Fix “Photos was unable to open the library” Mac Error

Learn how to access photos when receiving the “Photos was unable to open the library” error on MacOS Monterey and above. If the library is not corrupted but still won’t open, users can still access the photos by using the “show package contents” workaround method as shown in the video.

📋 Table of Contents:

Introduction: 0:00
Using Disk Utility: 00:26
Repairing with Photos App: 00:43
Manually Viewing Photos in Photo Library: 01:27
Viewing Photo File Size: 02:13
Recap of How To “Show package contents”: 02:25
Outro: 02:41

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[yammymyhammy]

BRILLIANT!!!! I have 300GB of photo work that was inaccessible! Of course right click and show packaged contents! LIFE

[lng]

This was so helpful, thank you! For me, the tip about locating the Originals folder did the trick!!

[jamesstemple]

THANK YOU! Transfer “ORIGINALS” WORKED! From 2009 time machine to 2024 macbook pro. Drag n dropped onto photos open page. 4700 pics imported in about 2-3 min.
Spend all day at the Genius Bar Apple Store and 4 different Geniuses failed. Brilliant video!

[smhillsterman]

In case this helps anyone, I had this 'The library could not be opened. Photos was unable to open the library "..." (5416) like in this video. I made a duplicate of the photo library (onto the same external HHD) and tried to open the duplicate, and it worked. No idea why that would be the solution but it worked.

[jontelee]

THANK YOU!!! This was so helpful. I was now able to recover thousands of photos!!

[alex_stranger]

Thank you, bro! It fixed my photo library!

Option+command+double click

[MartinBellamyMBDrums]

Thank you! The Option Command Double click worked!

[KohinoorMeshram]

Hi Anson!
Found a proper solution: Just duplicate the photos library in your external drive, it'll solve the problem! You won't even require to repair the library!

How the solution works:
I faced the same issue just now and while going through the structure of the package contents of the photo library. I noticed that the "resources" folder had name "Resources" while the new library I created on my Mac had "resources". So I duplicated the photos library to edit the folder name, just in case it did something. And to my amazement, duplication led to auto renaming of the resources folder as required. I think while taking a backup of the photos library to an external drive, we usually copy-paste. But I think it needs to be duplicated first. I think Apple did this on purpose so that people use TimeMachine as their default option maybe.

[glowingandconfused]

Wow! This was really helpful, thank you. My dad was trying to import photos from a hard drive and got this exact series of errors. We imported the photos from originals and it worked! Great video

[malca]

Hi, So if I can copy everything from 'Originals', I could then create a new library on my macbook (import) with them ?

[kylekallenbach]

All I had to do was rename it, option click open it. It’s totally fine. I saw all of my images inside the package just like you did, had the same error, but just renamed it, option click opened it and it’s fine.

[wyldwindsworn]

if photolibrary is stored on hd, a system update would prob mess up privilege settings or something like that, so the library is not actually corrupt. simple solution: leave file as is and copy it over to desktop (may take a little while if it's a big library); once copied over, double-click on library to open. this should fix it and not produce the error. quit photos. copy photolibrary back to hd (will overwrite existing or create new name to make backup). once copied over, it should work again even from the hd.

[OHHnoYOUdidntMAN]

Damn, all my originals are corrupted even though the file size is there (it took hours to transfer the 1.32 tb).

I imagine this might have something to do with how disk drill recovered the library. I'll try stellar to see how that goes.

[maxgorbakov]

macos update also can help. hopefully, i did it. now it works

[cadicklee]

I have the same error code 5416. In originals, they are listed from 0-9-A-..., not following years, and in the format HEIC not JPG.

[Poppy]

So I did this but I didn't see any "original" folder. There were just a few folder but none open up to any photos that I had.

[trcoxon]

This doesn't work now as this isn't an option on the right click

[TheWineSiren]

It doesn't solve the primary problem of the corrupt file folder. But it does show how to access them. Guess Apple may have a solution. HA!

[RossZhu-gk]

Thanks in heaps! I have to say Apple is very good at scaring people.