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Why does my mac mini "fail to create a file" for my photos stored in 'Photos' on the same computer? It reports an unknown error. I am running Sonoma 14.6.1
Mac mini, macOS 14.6
You have to export the photo(s) from Photos. Select the photo(s), then do File > Export. Is that what you are doing, or are you trying to drag photos from the Photos library to your desktop?
Export photos, videos, slideshows, and memories in Photos on Mac - Apple Support
You should be able to drag photo from the Photos Library to your Desktop.
Restart the Mac mini > open Photos > select Library on the sidebar > highlight a Photo in the main Library and try dragging that Photo to your Desktop.
If you Have iCloud Drive set for Desktop and Documents, you might be better export to some other folder in you home folder so the files do not get uploaded to the cloud.
Do you by chance use a "referenced" Photos library. That is not recommended because the links to the originals is flaky.
Use Photos > File > Export > Export unmodified (if you want the originals as you imported them -- .xmp sidecars carry the metadata edits you might have done in Photos and you can use 3rd party utilities to join them to the originals) or just Export (if you want to include and pixel and metadata edits you have done in Photos and do not mind slight quality loss when re-encoding).
Do not drag and drop from Photos because it yields unexpected results like only a low-res thumbnail that you might not notice until it is too late.
Both ways.
whether I drag, or whether I export, the same message is displayed: file cannot be created.
moving picture from 'photos' to desktop
