iAmRenzo

Q: Some of my albums are "gone", but still exist (somehow)

I discovered that some of my albums are sort of gone, but do exist.

I have all my albums in a folder of the year they are made. Some folders with their albums in it are gone. I will not say hidden, because that sounds like the 'hide'-feature. It's not that. They were at some point just gone. All ( ! ) faces data is gone.

When I make a smart album with "album is", I see all (or nearly all, I didn't check) the albums that are not in plain sight.

It seems all photos are there. How do I make the albums visible again?

 

What I did?

- deleted and disabled iCloud Photo Library on iPad and iPhone

- deleted and disabled iCloud Photo Library on Mac, enabled it in a new library and let it all download.

- albums are gone on iCloud.com (so there is consistency. i though there was not, hence the actions on iPad/iPhone)

- i did a library repair action. did nothing

- called apple. it wasn't a problem they said. i have must done something wrong.

 

*help*

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Aug 11, 2015 12:18 PM

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Q: Some of my albums are "gone", but still exist (somehow)

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Aug 11, 2015 12:27 PM in response to iAmRenzo
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 11, 2015 12:27 PM in response to iAmRenzo

    Have the albums been created in iPhoto or Aperture?  Not all library items will migrate from iPhoto or Aperture t Photos, see: How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support

     

    And some items will not upload to iCloud Photo Library and download again, if you disable iCloud Photo Library.

     

    Use Photos and iCloud Photo Library on multiple Mac computers - Apple Support

  • by iAmRenzo,

    iAmRenzo iAmRenzo Aug 11, 2015 12:40 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 11, 2015 12:40 PM in response to léonie

    They have been from iPhoto (events to albums). And I can confirm for 100% they once have been uploaded to iCloud and synced back to both iPhone and iPad.

    I have organized the albums in folders, because they were just one list of albums. That was the point my library went out of sync.

    One point later some of those albums/folders were gone.

     

    I don't get your second point.

  • by iAmRenzo,

    iAmRenzo iAmRenzo Aug 11, 2015 10:53 PM in response to iAmRenzo
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 11, 2015 10:53 PM in response to iAmRenzo

    Does anybody know what happens to the online iCloud photo library if I restore a library from time machine?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Aug 11, 2015 11:11 PM in response to iAmRenzo
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 11, 2015 11:11 PM in response to iAmRenzo
    I don't get your second point.

    If you delete your Photos library on a Mac and restored everything from iCloud, it will be like syncing with a different Mac.  Not all items will download again - not the faces, or the book albums, cards, calendars.

    I wondered, if some of the missing albums have been projects.

    I have organized the albums in folders, because they were just one list of albums. That was the point my library went out of sync.

    We have seen several reports that albums vanished when syncing a Mac  with iCloud Photo Library, if iCloud Photo Library had been enabled on an iPad after it had been enabled on a Mac.  There seems to be a bug.

     

     

    Does anybody know what happens to the online iCloud photo library if I restore a library from time machine?

    When you restore a Photos Library from Time Machine Photos will upload the restored library to iCloud and sync it with iCloud. It will make duplicate checks to prevent duplicate uploads, and that will take usually longer than the original upload.

  • by iAmRenzo,

    iAmRenzo iAmRenzo Aug 12, 2015 12:03 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 12, 2015 12:03 AM in response to léonie

    If you delete your Photos library on a Mac and restored everything from iCloud, it will be like syncing with a different Mac.  Not all items will download again - not the faces, or the book albums, cards, calendars.

    I wondered, if some of the missing albums have been projects.

    Well, than is that the answer to all missing faces.

    That also rises a new question: what is the main source of information? If I put a library back from Timemachine, will it sync both ways to iCloud? In a backup there are my faces and all the albums. On iCloud are the photos I took from the date of the backup until now.

    I do not believe those were project. I don't use projects. Photos converted all events to albums, I did not change that, I only reordered them in de sidebar.

    We have seen several reports that albums vanished when syncing a Mac  with iCloud Photo Library, if iCloud Photo Library had been enabled on an iPad after it had been enabled on a Mac.  There seems to be a bug.

    Wow. So I now have a situation where I have an iCloud Photo Library synced back to a Mac. I wil replace the Mac database with a time machine backup. Make sure that the library on my Mac is correct (with all faces, albums, and so on). Then I was planning to enable iPhone and iPad... but I should not enable iPad????

     

    When you restore a Photos Library from Time Machine Photos will upload the restored library to iCloud and sync it with iCloud. It will make duplicate checks to prevent duplicate uploads, and that will take usually longer than the original upload.

    Will it upload everything? With a library of 23.000 Photos that could take (again) ages...

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Aug 12, 2015 2:39 AM in response to iAmRenzo
    Level 10 (107,827 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 12, 2015 2:39 AM in response to iAmRenzo
    Then I was planning to enable iPhone and iPad... but I should not enable iPad????

    Enable iCloud Photo LIbrary first on the iPad and iPhone and let them sync with iClloud,  and then restore the albums on your Mac from Time Machine. Then the albums will hopefully sync to iCloud and not be deleted again when the iPad starts syncing.

    That also rises a new question: what is the main source of information? If I put a library back from Timemachine, will it sync both ways to iCloud? In a backup there are my faces and all the albums. On iCloud are the photos I took from the date of the backup until now.

    The faces do not sync to iCloud, but the photos and edits will be merged in iCloud.

    Will it upload everything? With a library of 23.000 Photos that could take (again) ages...

    It will compare everything.  But not actually upload the photos again that are already in iCloud.

  • by iAmRenzo,

    iAmRenzo iAmRenzo Aug 12, 2015 3:32 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 12, 2015 3:32 AM in response to léonie

    Enable iCloud Photo LIbrary first on the iPad and iPhone and let them sync with iClloud,  and then restore the albums on your Mac from Time Machine. Then the albums will hopefully sync to iCloud and not be deleted again when the iPad starts syncing.

    Just to be sure. In the current situation where my Mac has a downloaded iCloud Photo Library in Photos:

    1. I turn off iCloud Photo Library on my Mac.

    2. Enable it on my iPad and iPhone (as optimized) and wait for it to sync.

    3. Delete the old library on my Mac, restore the backup from Time Machine

    4. Open the restored library, and make it my System Library and turn on iCloud Photo Library.

    5. Let Apple/Photos/iCloud do sync & compare magic.

    6. Check if all devices are in sync.

    The faces do not sync to iCloud, but the photos and edits will be merged in iCloud.

    But what does? If I searched on my iDevices, there is information about faces. But there isn't an interface for faces within the Photo.app

    I hope Apple will fix this anytime soon. I find it a strange behaviour. Just like Smart Albums not being on iDevices...

    It will compare everything.  But not actually upload the photos again that are already in iCloud.

    I hope so. If the above steps are the ones to talk I will confirm the outcome.

  • by iAmRenzo,

    iAmRenzo iAmRenzo Aug 12, 2015 10:45 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 12, 2015 10:45 PM in response to léonie

    I disabled iCloud photo library on my Mac.

    Enabled it on both iPhone and iPad.

    Put the backup in place, made it my system library and then the disappointment:

    - I need more iCloud storage

    - I need more diskspace

    So I seems my library isn't recognised as such. Do I end up with duplicates?