External Hard Drive problems

[poppi]

I have a big problem with one of my external hard drives (EHD). I have two EHDs both Western Digital WD My Book. I use one for my Time Machine backup and the other for my photos. It is the photos EHD which is the problem. I have a photo icon in the dock and when I double click it the photo library opens with access to over a thousand photos. It has worked that way for years. Yesterday when I did that I got the following message appeared:

“Photos cannot find the system photo library. You can open another library and set it as the system photo library in preferences.

When I double click the EHD icon on the desk top it shows one jpg photo, one video, and one folder of iMovie events, nothing else. This makes me wonder if the disk is dead???

I have no idea what any of this means. Is there a way to determine if the EHD is dead? If it is can any of the files be saved?

Suggestions will be sincerely appreciated

poppi

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I'd start up in Recovery Mode and run Disk Utilities/First Aid on both your external and internal hard drives:

If you can't start up from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Learn what to do if you can't get your Mac to start up from macOS Recovery.

support.apple.com

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support

Use the First Aid feature of Disk Utility to find and repair disk errors.

support.apple.com

If the above does not find and repair anything, andif your Mac is old enough that this software will still run, consider purchasing:

DiskWarrior ($129)

ALSOFT - Makers of DiskWarrior.

DiskWarrior is a utility program designed from the ground up with a totally different approach to preventing and resolving directory damage.

www.alsoft.com

(Will not work on disks formatted as APFS, so it won't work on Macs running Mojave or later or earlier disks purposely formatted as APFS.)
(There is no equivalent to this product for APFS drives.)

You can also download this software and see what it has to say about the health of your external hard drive:

DriveDX (free demo)
DriveDx - the most advanced drive health diagnostics and monitoring utility

 

[MacInWin]

Before I did either of those, I would reboot. Then if that doesn't fix it, I would open Photos, then Preferences and see where Photos thinks the default database is.

Was this external being backed up?

 

[poppi]

It's been a while and I have tried some of these suggestions to no avail. My Photos file is still missing. Here is some more info:

• Photos were in file named “Photos” stored in external hard drive
• Used to click in Photos icon in dock and file opened with over a thousand photos
• Clicked on icon and message “Cannot find file Photos Library.photoslibrary
• EHD still had numerous videos files
• EHD not “dead”? Still can store things on it but photos file is not there
• EHD is WD My Book 3 TB, 2.7 TB available

I would sincerely appreciate any suggestions on how to find that file

Many thanks

poppi

 

[MacInWin]

@poppi , you can use Finder, or Find Any File or EasyFind to look for the missing library. Your post is a bit confusing because of the use of "photos" for both the app and maybe your image files. So, to keep it straight, the App is Photos, the images are in files. And Photos can either store those files in the database or leave them on the drive where you had them. To check which is your setup, you can look in Photos/Preferences/General to see if you have checked the "Copy items to the photos library" item. Don't change it now, but if it is checked, your images are stored in the database. If it's not checked, your images need to be where they were when you imported them because they are NOT stored in the database.

Ok, that said, in Finder, go to the sidebar and click on the name of your machine under "Locations." Now click on the spyglass icon in the upper right corner and type in "photoslibrary" and wait. In a few seconds Finder will search your entire system for any file ending in "photoslibrary." Once you know where it is, you can then open Photos, Preferences, General and make sure that the Library Location has the same location specified. If not, you see where Photos thinks the library is by clicking on "Show in Finder" to see the database in Finder. If it's not the right one, and if you found the right one in the previous search of Finder, then close Photos and reopen it with the Option key held down. In the resulting window you can open the library you found and with any luck your images will be there.

 

[poppi]

@poppi , you can use Finder, or Find Any File or EasyFind to look for the missing library. Your post is a bit confusing because of the use of "photos" for both the app and maybe your image files. So, to keep it straight, the App is Photos, the images are in files. And Photos can either store those files in the database or leave them on the drive where you had them. To check which is your setup, you can look in Photos/Preferences/General to see if you have checked the "Copy items to the photos library" item. Don't change it now, but if it is checked, your images are stored in the database. If it's not checked, your images need to be where they were when you imported them because they are NOT stored in the database.

Ok, that said, in Finder, go to the sidebar and click on the name of your machine under "Locations." Now click on the spyglass icon in the upper right corner and type in "photoslibrary" and wait. In a few seconds Finder will search your entire system for any file ending in "photoslibrary." Once you know where it is, you can then open Photos, Preferences, General and make sure that the Library Location has the same location specified. If not, you see where Photos thinks the library is by clicking on "Show in Finder" to see the database in Finder. If it's not the right one, and if you found the right one in the previous search of Finder, then close Photos and reopen it with the Option key held down. In the resulting window you can open the library you found and with any luck your images will be there.

Thank you for the rapid reply. I did as suggested in paragraph 1 and the box Copy items to the photos library IS checked. I then went to paragraph 2 and am confused. What is the side bar? I see none on my machine. I should tell you that I am at O/S 10.11.6. Can you clarify?

THank you

poppi

 

[MacInWin]

Sidebar is in Finder, on the left side of the Finder window. If it's not there, open Finder, click on "View" on the top bar of the screen and then "Show Sidebar" to have it appear. Now, in Finder/Preferences, on the Sidebar tab you can select what shows in the Sidebar. Make sure "Locations" that "External Drives" is checked. Your external drive should now show in the Sidebar.

 

[poppi]

Tried Finder > View and show side bar is there but it is greyed out (cannot click). Then tried Finder > preferences and side bar is one of the options where I can select what shows in the side bar but the side bar still doesn't appear. What am I missing?

Thank you

poppi

 

[MacInWin]

I honestly don't know what to do if that doesn't work. Are you on an Admin account? Maybe it needs to be done from an Admin account? Also, try a reboot to see if the option appears.

Maybe somebody else has a suggestion.

 

[Rod]

Poppi, below is the Sidebar of a finder window that Jake is referring to (mine is in dark mode). The column on the left with the list of folders is the Sidebar, the larger section on the right displays the contents of any selected folder in the Sidebar. Mine is showing the contents of my MacBook Pro.


If you don't have a sidebar on your finder window then I would hazard a guess that you have more problems than just a lost Photos data base. In fact it may be a related indexing issue.
Try running Disk Utility > First Aid on your Macintosh HD.

 

[Rod]

Just to follow up on this topic you are not alone in your problem although it may not be the same situation see; “I’m totally screwed.” WD My Book Live users wake up to find their data deleted

 

[Rod]

Of course we all hope your problem has resolved itself or you forgot to mention some simple detail that has solved the problem for you. Either way we would love to know.