dragonfly9

Q: my 12,000 photos have disappeared, time machine not working

I went into Photos and it is blank! I tried to restore from Time Machine and it isn't working. HELP!!!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11), iLife '08

Posted on Jun 5, 2016 1:32 PM

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Q: my 12,000 photos have disappeared, time machine not working

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  • by notcloudy,

    notcloudy notcloudy Jun 5, 2016 1:37 PM in response to dragonfly9
    Level 4 (1,190 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 5, 2016 1:37 PM in response to dragonfly9

    dragonfly9 wrote:

     

    I went into Photos and it is blank! I tried to restore from Time Machine and it isn't working. HELP!!!

    You mean IPHOTO?  and did you load your pictures into IPHOTO - or just a reference to another folder?

     

    Try this software http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

     

    to give us a better idea of what is going on on your system.

  • by dragonfly9,

    dragonfly9 dragonfly9 Jun 5, 2016 1:55 PM in response to notcloudy
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Jun 5, 2016 1:55 PM in response to notcloudy

    No, I do not mean iPhoto. When Apple changed the photo app to one called Photos, I made that transition. It has worked fine for a long time, but now all my photos have disappeared !

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jun 5, 2016 4:18 PM in response to dragonfly9
    Level 10 (84,105 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 5, 2016 4:18 PM in response to dragonfly9

    Unless you share details with us we can not help

     

    you state that you have OS X 10.4.1 and iLife '08 - what versions do you actually have?

     

    What has changed since things worked?

     

    What is wrong with TimeMachine?

     

    LN

  • by dragonfly9,

    dragonfly9 dragonfly9 Jun 5, 2016 6:27 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Jun 5, 2016 6:27 PM in response to LarryHN

    I have OS X 10.11.5

    Photos  version 1.5

     

    I have used Time Machine for years but never had to restore anything. It seems to go into a loop and even after hours nothing happens.

     

    I downloaded and ran the etrecheck software, but it is still running or has gotten stuck.

     

    Time Machine kept backing up when I wanted it to restore. It deleted a lot of my earlier back-ups because my back-up hard drive is full.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jun 5, 2016 6:33 PM in response to dragonfly9
    Level 10 (84,105 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 5, 2016 6:33 PM in response to dragonfly9

    and

     

     

    What has changed since things worked?

    If TM will not run and Photos sill not run and Etrecheck will not run it sounds like you may have bigger problems

     

    Boot into the OS X recovery volume and use disk utility to repair your drive  --  OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support - you should be sure you have a current backup prior to doing this

     

    LN

  • by notcloudy,

    notcloudy notcloudy Jun 6, 2016 6:06 AM in response to dragonfly9
    Level 4 (1,190 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 6, 2016 6:06 AM in response to dragonfly9

    dragonfly9 wrote:

     

    I have OS X 10.11.5

    Photos  version 1.5

     

    I have used Time Machine for years but never had to restore anything. It seems to go into a loop and even after hours nothing happens.

     

    I downloaded and ran the etrecheck software, but it is still running or has gotten stuck.

     

    Time Machine kept backing up when I wanted it to restore. It deleted a lot of my earlier back-ups because my back-up hard drive is full.

     

    How much RAM?

     

    Size of hard drive/s and amount not used?

     

    Size of time machine drive and amount not used?

  • by dragonfly9,

    dragonfly9 dragonfly9 Jun 6, 2016 8:39 AM in response to notcloudy
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Jun 6, 2016 8:39 AM in response to notcloudy

    Forgot what RAM is...

    Have 4GB of memory.

    Have 250 GB on laptop hard drive, with 2.68 available.

    Had 50 something GB available before I started messing with this, so there is some duplication there I think.

     

    Time Machine hard drive is 500 GB, and it is full.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Jun 6, 2016 8:57 AM in response to dragonfly9
    Level 10 (140,898 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 6, 2016 8:57 AM in response to dragonfly9
    Have 250 GB on laptop hard drive, with 2.68 available.

    You're is dangerous territory.  You should immediately free up a minimum of 10 -15 GB of free space.  Do not download any thing else to your hard drive until you free up more space. 

    OTsig.png

  • by dragonfly9,

    dragonfly9 dragonfly9 Jun 6, 2016 1:41 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Jun 6, 2016 1:41 PM in response to Old Toad

    Apparently, even deleting the trash is difficult when there is so little room available on the hard drive!

    I selected a lot of things to trash, but now it is looping and nothing is getting deleted! I let it sit for over 2 hours. Nothing happened.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Jun 6, 2016 2:44 PM in response to dragonfly9
    Level 10 (140,898 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 6, 2016 2:44 PM in response to dragonfly9

    You may have to connect your Mac to another Mac in the Target Disk Mode,  Transferring files between two computers using FireWire,  and delete the files from the other Mac.

  • by dragonfly9,

    dragonfly9 dragonfly9 Jun 6, 2016 7:43 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Jun 6, 2016 7:43 PM in response to Old Toad

    After doing some deleting, I now have 13 GB of free space on my hard drive.

    I found lots of photos in All My Files, but when I try to put them in Photos, they disappear.

    There are still photos in iPhoto, but they are older and not my last year or so.

     

    I have an appt. to see the Genius at the Apple Store on Friday.

    I have a duplicate Photos library but it is so large I cannot delete it.

     

    I think I need a new back up hard drive and I may have to get a new computer.

     

    Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I am beyond help right now until I get to the Apple Store, but I will keep trying to delete unneeded files.

  • by LarryHN,Apple recommended

    LarryHN LarryHN Jun 7, 2016 7:03 AM in response to dragonfly9
    Level 10 (84,105 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 7, 2016 7:03 AM in response to dragonfly9

    All my files  is not a place but a listing of everything on you mac - never mess with files in all my files  --  The Curse of All Files and All Images and False Duplicates

     

    And be careful at the Genius Bar and be sure you have a good backup before you go - sometimes they cause more problems than they solve

     

    How did you get a duplicate Photos library?

     

    and if you are 200% sure you want to delete something (you can not undo this) you can use the delete immediately function of OS X - http://osxdaily.com/2015/11/23/delete-files-immediately-bypass-trash-mac-os-x/ - just do not be wrong

     

    LN

  • by dragonfly9,

    dragonfly9 dragonfly9 Jun 7, 2016 8:20 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Jun 7, 2016 8:20 AM in response to LarryHN

    Hi Larry,

     

    Too late for All my Files, I had already deleted a lot of items there, freeing up a total of 12.89 GB on my hard drive.

     

    I am attempting a "delete immediately" of the duplicate Photos Library (54.16 GB) but it is taking forever and may not be able to do it with so little room available on the hard drive.

     

    Thanks for your suggestions.

    Carol

  • by notcloudy,

    notcloudy notcloudy Jun 7, 2016 1:24 PM in response to dragonfly9
    Level 4 (1,190 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 7, 2016 1:24 PM in response to dragonfly9

    dragonfly9 wrote:

     

    Forgot what RAM is...

    Have 4GB of memory.

    Have 250 GB on laptop hard drive, with 2.68 available.

    Had 50 something GB available before I started messing with this, so there is some duplication there I think.

     

    Time Machine hard drive is 500 GB, and it is full.

    I see from later posts that you started deleting files -- so just want to say STOP IT.

     

    See if you can get recommendations for a PC/Mac contract firm in your area that takes care of PC/Macs for small businesses who do not have their own IT department.  A Mac specialist used to working with/cleaning up macs that have your type of issue may be able to recover some of most of your data.   As they work with systems that have a companies data on them - in order to keep their business - they are more secure than taking it to a store.

     

    One problem may be that your time machine is backing up to your hard drive because the removable is full (that may be the duplicates).

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