You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Photos hang and unstable

Greetings, when I started to edit a picture (raw files), the software just hang, I have restarted few times and the issue still occur. I also noticed that after I upgraded to the latest version of OS, this application seems to be very slow.

I am accessing the library from external drive, will that be the main reason?


cheers!

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 22, 2020 11:25 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 23, 2020 4:43 AM

Did you already update to the most recent version of Catalina, macOS 10.15.3? The first two versions had some bugs.


I guess the issue is more on application unstable, intimidate and the longer I use the application the issue will occur.

You cannot be sure about this without some testing. The external drive may be the problem, your current Photos LIbrary may need repairing, it might be a hardware problem, or incompatible system extensions, or an incompletely installed system.


This requires systematic testing to narrow down the problem and isolate the issue. After ensuring, that you are not running out of storage on your Mac and the external volume is compatible, try the following tests:


If all tests fail, and the problem is system wide, check for hardware problems: How to use Apple Diagnostics on your Mac – Apple Support


If only the current system remains as the culprit, reinstall the system, but not the same way, as you originally installed it. Boot into recovery and reinstall the complete system, not just the update:

About macOS Recovery – Apple Support

Similar questions

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 23, 2020 4:43 AM in response to richard_mak

Did you already update to the most recent version of Catalina, macOS 10.15.3? The first two versions had some bugs.


I guess the issue is more on application unstable, intimidate and the longer I use the application the issue will occur.

You cannot be sure about this without some testing. The external drive may be the problem, your current Photos LIbrary may need repairing, it might be a hardware problem, or incompatible system extensions, or an incompletely installed system.


This requires systematic testing to narrow down the problem and isolate the issue. After ensuring, that you are not running out of storage on your Mac and the external volume is compatible, try the following tests:


If all tests fail, and the problem is system wide, check for hardware problems: How to use Apple Diagnostics on your Mac – Apple Support


If only the current system remains as the culprit, reinstall the system, but not the same way, as you originally installed it. Boot into recovery and reinstall the complete system, not just the update:

About macOS Recovery – Apple Support

Feb 23, 2020 1:05 AM in response to richard_mak

The library on external drive should be no problem if it is locally mounted and always connected to the mac, when you are signed into your user account. The file system format should be MacOS Extended (Journaled) or APFS, the volume must not be used for Time Machine backups.

The requirements are described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support


When working with RAW files you should also have plenty of free storage on the internal system volume, because Photos needs local working storage.

Feb 24, 2020 2:35 AM in response to richard_mak

if you are seeing issues with beta version, use the provided feedback tools for beta testers to send a detailed feedback to Apple, so the developer team can try to fix any new bugs introduced by the beta version. We are not allowed to discuss issues with Beta versions in the public forums, because Beta versions are confidential.

Photos hang and unstable

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.