Crash when trying to export photos from Photos library

[cckborg]

Before submitting a bug report, please ensure you are running the most recent version of osxphotos and that the bug is reproducible on the latest version

I just installed osxphotos today. I am running the following:

Describe the bug
osxphotos crashed.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. What' the full command line you used with osxphotos?
   I ran the following command while in the directory of "/Users/Shared/Affairs, MomC":
   $ osxphotos export osxphotos-export/ --from-date "2018-01-01" --to-date "2018-12-31" --report export2018.csv --directory "{created.year}" --library ./Photos\ Library.photoslibrary/

2. What was the error output?
   I got the following error message:

Something went wrong and osxphotos encountered an error:
RetryError[<Future at 0x10d5982d0 state=finished raised OperationalError>]
Crash log written to '/Users/Shared/Affairs, MomC/osxphotos_crash.log'
Please file a bug report at https://github.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos/issues with the crash log attached.

Expected behavior
I expected to get a report .csv file to test out exporting photos from a Photos library.

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Desktop (please complete the following information):
$ osxphotos --version
osxphotos, version 0.69.2
Python 3.13.2 (main, Feb 4 2025, 14:51:09) [Clang 16.0.0 (clang-1600.0.26.6)]
Python executable: /Users/cckborg/.local/share/uv/tools/osxphotos/bin/python
macOS 14.7.4, arm64

Additional context
See attached crash log.

[cckborg]

I decided to try the (almost) identical command on a different Photos library and it worked. (I changed the year from 2018 to 2025 since I didn't have any photos from 2018 in this library.

$ osxphotos export osxphotos-export/ --from-date "2025-01-01" --to-date "2025-12-31" --report export2018.csv --directory "{created.year}" --library ./Photos\ Library.photoslibrary/

I also tried to open the offending Photos library and was told that the permissions needed to be repaired. I had copied that library from a different user's Pictures folder into a Shared folder sub-directory (Affairs,\ MomC). That is probably what caused osxphotos to crash. I was trying to avoid having to go through the whole process of installing brew, uv, osxphotos all over again in Terminal on the other user's account.

I decided to copy the original Photos library (rather than move it). I then opened the copy with Photos from my user account and let it correct permissions. I used the same command (with a change to the library name) and it still crashed.

Command and error message:
*** {/Users/Shared/Affairs, MomC} ***
Shalom-cckborg $ osxphotos export osxphotos-export/ --from-date "2018-01-01" --to-date "2018-12-31" --report export2018.csv --directory "{created.year}" --library ./Photos\ Library\ copy.photoslibrary/
Something went wrong and osxphotos encountered an error:
RetryError[<Future at 0x1093482d0 state=finished raised OperationalError>]
Crash log written to '/Users/Shared/Affairs, MomC/osxphotos_crash.log'
Please file a bug report at https://github.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos/issues with the crash log attached.

osxphotos_crash.log

Hmmm. I thought I just had to drag the crash log into the original message and I thought it worked, but I don't see the crash log attached to it. I apologize. I should have paid better attention. That log has been overwritten by this one.

[RhetTbull]

This appears to be a permission issue still. The crash occurred when osxphotos tried (repeatedly) to open the Photos database file and failed.

You could try the following command in Terminal to fix the permissions:

sudo chown -R "$(id -un)":"$(id -gn)" ./Photos\ Library\ copy.photoslibrary

[cckborg]

RhetTbull,
Thanks for that info. I'm rusty in UNIX commands. I'm not sure how much of "$(id -un)":"$(id -gn)" needs to be replaced by my specific context and how much is typed as is.

If my UID is "cckborg", how do I express that? What group ID do I use? If I check my own Photos library, both "staff" and "everyone" have read-only access. Assuming I don't want to give everyone access, should I use the command as follows?

sudo chown -R "cckborg":"staff" ./Photos\ Library\ copy.photoslibrary

Also, should I file a bug report because osxphotos did not end gracefully with an informative error message?

[RhetTbull]

@cckborg "$(id -un)":"$(id -gn)" would automatically insert your user id and group. The photo library should have read/write access by you and be owned by you. Assuming your user is cckbork, the following commands should work:

sudo chown -R cckborg:staff "Photos Library copy.photoslibrary"
sudo chmod -R 755 "Photos Library copy.photoslibrary"

[RhetTbull]

Also, should I file a bug report because osxphotos did not end gracefully with an informative error message?

No, this issue can serve as the bug report. OSXPhotos should give a helpful message if it can't open the database.

[cckborg]

Thanks, again, for taking the time to answer my questions. I was able to use the original form you gave me to make osxphotos work without crashing.

sudo chown -R "$(id -un)":"$(id -gn)" ./Photos\ Library\ copy.photoslibrary

osxphotos managed to extract about 1900 photos when Photos said there were only about 500. Based on some of them, I can only assume they had been (sort of) deleted and have returned to haunt me. (They aren't in the Recently Deleted folder and are ones not worth keeping.)