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

I have recently updated my iMac to Mojave. Then I migrated my iPhoto library (27000 photos) to photos. Photos is running so slowly. Almost a constant spinning wheel. I don't use iCloud except for photo stream. I want to sync my devices through iTunes and recently that has been a nightmare. Thought if I used Photos it would fix the issue. But I don't know because I have so much clean up to do with events and faces. And the almost constant spinning wheel in photos is driving me crazy. Says it is updating people in the background but it has been a couple of weeks. Help! (I also hate that you cannot delete faces that photo had identified - like in large group photos or even photos on the wall in pictures)

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jun 10, 2020 11:14 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 10, 2020 11:19 AM

Photos is evaluating each photo and each frame in a movie for faces and items like tables, cars, dogs, etc. That can take quite a while depending on your library size, like weeks.


Where is your library located?  If on an external HD how is that drive formatted and connected to your iMac?


As a test launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library.  Import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it? (This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread)


Log into another user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac,  and see if the problem persists. (This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide).


Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 10, 2020 11:19 AM in response to helenkaannies

Photos is evaluating each photo and each frame in a movie for faces and items like tables, cars, dogs, etc. That can take quite a while depending on your library size, like weeks.


Where is your library located?  If on an external HD how is that drive formatted and connected to your iMac?


As a test launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library.  Import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it? (This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread)


Log into another user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac,  and see if the problem persists. (This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide).


Jun 10, 2020 12:06 PM in response to Old Toad

My library is located on my iMac. I do have another smaller library (450 photos) that I had previously created and I just tested it. It seems to be okay. I had a hunch the facial recognition was the problem but I couldn't believe it would take this long. It says it works in the background. I assume (hope) it would do this even when the computer is asleep. And would naming people myself help or hinder the process? I think they have made the people thing too complicated with the little movies and places integrated with the people. Some things appear to be an improvement over iPhoto but this is not good. Especially not being able to remove people you don't want. Do you know if photos will sync to my iPhone and iPad through iTunes better than iPhoto? That is once I get it cleaned up. The main reason I migrated! iPhoto worked great on my iMac and used to sync beautifully but with the updates on my devices it became a nightmare. I actually created a library with one photo and synced to that and then went back to the main library. Otherwise it just continued to double up and add pictures again. Thank you for your response.

Photos

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