Time Machine didn’t backup my Photos Library so I lost 200GB. Know a fix or recovery from erased SSD? Same experience?

xunso wrote:

Time Machine didn’t back up my Photos app for years so I lost them all. Has anyone else had this problem or, better still, resolved it?

My Photos app Library of almost 200GB video and photos disappeared after the Apple Senior Support Staff assisted me to do a laptop erase and reinstall from Time Machine.

I usually ran Time Machine on auto, rotating across 3 x 2-4TB external drives that were up to 3 years old. I kept my Time Machine drives that are over 3yrs old. I searched my 6 most recent drives for “photoslib” and my main Photos app Library appears on none of them. Only a couple of small old ones turn up.

Apple suggested I had excluded Photos from my Time Machine backups but when we navigated there in Settings they saw it wasn’t the case - and why would I exclude it when they are such a crucial thing for me? 

I have always had my primary Photos app Library on my laptop. Apple said I might have accidentally moved my main Photos Library to an external drive but I never had. If this had been the case 1) I would have found it on an external drive and 2) I wouldn’t have been able to do my regular download of photos from my iPhone to the Photos Library when the ‘correct’ external drive wasn’t plugged in.

I have used Apple for 3 decades and Time Machine for as almost as long as it’s been around and I didn’t realise there was a major problem with it. 

Apple says I should have checked my Time Machine backups more thoroughly before I erased the disc. I did the erase disc live on the phone with an Apple Senior Support Staffer so I’m furious that he didn’t counsel me to check and compare every major folder size in my Time Machine backup with those on my laptop - before instructing me to erase. I never had any reason to suspect Time Machine wasn't doing its job thoroughly.

Unless you can help me, I’ll be looking for a forensic crew who might be able to recover any remaining data that hasn’t already been written over, if that is even possible. I did a regular erase, not a ‘secure’ erase, so I gather there’s a slim chance that some traces of the old files may remain, probably without any name or metadata.

Apple gave me contacts for 3 external recovery companies but I’m finding it hard to trust Apple on this or anything now. Why don’t they run this kind of service themselves? 

I am running Mojave 10.14.6 on a mid 2015 MacBook Pro with a 1TB Internal SSD. I don’t use the cloud and would never rely on it as a sole backup.

I’m devastated and would really appreciate any assistance or tips you can provide. Apple support didn’t have any more ideas.

I couldn’t find a Time Machine forum on Apple Communities. 

Many thanks

Data recovery on SSD after you delete is near impossible.

Try the "consumer grade" DataRescue5 https://www.prosofteng.com/mac-data-recovery/

or

Other professional data recovery service such as

Ontrack Data a Professional Data Recovery Service: https://www.ontrack.com/

Drive Savers https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/


vendors provide free estimates and both are recommended by Apple.

Always work from a copy, you do not want to risk further damage the original files or drive.

Do not wait for some catastrophic failure to get the backup religion—this includes more than a single Time machine backup.

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

—Boot clone https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-10081

—How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

—Use DiskUtility Restore feature https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/restore-a-disk-dskutl14062/mac

note: >System Preferences>Security & Privacy >Privacy>Full Disk Access

unlock the padlock, press the + button and add Disk Utility

As mentioned, recovery from an erased SSD is not likely at all.

Only time I really needed TM it completely let me down... and there is no way to really test it except to see if it works other than Restoring to a 3rd drive, so I clone...

Carbon Copy Cloner...

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html