Mac 10.13. I have 10k photos with some from prior systems. Some are now pixelated and only 70k; originally 20MB. How can I fix this?

pelegrinotrek wrote:

I can’t say specific verbiage. It is was the standard prompt when you buy a new computer and want to transfer all files from the old one to the new one. After setting up this computer, I got rid of the ten-year old one five years ago.

Was it Migration Assistant?

Also did you have iCloud Library enabled on the old Mac?

but some are now pixelated and only 70k when exported, even if originally 2-20MB... How can I fix this?

You can't fix that. What's happened there is that instead of bringing over the original file (which would be the ones in the 2 - 20 MB range), you've brought over some thumbnails (@70k)

How did this happen? We have no way of telling as we've no way of knowing how you were managing the images heretofore and how they got to where you are today. Can you explain? Do you still have the original source(s) for these images?

Memory allocation is done by the OS.

You're using two distinct terms there as somehow the same thing.

Memory allocation is the process by which the OS allocates RAM to the various tasks that the Mac is doing. Memory is RAM.

This

I have plenty of memory remaining generally, however, my photo library is 118 GB

is storage, or disk space. It has nothing to do with memory or it's allocation.

In any event, neither memory allocation or disks space is the cause of the problem. What you've got are the thumbnails instead of the original files.

They were imported with the rest of my files (photo and non-photo) automatically with the system disc when I upgraded Macs and systems.

By imported I assume you mean transferred to the new machine? Exactly what was that process?

After setting up this computer, I got rid of the ten-year old one five years ago.

So this issue has existed for five years? if so I'm afraid your chances of recovering the lost data is pretty much zero.

I have no idea why you keep thinking this is a memory issue. How does RAM stop the app from making thumbnails?

I'm afraid that Yer_Man is right, after 5 years there's little or no change of recovering the full sized versions of those photos.

I simply followed the disc prompt

What disc prompt is that? Do you still have the original library?

You should have given the "Solved" to Yer_Man because he's the one who diagnosed the problem and figured it out.