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I have about 8 photo libraries, all of them on a [connected and mounted] external disk. One of them is the System Photo Library, but which one? I have forgotten.

Since I upgraded to Big Sur, Photos.app is saying it cannot find the System Photo Library. Apparently, Photos.app is looking for it in some place where it is not.

I would like to know where it is looking, and what is the name of the library it is looking for, so that I can point it to its correct location.

Necessarily, Photos.app has this information stored somewhere. Where?

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  • Try hitting the option key right after opening photos. It should display a menu to select the library you want to open. Maybe this helps.
    – X_841
    Commented Nov 25, 2020 at 9:43
  • Yes but that doesn’t help: the one currently designated as the System Photo Library is not highlighted in any way
    – Jean-Denis Muys
    Commented Nov 26, 2020 at 17:31

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I was also having trouble determining which photo library was the Systems Library. In my case I did not have one designated, so that's another issue that I address later in this post.

Using Ventura 13.2, if a Systems Library is designated this will be shown indirectly with the "Use as Systems Photo Library" button under-intensified in Photos > Settings > General.

Screenshot of Photo's General settings

You can also find it by opening Photos with Opt and "(SystemsPhoto Library)" will be displayed next to the library.

Screenshot of Photo's Library selection screen

But if you're not seeing this you don't have a library designated as your Systems Library. I had this issue when storing my library on an external hard drive. An Apple Senior Advisor fixed it by following this order of operations:

  1. Apple > System Settings > Apple ID (top of side bar) > iCloud, Turn off Photos slider.
  2. Shut down and reopen in Safe Mode by holding the power key.
  3. Click on the internal hard drive, usually "Macintosh HD".
  4. Login and open Photos. You should be opening the Photos Library you want as your Systems Library.
  5. Open Photos > Settings and select the Use as Systems Photo Library button. It should change to be under-intensified.
  6. Log out and restart normally.

This worked for me and allowed the designation of a Photos Library on an external hard drive as the Systems Library, which also enabled iCloud storage and using Shared Albums from this Photos Library. Good luck.

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In Photos if you go to preferences (⌘ + ,) under General there are some library location settings:

enter image description here

In order to find out where System Photo Library is and to change it just hold ⌥ while opening Photos. You will be presented window with needed controls:

enter image description here

Refer to Apple documentation for needed steps: Designate a System Photo Library in Photos

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  • That shows the last open library. Not the current System Photo Library. Your screenshot shows the current System Photo Library. I know because the “Use as...” button is grayed out. I tried opening all the photo libraries I could find, but that button was always enabled. So where the heck does Photos.app think the current System Photo Library is?
    – Jean-Denis Muys
    Commented Nov 26, 2020 at 17:34
  • I edited answer and provided link to Apple documentation.
    – Aivar Paalberg
    Commented Nov 26, 2020 at 19:19
  • Thanks. But it still doesn’t help. I have 8 photo libraries in this list, and it doesn’t show which one is the current system one. As far as I can see, there is no exposed user interface to get that information. I am now hoping for a command line solution, perhaps with the ˋdefaultsˋ command
    – Jean-Denis Muys
    Commented Nov 27, 2020 at 23:14
  • I have only one library so I don't have this situation and I rely on claim made by Apple in linked support document: "Hold down the Option key when you open Photos to see which library is set as the System Photo Library.".
    – Aivar Paalberg
    Commented Nov 27, 2020 at 23:24
  • Indeed the support article says that. But in my experience, this is not true.
    – Jean-Denis Muys
    Commented Nov 29, 2020 at 3:04
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I don't know if you're still having this problem, as the OP was almost two years ago. I'm having a different problem with Photos but stumbled across this post. Are any of your 8 libraries called "Photos Library"? I believe this is the default library that Photos will look for. Unless you've reset the System Photos Library (sounds like you have not done that yet), this should be the one, and it should reside in your Pictures folder on your Mac.

Hope this helps!

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  • Frustratingly, I believe this is correct. My Photos Library.photoslibrary had almost nothing in it. When I right-clicked on it in Finder and saw the package contents, there was only one of the six folders it should have, and the one folder was completely empty. I then just copy-pasted content from another library (which was almost empty but had all the folders) and that allowed me to open it.
    – arturomp
    Commented Jan 30, 2023 at 6:58
  • This whole process helped me make some other library the system one, since Photos kept freezing when I tried to do that. I assume it froze because it wanted to find Photos Library.photoslibrary, remove its property as the system library, and assign that property to the new one, but since it couldn't even find Photos Library.photoslibrary it just got stuck. Hope this is helpful!
    – arturomp
    Commented Jan 30, 2023 at 6:59

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