Random photo library appears in trash daily

[snail22]

Running Catalina on a brand new MacBook Pro 13". A Photo Library package called "Photos Library 7.19.21 PM.photoslibrary" appears in my Trash just about every day. Always with the same name, even the random timestamp. The contents of the package are:

Photos Library 7.19.21 PM.photoslibrary -> resources -> cloudsharing -> caches -> diskcacherepository.plist

The plist file contains the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>checkedinlist</key>
<dict/>
<key>checkedoutlist</key>
<dict/>
<key>lastmodpid</key>
<integer>696</integer>
<key>lastmodtime</key>
<real>616597162.911461</real>
<key>targetfilesize</key>
<integer>52428800</integer>
<key>targetsize</key>
<integer>1073741824</integer>
</dict>
</plist>


Kind of innocuous I suppose, but it's getting on my nerves. Seems maybe related to iCloud but I don't have Photos enabled for iCloud syncing. Any way to reinstall the Photo app? Or any other suggestions?

 

[apligally12]

i have the same issue too on my MBP 15 with Catalina, it keeps appearing in the trash daily and i think this happens at a particular time after restarting the system, although I've found nothing in the cloudsharing directory and my icloud sharing for photos has been set off ever since.

 

[snail22]

I made a backup of my Photo library and trashed it. Eventually the file stopped appearing in the trash, though I don't know if deleting my Photo library made any difference. I've since put the library back and the issue hasn't reoccured yet.

 

[iPlasm]

Me too, every startup I see "Photos Library.photoslibrary" in my trash, it's about 500 bytes size and it's empty of any photos, and my Photos Libraries are fine, but i don't know what is this doing in the trash can in every mac restart? MacBook 15" i7 2012 MacOS Catalina 10.15.6, it's worrying me and annoying!

My Photos Libraries have different names, should I say that one my Libraries should name "Photos Library" in order to get fixed?

 

[moretap]

This is happening for me right now with OS 12.1. There is a 3.4 MB "Photos Library.photoslibrary" in the trash every other day or so. Has anyone found a solution?

(I do have some photo libraries on an external drive, if that is what is causing it?)

 

[chfilm]

This is happening for me right now with OS 12.1. There is a 3.4 MB "Photos Library.photoslibrary" in the trash every other day or so. Has anyone found a solution?

(I do have some photo libraries on an external drive, if that is what is causing it?)

Same issue, since I moved my photo library to another SSD and deleted the original Every day a 78gb photo library shows up in my trash. WTF? 12.2.1

 

[MrSqueamish]

I only noticed this when moving to Monterey. I don't typically use the Photos application. However, for test purposes I added one image to the Photos library. Now, although the Photos Library shows up in Trash, the application runs fine and the image I added is still there. It's as if the Photos Library is being reconstructed and the old version discarded every time the system is restarted (although not immediately). I don't really care about this but I would guess that anyone using Photos with large numbers of images might notice a performance degradation whilst this process is being run. It's really very odd indeed

 

[Amigalander]

It happens with Monterey 12.4 still.
I have my main Photolibrary on an external drive.

 

[^^BIGMac]

Ugh. Me too. I moved my Photos to an external drive, upgrade too Monterey and now this Photos Library in the trash happens ll the time although it doesn't seem to affect the Photos Library on the external drive. Seems to operate normally.

WTF?

 

[snail22]

FWIW I haven't run into this since upgrading to Ventura. Hoping Apple finally killed this bug.

 

[^^BIGMac]

That’s just lovely but I can’t upgrade my 2015 iMac to Ventura. Die Apple, die.

 

[vincentandjanet]

We have the EXACT same issue. Every day a 65 gB Photos Library shows up in the Trash bin. We have NO IDEA where this file is coming from.

 

[^^BIGMac]

I hope everyone who is experiencing this bug will report it to Apple…

Feedback - macOS - Apple

 

[^^BIGMac]

Anybody figure this out?

Still happening to me almost daily on Ventura!

 

[m_LA]

still happening. i tried a bunch of things, holding down cmd + option while launching photos, etc. nothing worked

 

[m_LA]

ok wow, i finally got rid of it!

i've been trying a bunch of things so i'm not sure what ended up working, but basically after trying a rebuild of the photoslibrary, i restarted, and it finally allowed me to move (not delete!) the photoslibrary out of the trash.

the key was moving it out of the trash, not deleting it via command line or anything, as i had been doing

i think it was pretty much fixed at that point, but to be safe i replaced the new dummy photoslibrary in the Pictures folder that i created with the original one from the trash and tried to do a rebuild of the photos app

hasnt come back since!

 

[^^BIGMac]

ok wow, i finally got rid of it!

i've been trying a bunch of things so i'm not sure what ended up working, but basically after trying a rebuild of the photoslibrary, i restarted, and it finally allowed me to move (not delete!) the photoslibrary out of the trash.

the key was moving it out of the trash, not deleting it via command line or anything, as i had been doing

i think it was pretty much fixed at that point, but to be safe i replaced the new dummy photoslibrary in the Pictures folder that i created with the original one from the trash and tried to do a rebuild of the photos app

hasnt come back since!

Still not sure what your methodology was even after reading that three times.

How about posting a detailed step by step.

 

[m_LA]

ok well like i said i'm not sure what made it work, but here's what i've been doing:

my assumption was that macOS/Photos is somehow holding on to that .photoslibrary file, and treating the trash as a legitimate location for that file when its obviously not

- so i created a new photo library in the ~/Pictures folder in an attempt to get Photos to forget the one in the trash
- i tried pointing Photos to the new library
- also tried pointing Photos to the old one in the trash. again, just trying anything in case it budged that file
- tried holding option and command option to rebuild the photo library, rebuild would always hang and had to be force quit
- at some point, after trying a rebuild and restarting, i was allowed to move the photoslibrary file out of the trash. the file is still corrupt, but once its out of the trash, you can just stash it away somewhere. i put it in the ~/Pictures folder, but i dont think it matters.


the solution is not to try to keep deleting that file, move it out of the trash and just store it away somewhere - the trick is how to get macOS to let you do it... wish i knew exactly how but there you go...

 

[jamesrowsell02]

Hi, I have managed to solve this for now by remoting into a Windows PC on my Network and then mapping my Mac HDD as a Network Drive, and deleting the .photoslibrary file which was in my Pictures folder. This has also cleared my Trash.

 

[iPlasm]

What I see is there must be a Photos Library in Pictures folder and it must be exactly this file name "Photos Library", leave it there even with empty pictures and make it default library too. don't trust iCloud to backup unless you've own backups. Backup by your self using two storages and carefully manage them manually.

since then, I don't see the MacOS to throw an empty photos library it to Trash Bin anymore.

I wish that we could have a nice cross-platform OS photos just like Apple's iPhoto or Photos (but without self delete as bad as apple's photos have).

 

[tony00]

Hi Lads! I have a resolution for this issue...

1- Option + Click Photos
2- Create New Library
3- Settings/Use as System Photo Library
4- Quit Photos
5- Restart
6- Log back in/empty trash
7- Option + Photos again
8- Click your main/previous library to open as default
9- Settings/Use as System Photo Library

Bada-bing-bada-boom

After completing the steps, go to the photos folder and delete the newest one you created, trash it, and empty.

 

[xgman]

I think it may be the "use as system library" for some reason.

 

[verm]

Hi Lads! I have a resolution for this issue...

1- Option + Click Photos
2- Create New Library
3- Settings/Use as System Photo Library
4- Quit Photos
5- Restart
6- Log back in/empty trash
7- Option + Photos again
8- Click your main/previous library to open as default
9- Settings/Use as System Photo Library

Bada-bing-bada-boom

After completing the steps, go to the photos folder and delete the newest one you created, trash it, and empty.

I'm on Sonoma and this fixed the library file reappearing in the trash. I deleted the library file though in the end because I never use or open Photos.app. Thanks a lot.

 

[MobiusStrip]

Still happening in 2024. Pathetic. There must be a way to use a system utility to find the culprit.