Old, non-iphone photos disappeared from photos after 'Optimize Mac Storage'

I'm hitting the storage limit on my hard drive so I recently decided to go to Photos preferences on my MacBook Pro and select iCloud>Optimize Mac Storage (instead of 'Download originals to this Mac). I thought this would move my photos to iCloud to free space on the local HD; however, the next time I opened Photos I can only find the pictures that I took with my iPhone, after 2013. Everything (thousands of fotos) from my old camera, scanned slides are gone. I also lost the albums that were saved on my computer as well as the extensive information about people.

This is extremely frustrating because Apple at no time asked for confirmation to delete anything from my machine. Does anyone have any idea how I could recover my photos/albums/people data? I am using Catalina 10.15.6.

MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 28, 2020 11:25 AM

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4 replies

gferraz Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 28, 2020 11:52 AM in response to TonyCollinet

I believe not in iCloud storage. I went into iCloud and I can't find them there. But I do have a time machine backup.

léonie

Level 10

200,525 points

Sep 28, 2020 11:53 AM in response to gferraz

Photos may have opened a different library than before. Where is your Photos Library stored?

To check for different Photos Libraries, quit Photos, then open it again while holding down the options key ⌥ . Release the key, when the library chooser dialog appears, then select a different library.

gferraz Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 28, 2020 12:02 PM in response to léonie

Indeed, Thank you so much léonie! Photos was opening the 'system Photos library'. Opening while holding the option key let me pick an option that showed only 'Photos Library' and there is all my information. It bothers me a bit that I can't really answer your question, though: where is my Photos Library stored. I'll have to dig a little bit deeper. Thank you!

Sep 28, 2020 11:45 AM in response to gferraz

Do the photos exist in Icloud storage?

www.icloud.com

Do you have a backup anywhere - eg time machine.

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Old, non-iphone photos disappeared from photos after 'Optimize Mac Storage'