Can't export photos after migration to Monterey

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Level 1

12 points

Can't export photos after migration to Monterey

I recently migrated from a macbook pro running 10.14.6 to the latest Monterey 12.4 running on a M1 mini.

I used migration assistant to transfer my account, apps, etc (everything that MA could migrate was migrated). A large library of photos (in Photos.app) was migrated. The library has many annotations, e.g. titles, keywords, edits, descriptions.

When I open the Photos app on the mini the library looks OK. All the photos can be opened, the original annotations are still intact. On the surface it looks like everything has been migrated properly.

but...

I tried to export some photos from the library and got this message:

Export Complete with Errors

0 (of 1) files have been exported.

The export operation failed to create a file for the photo identified below:

..

IMG_4698.jpg The operation couldn't be completed (Cocoa error -1.)

This error only occurs with photos migrated from 10.14.6. Photos that were imported directly to the mini in the last few days, i.e. not migrated, can be exported without problem. SO I know that Photos is set up correctly with the correct permissions and the folder to which it is attempting to export is writable by Photos.app).

I do not have these photos on iCloud. I do have the photos on the macbook pro, so if I was really desperate, I could upload them to iCloud and try to completely recreate the library but that would be a long project.

I have no idea how to fix this, but I need to be able to export from my Photos library.

Please help.

Mac mini, macOS 10.12

Posted on Jun 11, 2022 10:25 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,903 points

Jun 11, 2022 11:33 AM in response to dotore

What I would do would be to manually re-migrate the library from the old mac to the new one.

Get (or borrow) an external drive (not a thumbdrive/pendrive), connected with USB. Make sure it is formatted MacOS extended, or APFS.

Copy the whole photo library from the old mac onto the drive, then copy from the drive to the new mac.

Then open the newly copied libray using photos on the new mac. It should spend some time upgrading it from 10.14 version to the monterety version.

Hopefully it will then work.

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Answer 2

dotore Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 11, 2022 3:33 PM in response to dotore

yes, it worked though there was a bit of bizarre behavior.

I copied the 10.4 library to ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary on the M1 mini running 12.4 monterey.

I clicked on it to open it and Photos gave me a message saying it was updating the library.

The progress bar went about 5% of the way across and then it went into to loop saying it was doing things like looking for the best picture, analysing, looking for duplicates, etc. This went on for a couple of hours and the progress bar didn't move at all.

I finally decided to see if the Photos app would respond and, surprisingly, it did. I clicked on Preferences and the update window disappeared! I then opened up albums and easily exported photos. I sampled several albums, checked for annotations and edits and everything seems to be intact.

I don't know what Photos was doing during all that looping, but I guess I don't need it.

anyway, thanks for the tip, it worked as far as I'm concerned.

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Answer 3

Jun 12, 2022 7:49 AM in response to dotore

Good news - thanks for letting me know.

The "loop" is actually going on continuosly. It is what photos does to organise your photos automatically, allow you to search for photos by subject etc. Obviously this will take a long time (days/weeks) for a newly migrated library - but it goes on in the background.

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Answer 4

dotore Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 11, 2022 11:49 AM in response to dotore

I'll give it a try, thanks. Luckily I have a backup of the 10.14 library and I can reload that. I won't try until this evening, then I will let you know if it works.

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Can't export photos after migration to Monterey

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