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User profile for user: Masarnen1
Masarnen1 Author
User level: Level 1
17 points

Catalina Photo Issues & upgrading to Big Sur

I have my entire Photo Library on an external drive which under Mojave was all running fine. As soon as I upgraded to Catalina it all went haywire - extremely slow to load the App and also very slow to load pictures. It is quite plainly not fit for purpose.


From a bit of research, it is clear that I wasn't the only one having photo issues on upgrading to Catalina. I now see that Big Sur has been released without, as far as I am aware, the existing issues with Photos in Catalina being resolved.


My question is this - has anybody here upgraded to Big Sur who initially had the same problems I had with Catalina? Has Big Sur sorted out this mess that Apple have done nothing about? I honestly wish I had stuck with Mojave as Catalina has been a bit of a disaster - certainly where Photos is concerned.


Grateful for any insight - thanks.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 16, 2021 5:12 AM

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User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,954 points

Posted on Jan 16, 2021 9:49 AM

Hi

Is the external drive correctly set up for using with a photos library?


It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled) (preferred for spinning drives), and not be (or have been) used for time machine. It must have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked. It should not be on a memory stick, SD or similar. It stands to reason that if you want any sort of reasonable performance it should be a fast drive with a fast connection.


It must also not be a network drive (a direct connection is required - eg USB or Thunderbolt)


See

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517

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User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,954 points

Jan 16, 2021 9:49 AM in response to Masarnen1

Hi

Is the external drive correctly set up for using with a photos library?


It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled) (preferred for spinning drives), and not be (or have been) used for time machine. It must have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked. It should not be on a memory stick, SD or similar. It stands to reason that if you want any sort of reasonable performance it should be a fast drive with a fast connection.


It must also not be a network drive (a direct connection is required - eg USB or Thunderbolt)


See

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517

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Catalina Photo Issues & upgrading to Big Sur

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