto library is running out of free space: If the drive on which iPhoto library is saved is running out of free space, then this could be the reason why your iPhoto library might have gotten locked.
These are the above reasons why one would encounter the message “this photo library is locked” let us know below how to fix it.
How to fix error “you do not have permissions to make changes” on iPhoto
Start troubleshooting to solve the error, using below steps
- Click on iPhoto to launch the app and press command + option keys. (quit the photos app before you do so)
- The app will request you to start repair process
- Enter your credentials as administrator to initiate the repair
- The process takes some time, depending upon the photos you have saved on the system.
Troubleshooting might have solved the issue to some extent, but if the repair process has stopped in the middle then the images are not accessible even after repairing the photo library, it can be hard to determine the reason. In such cases, it is recommended to repair iPhoto library and then rebuild the photo library database.
Photos App Repair Library Mac
Quick Note: You can also use the 'Rebuild iPhoto library database' feature as shown below to rebuild the library if the above method fails to fix the repair library issue:
- Click the Command + Option button and open the iPhoto option
- Press the keys before the Picture Library Rebuild dialog box appears
- For the database repair tool, click Repair iPhoto Library Database > click Repair.
Photos App Repair Library In New
The iPhoto launches successfully once the rebuild is complete, and you can see all your images once again. If the above steps have not solved your problem, Try the Mac console app.
Fix iPhoto using Mac Console app:
- When you open a console session, go ahead and try to open the iPhoto app again
- Check the console messages for any iPhoto app-related errors or issues. Look to see if there are additional hints you can find that can help you find the problem source.
- By holding the Shift Key while restarting or booting up, try booting in Safe Mode.
- Make sure that the main library of images helps you to read and write. Go to the photo library and click or right-click on the photo library and select Get Info to open the Info Window. Scroll down to Sharing & Permissions and verify under your username that it is classified as Read & Write. If not, modify the Read & Write permissions to those.
Unless you're sure you have a permission-related problem, Repair Disk Permissions works as a troubleshooting method. before you initiate the repair process, just in case anything happens during the process, make sure you have a backup of your images. Use Remo Photo Recovery tool torecover lost files from the iPhoto library. Try the tool for free and then activate it to save the recovered files to the desired location. Download now.
For Mac users, occasional hiccups with the iPhoto Library app are not uncommon. Missing or corrupt files, errors, failed imports, the crash of the Photos app, device hanging problem while opening the iPhotos app, etc., are common issues. Such issues mean that the Images app is corrupt and it is recommended to be repaired.
If you feel this above article has helped you in resolving the error “this photo library is locked”. If you find this information helpful please share it with your friends and colleague, comment below if you have any queries.
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.
Photos App Repair Library In Windows
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:
- 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:
- 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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