rjisnumber1
Level 1 (4 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: Find/Recover Recently Deleted Photos

So, last month I was going through my photos and cleaning out the photos library on my Mac.  I deleted several photos, that I wanted to delete, but when I was going back through my photos today, I noticed that I was missing a few photos that I had intended to keep.  I know the date of the photos, the range of the file name ( between IMG_0766 and IMG_0777).  I have a time machine back up from that time period, and I use iCloud Photo Library but too much time has passed and the photos have been deleted from the Recently Deleted album in photos.  I tried to open the photos library up from that week in Time Machine, but that did not help as it could not find the photos...  I tried to search under "Show package contents" on the photos.library but that didn't work either.

 

Does anyone know I can recover these pictures?  Where is the location of the Recently Deleted album on the Mac hard drive/Time Machine Backup drive?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Aug 18, 2016 1:33 PM

Close
rjisnumber1

Q: Find/Recover Recently Deleted Photos

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Aug 18, 2016 2:16 PM in response to rjisnumber1
    Level 10 (140,940 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 18, 2016 2:16 PM in response to rjisnumber1

    First a primer on deleting photos from a Photos library:

    Deleting Photos from a Photos 1.5 Library

     

    1 - regardless of where you are in the library, i.e. Moments, Collections, albums, smart albums or projects, select the photo(s) you want to delete and use the key combination of Command+Delete to move the photos to the Recently Deleted smart album.

     

    2 - click on the Recently Deleted smart albums in the sidebar.

     

    Photos001.jpg

    NOTE 1:  If you're using Photos 1.2 or earlier use the File ➙ Show Recently Deleted menu option.

     

    3 - in the Recently Deleted album you can opt to let the photo automatically delete after the 30 day waiting period is up, delete them immediately or restore them to the library.

     

    Photos002.jpg

     

    NOTE 2: deleting a photo from an album, slideshow, book, etc., with the Delete key only deletes the photo from that item.  There is no key combination that will delete a photo from a project and move it directly to the Recently Deleted smart album.

     

    NOTE 3: Deleting a photo from a Moment or Collection (the Photos window) or the All Photos window deletes ALL occurences of that photo in the library.

    If you don't see the Recently Deleted album in the sidebar under Albums you don't have any recently deleted photos that haven't been fully removed from the library.

     

    If that's the case you're only recourse is to restore your Photos library backup made just prior to your deleting the photos.  You can find and export the missing photos to the Desktop and import them into you're current, working library.

    OTsig.png

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 18, 2016 2:18 PM in response to rjisnumber1
    Level 10 (84,261 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 18, 2016 2:18 PM in response to rjisnumber1

    The recently delete album is not physical location - it is (as are all organization items in Photos) simply database entries - you have to restore the desired Photos library to a different location as as not to overwrite your existing library and double click on it to open it - then you can recover the photos and export them to a desktop folder - switch back to your current library and import them

     

    LN

  • by rjisnumber1,

    rjisnumber1 rjisnumber1 Aug 18, 2016 7:55 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 18, 2016 7:55 PM in response to Old Toad

    My question is, even when i restore from the Time Machine the photos i want do not appear in recently deleted, only the ones that are as of right now do...  I've made sure I opened the old photos library but i still get the same results. 

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Aug 19, 2016 8:42 AM in response to rjisnumber1
    Level 10 (140,940 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 19, 2016 8:42 AM in response to rjisnumber1
    My question is, even when i restore from the Time Machine the photos i want do not appear in recently deleted,

    Do they appear anywhere in the library?  If not then go back further till they do.