Aug 16, 2017 Rebuild Mac Photos Library: a reader asks I seem to have damaged my Macbook’s Photos library as there are tons of photos in the library but they don’t show the images. What can I do? The MacOS Photos app is really great about helping you manage your photos, but there are a few things to be aware of. First off, when you import photos into the app, the originals are stored in a hidden. Rebuild your iPhoto library to fix common errors or missing pics. Posted by Ant on October 31st, 2008 6 Comments. Most of the common problems Mac users have with iPhoto are easily resolved by rebuilding the program’s corrupt library. You’ll be up and running in no time. My Photo Stream not updating in Mac.
If a Photos Library should become badly damaged, for example by being stored on a failing drive, and even the built-in Library repair tool cannot fix the library (How to use the Photos library repair tool - Apple Support), we can rebuild the library by downloading it from iCloud to a new, empty library.
It shows up between the Home and Computer menu options. If you are the curious or the restless type and need regular access to the hidden Library folder, here's a tip to add it to your Favorites.Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNETTo access the Library folder, open the Finder and then, while viewing the Go pull-down menu, hold down the Option key to see the Library. Make library visible mac os x. Open the Library folder and select the column view so that you can see the Library folder itself (and not just its contents).
If you are sure, that all photos and videos are already in iCloud, try this:
If the Photos app on your Mac is open, choose Photos > Quit Photos.
1. Hold down the Option key and double-click the Photos icon in the Applications folder (or click the Photos icon in the Dock) to open Photos.
2. In the Choose Library dialogue, click Create New.
3. Type a library name and choose a location to store the library.
4.Click OK.
1.In the Photos app on your Mac, choose Photos > Preferences, then click General.
2.To make the current library the System Photo Library, click Use as System Photo Library.
Photos will now download your iCloud Photos to the new library and this new library will initially be very small and only have optimised versions. You can later switch to 'Download Originals' if you prefer to have the originals stored locally. .
There is one drawback: The projects will be missing, because iCloud is not storing the projects. And some named faces may be missing. Photos is storing all named faces in iCloud, but I frequently found that manually added faces circles have not been restored from iCloud. So it is essential to keep an archive copy of your Photos Library, before you let iCloud optimise it. You need a local copy anyway, because it is hard to backup an optimised iCloud Library. A local copy is easier to backup.
You can use the same method to migrate your Photos Library to a new computer.