Repair Photo Library. Your Mac system contains in-built repair functions to fix the version. Sometimes, an iPhoto library will become corrupted, with missing photos, mysterious iPhoto hangs, or outright crashes. With iPhoto Library Manager, you can rebuild a new library based on your current library, starting with a fresh database free of corruption. You can even scavenge photos from the library that iPhoto may have lost track of. Click the Use as System Photo Library button. If you open a second or different library in the Photos app, and you haven't designated it as the System Photo Library, other applications will use photos from the original System Photo Library. Hold down the Option key when you open Photos to see which library is set as the System Photo Library. Startup photos cannot find the system photo library I have seen this issue in a number of other posts, but I don't see any solutions. When I boot my MacBook Pro and then try to open Photos I get the 'Photos cannot find the System Photo Library'. It will scan Mac or other connect device to recover Photos Library on Mac. Step 2 Choose the Image option and the desired Hard Drive. Click the Scan button to have a quick scan for the deleted photo library on Mac. If you cannot retrieve Photos Library on Mac, you can choose Deep Scan instead.

• Cannot View Pictures In Library
• Photos Cannot Find The System Photo Library On Macbook
• Photos Cannot Find The System Photo Library Mac Osx
• Photos Cannot Find The System Photo Library Mac
• Photos Cannot Find The System Photo Library Mac Pro
• Change Photos Library Location Mac

Dec 16, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

If a message saying ‘photos cannot find the System Photo Library' pops-up on the screen, do not panic. In such scenarios, people often think that they have lost all their collection of photos. Though it is a visible reaction, it is not necessarily the case.

The reason why the photos cannot find System Photo Library could be different every time. This article discusses all System Photo Library, different ways to find System Photo Library on photos and tips to protect System Photo Library.

Part 1: What’s System Photo Library

If you are a MacBook user, you might be familiar with the term System Photo Library. It’s a useful library application feature of the Mac computers that can be used with iCloud Photos, My Photo Stream, and Shared Albums.

With the assistance of this incredible tool, you can easily access various Mac applications, including iMovie, Pages, Keynote, and more. Moreover, it allows you to sync photos on IOS devices and view all your precious collections on Apple TV.

What’s System Photo Library

Even when you want to set your image as your screensaver or desktop picture, the photo needs to be in your System Photo Library. Only then will you be able to select them in System Preferences. Now, if you think that you have only one photo library, then it's your default System Photo Library. And if it’s not, then the first photo library that you create will automatically become the System Photo Library.

To make it easier for other apps to easily access all the photos and videos that you want to share, it would be better if you designate a System Photo Library. However, it is only essential if you have more than one library.

How to Designate a System Photo Library in Photos

As briefly mentioned earlier, designating a System Photo Library works best to share your photos on different platforms or devices. This makes it reasonably easy for your computer to choose a photo from the photo library without the need to ask for permission during selection. Not only it reduces time to access photos but also eliminates the hassle of going through the entire procedure every time you want to sync photos with other applications.

Follow the steps below to designate a System Photo Library.

Step 1: Quit photos and then open the 'Photos' on your Mac system. To do so, simply hold down the 'Option' button.

Step 2: Select the library that you want to designate as System Photo Library.

Step 3: When photos open the library, go to the 'Photos' option. Now, open 'Preferences' in the menu bar.

Step 4: Tap on the ‘General’ tab.

/adobe-cc-2015-hack-mac.html. Step 5: Now, click on ‘Use as System Photo Library’ option.

Tip: If you have more than one photo library in the Photos app, other applications might use photos from the previous System Photo Library. However, it could only happen if you haven’t designated it as the System Photo Library. Simply, long-press the ‘Option’ key to confirm which particular library is set as the default system library.

Why the System Photo Library Cannot Be Found

The fact that it happens so randomly makes it tricky to find out what triggered the action that results in photos that cannot find the System Photo Library.

But whenever you come across any situation where your photos cannot find the System Photo Library, it usually leads to two cases, somewhat identical.

1ST Scenario: When you open the iPhoto application on your system, you won't find anything going wrong in the uploading of the photo collection. In this case, there might be only a few photos that you'll find hard to locate.

2nd Scenario: In the second case, when you launch iPhoto application, a message might pop-up on the window saying, 'Photos cannot find the System Photo Library.’ Moreover, you won’t see the name of your System Photo Library. It’s a clear indication that iPhoto is having issues locating the entire photo collection.

The second scenario is a much severe issue because your entire photo collection is gone.

But why the issue occurs in the first place?

Well, to understand that, first, we have to know how photo collections load in iPhoto. It requires two elements – iPhone Application and Photo Library File. While iPhoto application is a program developed by Apple, Photo Library File is a self-contained folder that often seems like a single file. So, it’s the iPhone application that reads all the information related to your images. It includes preview and thumbnails stored in Photo Library File.

Now, for whatever reasons, all the photos from the photo library files are missing. Hence, iPhoto is not able to load it on the applications. Here are some of the possible reasons for the issue.

• It’s probably loading another library file that you have created before.
• It could have created a new empty library file. Hence, you can't see a photo.

When does this issue occur?

As briefly mentioned earlier, there are multiple unanimous reasons. Here’re are the possible cases:

• Upgrading of iPhoto Library files
• During syncs and imports

Part 2: How to Find the System Photo Library on Photos

As mentioned earlier, one of the reasons for the issue is that the iPhoto library version becomes somewhat incompatible with the Photo app. But there are numerous ways to find the System Photo Library on Photos. The tricks mentioned in the following points try to address the issue from different angles. Here are five possible solutions that will help you find photos in System Photo Library.

Solution 1: Repair Photo Library

Your Mac system contains in-built repair functions to fix the version incompatibility issue of System Photo Library. Follow the steps mentioned ahead to carry out the repair process.

Step 1: Open the ‘Photos’ app on the Mac computer.

Step 2: Go to ‘Photos’ and click on ‘Quit Photos’ tab.

Step 3: Now, long-press on the 'Option Command' and double-tap on the Photos icon in the 'Application' folder.

Step 4: In the 'Repair Library' window, click on 'Repair.'

The above steps will rebuild your System Photo Library.

Solution 2: Remove the Photos Library

If there is more than one photo library file, removing the non-essential one could solve this problem. There is a possibility that the photo library without any images has been set as the System Photo Library. If that is the case, it is obvious why you are unable to see any photos. The steps to remove the System Photo Library is as follows,

Step 1: Open the 'Finders' window.

Step 2: Go to the pictures folder that has been set as the system repair library.

Step 3: Long press on the ‘Photo Library’ and click on the ‘Disable and Delete’ option.

Step 4: Now, click on 'Done,' and your empty photos library is removed.

It will remove the empty photo library, and you can set the new photo library as your System Photo Library.

Solution 3: Search Missing Library Files

Though it might seem like a highly unlikely scenario, you might have accidentally moved it to some other location. It would be a difficult task to go through your entire computer to find the System Photo Library. So, here're some of the efficient ways to find a missing photo library.

Check your OSX Trash

It's possible that you might have accidentally deleted it along with other files. Hence, it would be best if you check your OSX Trash. For a quick search, you can sort it by the file size column. There won't possibly be any other file that is large enough like System Photo Library.

Tip: Even if you don’t find the system library files in the trash, it would be best if you don’t empty your trash unless you find your photo library files.

Use Spotlight

In all MacOS and IOS operating systems, you will get a desktop search feature called Spotlight. It is located in the top-right corner of the menu bar. You can use this tool for system-wide search action to find the System Photo Library. Follow the steps below to find your photo library files.

Step 1: Type in ‘iPhoto Library’ in the search field. It will prompt an action that will try to find library files in external drives and other places.

Step 2: If it doesn’t work, then click on ‘Show all in Finder’ option for maximum coverage.

Step 3: Sort the results by size so that it would show at the top of the results.

Solution 4: Recover Missing System Library Files

All the methods mentioned above should help you to find your picture collections. But if you are still getting the message as ‘Photos cannot find the System Photo Library,' you must try Recoverit Mac Data Recovery which is one of the best tools to retrieve deleted or lost files on Mac.

To recover the lost photos library, you must first download the application and launch it on your system. Double-tap on the Recoverit option and follow the steps below.

Step 1: Select the location from where photos are lost

Firstly, choose the location from where you lost the System Photo Library under the 'Select Location' tab in the 'Devices' tab. Now, click on the 'Start' tab to initiate the process.

Moreover, if you know the exact location of the lost data, you can ‘Select Folder’ in the ‘Select Location’ tab.

Step 2: Scan the location

As soon as you click on the 'Start' tab, Recoverit initiates the thorough scan. Now, if you get a glimpse of the System Photo Library, you can pause or stop the process any time as you wish.

Step 3: Preview and Recover

Recoverit allows you to get a preview of all the files that are recovered in the process. When you are sure that the software has recovered the files that you want, you can simply click on the 'Recover' button.

Make sure you save the new System Photo Library at a different location. Now, click on ‘Save’ to save it at a different location.

Solution 5: Create a New Photo Library

If you're unable to find your missing files, it would be best that you create a new photo library. System Photo Library is only there to assist you with efficient management and easy syncing with iCloud Photos and Shared Albums. You still have your photos in your hard drive. Follow the steps to create a new photo library.

Step 1: Select ‘Photos’ and click on ‘Quit Photos’ if the Photos application is open on your system.

Step 2: Long-press on ‘Option-Command’.

Step 3: Double-tap on the photos icon in the ‘Application’ folder.

Step 4: A new window will pop-up. Tap on ‘Create New,’ and type-in a library name.

Cannot View Pictures In Library

Step 5: Pick a location to save the library.

Photos Cannot Find The System Photo Library On Macbook

Now, you can import your photo collections into this new photo library.

Part 3: Tips to Protect System Photo Library

If you are a professional photographer, the message ‘Photos cannot find the System Photo Library’ might put you on edge. It might be your life’s work. Hence, you must do all to prevent inconvenience to your System Photo Library. Here are some of the useful habits that you can entertain on your part.

• Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media

Based on the unshakeable belief that nothing would go wrong, people always remove their hardware without safely ejecting their external devices. The fact that nothing went wrong for the past hundred times, this abrupt removal of the external device seems like a harmless action. But even nothing is being exchanged between your computer and the device; few processes keep on running until we choose to eject it.

• Proper syncing during import & export of files

Whenever you are exporting photos to iCloud or Shared Albums, make sure it is properly synced with your computer. A good internet connection is vital so that it doesn't take much time to upload huge files. Often it gets corrupted when it transfers big files.

• Create a back-up of Photos

When it comes to protecting your System Photo Library, there’s no better way to making a copy of it. Save it in a different location so that you can still access your photo library even when it is gone from its prime location.

Closing words

Next time you come across a situation where a message pops-up like ‘Photos cannot find the System Photo Library,’ you know what to do! Moreover, it might seem like a huge problem, considering what might be at stake (your photos collection). If you understand and assess the situation correctly, it is not that huge problem to solve.

If you lose photo library files because of the issue, you can use Recoverit to retrieve them.

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Photos Cannot Find The System Photo Library Mac Osx

Summary: This article includes best Mac photo recovery solutions which can help you recover missing iPhoto/Photos pictures after macOS update or any other photo recovery situations.

Nowadays, many of us don't have physical photo albums like we did decades ago, as everything is now digital and is stored online or on our computers and smart devices. Photographs and images aren't just there to entertain us, they're there to record history. Many of life's greatest moments are captured on camera from a fantastic holiday abroad, to a child's first steps. If anything were to happen to these images, we would feel as if we'd lost a part of ourselves.

Sadly, some people unfortunately lose important images thanks to modern technology, which is what we're looking at today. Losing iPhoto images is tough, but there is a solution in the form of deleted photo recovery software, and we're going to share that solution with you today.

Note: Since OS X Yosemite 10.10.3, the photo library app iPhoto has been replaced with Photos.

Common problems

First up, we're going to share a few common photo recovery problems that our customers have encountered, before giving you a solution. Here is a recent email that we received from a concerned customer who feared that they'd lost close to 2000 iPhoto images.

Hey guys, I hope you can help as I'm desperate. I had around 1,900 iPhoto photographs saved. While some of these were boring images I hadn't gotten around to erasing yet, many of them were images of my son as a baby. In these images, I could swipe through and literally watch him grow older right before my eyes. Now I can't find them anywhere. After I upgraded to Mojave/High Sierra I only had 224 photos left, and could not find them anywhere. Worst of all is that the ones I do have left are typically the ones that I would quite happily have deleted if I'd thought to do so. They're also not on the cloud as that was the first place I checked. The images have gone from all of my devices, and I'm at my wits' end.

I was reading up on your recent guide to recover deleted photos and came across your site. I hope you can help? I've also been reading up about High Sierra upgrades and it seems as if this is a fairly-common problem as well. If you can help me get these images back I will be eternally grateful to you.

As you can see, the customer in question was clearly distressed as she was emotionally attached to the images that just randomly decided to disappear after she upgraded to macOS High Sierra. High Sierra upgrading is common because it is one of the most widely installed Mac operating systems at present. The problem is that it comes with some pretty significant changes. These changes don't seem to be going down too well with Mac devices, or Mac users for that matter. This is because many Mac users have sadly lost their videos, images, and other important documents after upgrading to macOS High Sierra. Missing iPhoto images is a particularly common problem, which is why we're looking at deleted photo recovery in today's article. The aim of this article is to help you retrieve your iPhoto images after upgrading to Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra.

What is High Sierra?

First, we'll take a quick look at what High Sierra is. macOS High Sierra is the 13th Operating System for the Apple Macintosh computer. It was released back in late 2017 and was named after the High Sierra region of California. As beneficial as High Sierra was, the main issue that Mac users had was the fact that, after upgrading from macOS Sierra, many users found that their iPhotos were randomly going missing from their iPhoto photo libraries for no obvious reasons.

Deleted photo recovery solutions

If your iPhotos have done the disappearing act on you after you upgraded, and you aren't quite sure why, try any of the following solutions and with any luck, your photos should be back in your iPhoto library in no time at all.

Solution 1: Recover missing iPhoto pictures from Time Machine

The first photo recovery solution we're going to talk to you about today involves the use of Time Machine. No, we're not talking about the use of an actual time machine, although that would sure come in handy. No, the time machine we're talking about today is the Time Machine backup. You see, if you created a backup via Time Machine before you upgraded to Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra, you can simply use Time Machine restore missing or deleted data including documents and iPhoto images. Here's a step by step rundown of how to do precisely this:

Step 1: Connect the backup drive to the Mac computer.

Step 2: Open iPhoto folder.

Step 3: Click the Time Machine icon in the top left menu bar and select Enter Time Machine.

Tips: Did you know how to show Time Machine icon on the menu bar?

1. Click Apple icon at the top-right corner.
2. Select System Preferences… and then click on Time Machine.
3. Check Show Time Machine in menu bar.

Step 4: Browse the items in the backup folder by using on screen up/down arrows or using the timeline at the edge of the screen. If you want to find files of older version, using timeline to navigate the files is faster. You will be able to see a lot of snapshots of this whole folder and how the folder changes.

Step 5: Select an item and prese Space bar or double-click it to preview it.

Step 6: Select the photo you want to restore, and then click Restore.

Solution 2: Switch from iPhoto to photos

Next up, we're going to quickly walk you through how you can switch from iphoto iPhoto to Photos. You see, on the newer operating systems, the photos Photos app has been updated to have many more features that the iPhoto app doesn't have. Any changes that happen to be made in iPhotos won't be included in photosPhotos, and vice-versa. If you can't find the images you want in the iPhotos library, quit the application and open up the photos Photos library instead. To do so, just follow the upcoming steps:

With any luck, the images that you thought were gone forever will instead be found here.

Solution 3: Enjoy recently deleted photo recovery with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

If the other two solutions haven't provided you with any real luck, it's time for you to break out your secret weapon. When it comes to deleted photo recovery software, if the other solutions haven't restored your precious images, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is your last chance. It has been generating a lot of positive feedback lately, and as more and more people discover how effective it really is, this number is only going to grow.

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is professional data recovery software that is very effective for recovering lost iPhoto images after upgrading to Mojave/High Sierra. Whether you're looking to retrieve images, videos, audio files, texts, documents, or anything else, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is surely your best chance, especially in the absence of a successful backup. Best of all is the fact that using this piece of software is incredibly easy, and can be achieved, literally, with a few clicks. Here is a step by step guide on how to recover lost iPhoto pictures after upgrading to Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra.

Step 1: Free download, install, and launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac software. This software is completely free to download, and can be installed and launched in a matter of seconds.

Step 2: Once you've downloaded and launched the free online deleted photo recovery software, your next step is to select the drive/partition in which the photos went missing. Now click ‘next' in order to scan for any lost files located on the drive/partition. This process should not take very long at all.

Step 3: Now it's time for you to preview the initial scanning results. Preview the scan results to see which photos you wish to recover. Once you see the images you wish to recover, you simply click on the ‘recover' Recover' button.

More about iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

There are countless examples of free Mac data recovery pieces of software out there for you to choose from, but some are unfortunately not very reliable, nor are they that effective. Finding a reliable and trustworthy piece of free data recovery software is essential, which is why iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac comes so very highly recommended. It is considered by a number of users to be the absolute best free data recovery software option on the market today. This software is ideal, in that it supports the recovery of deleted photos, videos, documents, emails and music files and much more.

These can be recovered from external hard drives including: USB drives, SD cards, memory cards, pen drives, and more. What's more, the software is even able to recover lost data from APFS formatted SD cards, corrupt SD cards, unmountable SD cards, inaccessible external hard drives on various MAC models, and much more besides. It is simple to use, very effective, and best of all is the fact that the software can be downloaded and installed completely free.

Relatred articles:How to take and recover screenshots using Mac?

Why should you choose iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac?

There are many benefits associated with utilizing iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac software. While we won't list each benefit, we are going to look at some of the main reasons why so many users all over the globe are choosing iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac as their go-to photo recovery application.

It supports APFS drive data recovery

One of the main reasons why iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is proving to be so popular is because of the fact that it supports APFS drive data recovery. In fact, many consider it to be the best APFS drive data recovery software because it enables users to recovery Time Machine backups from APFS disks. Not only that, it also allows us to retrieve any lost data which we may have incurred, after deleting an APFS container. In fact, as far as APFS drive data recovery goes, there's plenty of options. These include:

• Recover lost data from encrypted APFS drive
• Recover lost data from formatted APFS drive
• Recover lost data from unmountable APFS drive
• Recover lost data from inaccessible APFS drive
• Recover lost data from APFS Volume
• And more..

Preview recovered data

Another benefit of this particular data recovery software is the fact that it enables users to preview recovered data before they decide whether they wish to permanently restore it as it once was. This is useful because it allows users to preview all unique file formats supported by Apple. These include: image, audio, video and file. This is useful because it helps save time and ensures that you don't accidentally restore the wrong files by mistake.

Deep scan and quick scan modes

The third benefit of this particular piece of data recovery software is the fact that it provides users with both: a deep scan mode, and a quick scan mode, allowing them to save time, or to search deep within the Mac device for the data that they happen to be searching for.

Highly compatible

Photos Cannot Find The System Photo Library Mac

Finally, the last benefit of iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac software that we're going to be looking at today, is the fact that it is so highly compatible. As well as being able to recover lost data from the APFS drive, it will also recover lost data from:

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• File systems: APFS, encrypted APFS, HFS+, FAT32, exFAT
• Storage devices: hard drives, external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc.
• Mac operating systems: macOS 10.14, 10.13, 10.12, 10.11,10.10, 10.9, 10.8, 10.7

Change Photos Library Location Mac

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