NoLongerAppleCrazy
Level 1 (6 points)
iLife

Q: All my photos/events prior to 2013 are missing from iPhoto.

All my photos/events prior to 2013 are missing from iPhoto. I've checked the events folder found on the left. Can anyone help me locate the photos? My MacBook Pro is up to date running OS X 10.11.6

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 11, 2016 3:42 PM

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NoLongerAppleCrazy

Q: All my photos/events prior to 2013 are missing from iPhoto.

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  • Helpful answers

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 11, 2016 4:44 PM in response to NoLongerAppleCrazy
    Level 10 (84,646 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 11, 2016 4:44 PM in response to NoLongerAppleCrazy

    what has changed since they were here?

     

    Given virtually no details the best guess is that you have multiple liPhoto  libraries - Hold down the option key while launching iPhoto and see how many libraries there are in the resulting select library window - test each one to see what it contains

     

    LN

  • by NoLongerAppleCrazy,

    NoLongerAppleCrazy NoLongerAppleCrazy Sep 11, 2016 6:08 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (6 points)
    iLife
    Sep 11, 2016 6:08 PM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks for the feedback. Nothing changed to my knowledge. I carried my laptop to Rwanda for a month. When I was there a friend asked to see pictures from America. When I opened iPhoto I realized all pictures/events created prior to 2013 were not there. As you suggested, I held down the option key while opening iPhoto and only saw one library. The library missing my photos.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Sep 11, 2016 11:00 PM in response to NoLongerAppleCrazy
    Level 10 (139,537 points)
    iLife
    Sep 11, 2016 11:00 PM in response to NoLongerAppleCrazy

    Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

     

    Look there for a Folder called 'Masters' or 'Originals' - it varies depending on the version

     

    Are the photos in there? Make no changes, just look and report back

     

    You have a back up, of course?

  • by NoLongerAppleCrazy,

    NoLongerAppleCrazy NoLongerAppleCrazy Sep 17, 2016 5:52 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (6 points)
    iLife
    Sep 17, 2016 5:52 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    Thank you. I did what you said. In the Masters folder the same pictures 2013 to current are there. Everything from before is missing. When I double clicked on the photo library a message reading "your photo library has been migrated to photos" appeared. I quit without accepting to move forward. I've been using time machine with My Passport yes. Having said that, I've never had to pull contents from my back up drive so am going to have to research that.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Sep 17, 2016 10:56 PM in response to NoLongerAppleCrazy
    Level 10 (139,537 points)
    iLife
    Sep 17, 2016 10:56 PM in response to NoLongerAppleCrazy

    What can you see when you launch Photos?