iphotos lost issue

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Level 1

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iphotos lost issue

So i had alot of photos and videos on my iMac on iphoto. I also had done a backup to external hard drive. I was having computer issues and at a point couldnt even turn the computer on so I took it to apple and they had it wiped and whatnot to get it back up and running. I figured because I had them backed up on my external that it should all be there but I cant figue out where all of these would be stored on my external. Shouldnt there be some folder with all of these photos? (like 25k of them). I did try a few things but ran into issues saying that something is wrong with that hard drive as well...so i dont know who to talk to about finding them or some..i guess they wouldnt be on the main computer anymore hidden though....

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jul 18, 2021 4:57 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,025 points

Jul 19, 2021 12:37 PM in response to spyderv

If you used iPhoto on a 2012 system, it will have been a very early version of iPhoto'11, that will no longer run on macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra.

Look in your Pictures folder for your iPhoto Library (after you restored your user documents and data from Time Machine). You will find the Photos.app installed as a part of the system. Photos can open your iPhoto Libraries and create new Photos Libraries from them.

If you launch Photos, it should automatically convert the last used iPhoto Library.

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Answer 2

Jul 18, 2021 5:44 AM in response to spyderv

Hi

Are you really talking about iPhoto? Or Photos, which replaced iPhoto a few years ago.

What version of MacOS was on your mac - what does it have on now?

A lot depends on whether the apple technicians actuallly wiped the drive, or if they just reinstalled MacOS. Also what and how you backed up to the external drive.

Did you just backup the photos library, or did you use some software (eg time machine) to backup your whole mac? Can you describe how that worked?

On thing to try to start with. Hold down the option key while starting photos. This will bring up a pane showing all the libraries on your mac. If there is more than one, open each in turn to see if you can find your photos.

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Answer 3

spyderv Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 19, 2021 11:09 AM in response to TonyCollinet

i believe it was iphoto...computer was 2012

now they had put on 10.13.6

and im pretty sure they wiped it

im trying to double check unless there was another option i think it was the time machine but for some reason i thought it had another name but it was backing up everything as far as i knew...i had picked the external for it to backup to

and i will try that now

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Answer 4

spyderv Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 20, 2021 8:55 AM in response to léonie

im hoping that will work thanks! when i try to open it just from the external it says file not supported but i will have to try sometime...i did a restore from backup before and had to actually have the computer fixed again must be something with the backup or just this imac...do you think i could use my macbook air to try to restore from backup without it being messed up?

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Answer 5

muguy

Level 9

76,201 points

Jul 19, 2021 11:12 AM in response to spyderv

If you used time machine, visit https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203981

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iphotos lost issue

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