Hold down the ⌥ Option key. This key is in the lower-left corner of the Mac keyboard. Holding it down will prompt the Library folder to appear in the Go drop-down menu. Open a Finder window and go to your Home folder. Within the Finder menu, click View Show View Options. Place a checkmark next to Show System or Library Folder. And that should give you quick temporary access to the System folder.
CMU at MAC students are more than welcome to use MAC Library's online databases when they are on campus. Remote access to MAC Library's databases are restricted to MAC's students, faculty and staff; however, remote access to databases is available from CMU's Library. Check out the Catalog/Database page for a listing of CMU's Library databases. As of Mac OS X Lion (10.7), the Library folder in your home folder is hidden by default. That doesn’t mean you can’t get to it. It’s hidden so you don’t accidentally delete settings.
Dec 21, 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.
One easy fix, after consistently getting “filter failed” messages trying to print on an Epson WF-4630 from El Capitan. It happened late enough in the evening that I decided to wait until morning to reset the printer system. After doing some other work I brought up the printer queue and the failed jobs suddenly started printing. LMS system for Librarian. CodeAchi Library Management System is a complete solution for managing and administrating any size of Library. Our Research and development always keen to make the software most fast for the operations. Software is fully featured with Barcode, shelf management and more. Photos for Mac lets you work with multiple libraries. Learn how to choose a default library, open another library, and merge multiple libraries in iCloud 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.
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.
Step 5: Pick a location to save the library.
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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So, your Mac is running out of storage. You try to figure out what’s taking up your disk space by clicking the Apple logo on the top-left of the screen, selecting About This Mac, and hitting the Storage tab.
To your surprise, you see a yellow bar representing “System” that seems to occupy way more space than you think it should. In the example above, it only shows 207 GB, but take a look at this Apple discussion — some Mac users report that System Storage takes an astonishing 250 GB.
Worse yet, you have no idea what’s included in “System” storage, because clicking the “Manage” button brings you to this System Information window… and the “System” row is greyed out.
Why does my Mac system require so much space?
What does it contain?
Is it safe to remove some of those system files?
How do I regain more storage space?
Questions like these may easily get to your head. Although my Mac now has a good amount of disk space available, I’m always wary of files that are taking up more space than they should.
I have no idea why “System” is greyed out while “Documents,” “System Junk,” “Trash,” etc. allow you to review the files based on size and type. My hunch is that Apple does this on purpose to prevent users from deleting system files that could lead to serious issues.
What Files Are Included in System Storage on Mac?
During my research, I found many people report that Apple counts iTunes backup files and app caches (e.g. Adobe video cache files) in the System category.
Since it’s greyed out and we are unable to click on that category for deeper analysis, we’ll have to use a third-party app to assist.
CleanMyMac X is perfect for this kind of analysis. Since I tested the app in our best Mac cleaner review, it immediately came to my head when I saw “System” was greyed out in Storage. Note that CleanMyMac isn’t freeware, but the new “Space Lens” feature is free to use and it allows you to scan your Macintosh HD, and then show you an in-depth overview of what’s taking up disk space on your Mac.
Step 1:Download CleanMyMac and install the app on your Mac. Open it, under “Space Lens” module, first click the yellow “Grant Access” button to allow the app to access your Mac files and then select “Scan” to get started.
Step 2: Soon it’ll show you a folder/file tree and you can hover your cursor over each block (i.e. a folder). There you can find more details. In this case, I clicked “System” folder to continue.
Step 3: The file breakdown below indicates that some Library and iOS Support files are the culprits.
The interesting part is that the System file size shown in CleanMyMac is much smaller than the size shown in System Information. This puzzles me and makes me believe that Apple definitely has counted some other files (not real system files) in the System category.
What are they? I have no clue, honestly. But as reported by other Mac users who experienced the same issue, they said Apple also considers app caches and iTunes backup files as System files.
Out of curiosity, I ran CleanMyMac again for a quick scan. That app found 13.92 GB in iTunes Junk. Further review revealed that the junk files are old iOS device backups, software updates, broken downloads, etc.
But even after adding this amount to the original system files returned by CleanMyMac X, the total size is still a bit less than what’s returned in System Information.
If cleaning the System Storage is still not enough to bring your Mac available disk space to a normal level (i.e. 20% or more), see below.
What Else Can I Do to Reclaim More Disk Space?
There are tons of ways out there. Here are a few of my favorites that should help you get back a decent amount of space quickly.
1. Sort all files by size and delete old large files.
Open Finder, go to Recents and look at the Size column. Click on it to sort all recent files by file size (from large to small). You’ll have a clear overview of what items are eating up a large amount of space, e.g. From 1 GB to 10 GB, and from 100 MB to 1 GB.
System Library Filters Machine
On my MacBook Pro, I found a few large videos that could be transferred to an external drive.
Note: If the Size column doesn’t show up, click on the Settings icon and select Arrange By > Size.
2. Remove duplicate files.
System Library Filters Macro
Don’t forget those duplicates and similar files! They can stack up without you being aware of it. Finding them is sometimes time-consuming. That’s what Gemini 2 is designed for. Simply select a few frequently used folders (e.g. Documents, Downloads, etc.) in the main zone of Gemini.
It then scans them and returns all the duplicate files that might be worth removing. Of course, it’s always a good practice to review them before doing so. You can also read more from our detailed Gemini review here.
Wrapping It Up
Ever since Apple introduced the Optimized Storage feature, Mac users got the option of saving space by storing content in the cloud. Apple also has several new tools that make it easy to find and remove unneeded files.
That bar under the Storage tab is beautiful. It does allow you to get a quick overview of what’s taking up the most space on our hard drive. However, it still lacks insights into the “System” category as it’s greyed out.
System Library Filters Machinery
Hopefully, the guides above have helped you figure out the reasons you’ve got so much “System” data, and most importantly you’ve reclaimed some disk space — especially for new MacBooks pre-installed with flash storage — every gigabyte is precious!