Missing photos after Big Sur update

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Missing photos after Big Sur update

I recently upgraded to the new OS, Big Sur (on MacBook Pro early-2015). There was a slight disruption when doing so and this may had lead to my photos disappearing, or not since I saw there were other problems with the update. Regardless, when I went to the Photos app it was completely empty. No photos appear on "Import" or "Recently Deleted". I did not have the photos uploading to iCloud nor did I have Time Machine setup. I am just wondering what I could do to recover these photos. I tried the Recovery option on the Photos app, but it didn't bring up anything. I also tried the Spotlight search and it only had the current library. Also in the "Show Packaged Contents" the "Original" and "Master" folders were empty.

Is there an imprint of them on the hard drive or are there other steps? I am quite desperate.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Dec 20, 2020 6:49 PM

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Answer 1

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TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,861 points

Dec 20, 2020 11:07 PM in response to anotheruser008

Hi

First try opening photos while holding the option key. Is more than one library listed. If so, open them in turn to see if any contain your photos.

If not, then use the spotlight search to see if there are any other libraries (search in finder). Put photoslibrary in the searchbox.

Make sure "this mac" is selected.

If you click on the found libraries in turn, the location will be shown at the bottom of the finder window. Open each one to see if they contain your images. (Use the option key to start photos then select the library)

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Answer 2

Dec 21, 2020 8:08 AM in response to TonyCollinet

When opening the Photos app using Command + i , the size it gives is 62.2MB (47.7MB on disk). It does only say Photos not Photos Library.

Compared to doing the Option + click on the app the size it shows is 1.11GB (1.13GB on disk). This focuses only on the Photos Library itself.

There is only one library listed when searching for it through Spotlight as well and I just have the sole library "file" there aren't any others like the example provided.

When it comes to the disruption, I'm pretty sure it didn't format the system drive. The most I did was make space on the hard drive for the new update and I did so deleting some applications I wasn't using. I only dealt with formatting it by doing a temporary decryption. The only big thing was that the first download of the update had a message that it was corrupted (probably because there was a pause between the download of the update and actually proceeding with it) but it proceeded accordingly later. I have been doing different "data recovery" services but they haven't been able to display all of the photos from the time period lost. I'll check the one you recommended though.

I do wonder if there is any other alternative or a way I can go through Terminal (or other) and display the files on the hard drive.

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Answer 3

Dec 20, 2020 11:38 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Hi - Sorry, I've just seen your message on the other thread - you've tried all that.

Did the disruption in the update include formatting your system drive? If so, then if you don't have a backup elsewhere, there will probably be little you can do.

It might be worth trying the free version of easeUS. It will tell you if there are any remains of you image files on your drive. If there are and you want to recover them, you'll need the paid version.

https://www.easeus.com/mac-data-recovery-software/drw-mac-free.htm

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Missing photos after Big Sur update

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