Missing photos and albums

Question

Level 1

9 points

Missing photos and albums

I'm looking for missing photo albums. I'm missing almost of the content of multiple albums in Photos. The first picture of the album will appear but none of the other album pictures. In other instances the entire album is gone. I pay for extra storage with Apple and wonder why I am doing this when I've lost pictures. The iCloud photos have the same photo library as on my Mac and iPhone. Can I recover the photos? How can I prevent this from happening in the future?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 10, 2021 7:28 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 10, 2021 10:47 PM in response to sherkugawa

Are the photos also missing in iCloud and on your iPhone?

Have you deleted the photos on the phone once they were on your mac? If so because icloud is a sync service, they will be deleted also on your mac.

What does the sync status say at the bottom of your all photos view - here is mine (updated just now):

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Answer 2

sherkugawa Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 11, 2021 8:55 AM in response to léonie

On my Mac 11.4 Big Sur, iPhone 14.6. Yes they are missing from "All Photos" as well as from the custom albums.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

197,111 points

Jul 10, 2021 11:26 PM in response to sherkugawa

Can you tell us more, in addition to Tony's questions? What happened right before the albums were missing? Did you install a system upgrade on one of your devices?

Or did you just enable iCloud Photos on additional devices, for example an iPhone or iPad?

Can you see the photos from the missing albums in "All Photos" or are the photos missing everywhere, not just from the albums?

Is the system version shown below your question still valid? Which system version is running on your iPhone?

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Answer 4

sherkugawa Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 11, 2021 3:54 AM in response to léonie

The photo libraries are the same across all, the iPhone 12 max, MacBook Pro and iCloud. I can’t pinpoint any specific time or action when they may have gone missing. They are old photos,

some back to 2009 but they were all in albums. I religiously upgrade to the latest IOS or Mac OS when notified but I don’t look for missing stuff when I do that so can’t make that connection. I don’t know when specifically they went missing but I noticed it within the last couple of months and just started investigating yesterday. I’ve checked all photos, albums on my desktop, and so on. Anything I haven’t answered?

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

197,111 points

Jul 11, 2021 4:49 AM in response to sherkugawa

Sorry, we still don't know which system versions are running on your devices, as it depends on the model of your device which system versions are available for it and which update notifications you will receive.

Please confirm, if macOS 10.14 Mojave as shown in your original post is still valid for your Mac (the most recent version of macOS would be macOS 11.4 Big Sur), and which system version is running on your iPhone? The most recent version would be iOS14.

And are photos missing from "All Photos" as well or only from your custom albums?

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Answer 6

sherkugawa Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 11, 2021 10:22 AM in response to TonyCollinet

I know if I delete them one place that they would be deleted across all platforms. I understand you have to ask basic questions to figure out the problem. There is always the chance I did something stupid at some time but I don’t think so. I treasure my photos. My status bar says “2,632 Photos, 101 Videos updated 1:17 pm”

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

197,111 points

Jul 11, 2021 11:17 AM in response to sherkugawa

If the photos are missing from All Photos as well and the syncing has finished, it is a bad sign. The photos seem to have been deleted. And as all your devices are using the most recent system versions, the albums should be syncing well between you devices.

I take it, you have checked the Recently deleted album, as well as the Hidden album?

You are probably aware, that Photos is storing each photo only once and the albums are just referencing the one copy in the library. You are not saving a photo in an album, when you add a photo in an album. If you are keeping a photo in several albums and delete it from one of the albums, it will be deleted everywhere, from the library and all albums, on all devices syncing with iCloud Photos.

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