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User profile for user: henkdo
henkdo Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

time machine

I ran into a big problem.

My rigid backup scheme crashed due to two failing hard disks, about the same time.

A data recovery company recovered significant part of my data and I see the typical TimeMachine folder structure appearing (see screen dump 1).

Clicking thru to my folders looking for Photos-Libraries, I found them, see screen dump 2

Hopefully double clicking on these icons will start the photos app however with an error, see third attached picture from the screen.


No Worries just "show package content" in which I can't find any photo at all.


Desperate for help....


txs in advance

Henk


MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.5

Posted on Oct 12, 2022 11:29 AM

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User profile for user: steve626
steve626
User level: Level 6
11,693 points

Posted on Oct 12, 2022 7:36 PM

You can try a few things:


Try dragging (copy, not move) the Photos Library backup file to the computer desktop. Then try to open it from Photos or double click it. I expect it won't work because the Photos Library is likely damaged.


Try Show Package Contents. A list of folders should appear. Look for the biggest one, it should be named Masters or Originals. Open that folder and see if any image files are in it. Even if the Photos Library file is damaged or corrupted, preventing it from being used with the Photos app, if the above folder is there and contains the image files, those are your images. You can create a new Photos Library and import those image files into the new Photos Library.


If one of the backups doesn't work this way, try another or several. You may eventually find an older backup that has recoverable files.


It is remotely possible that some or all of your image files are in some other folder, from whatever process the recovery service used. Try searching on that drive for all files with the following string


.jpg


or


.jpeg


and see where the files are that are located.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: steve626
steve626
User level: Level 6
11,693 points

Oct 12, 2022 7:36 PM in response to henkdo

You can try a few things:


Try dragging (copy, not move) the Photos Library backup file to the computer desktop. Then try to open it from Photos or double click it. I expect it won't work because the Photos Library is likely damaged.


Try Show Package Contents. A list of folders should appear. Look for the biggest one, it should be named Masters or Originals. Open that folder and see if any image files are in it. Even if the Photos Library file is damaged or corrupted, preventing it from being used with the Photos app, if the above folder is there and contains the image files, those are your images. You can create a new Photos Library and import those image files into the new Photos Library.


If one of the backups doesn't work this way, try another or several. You may eventually find an older backup that has recoverable files.


It is remotely possible that some or all of your image files are in some other folder, from whatever process the recovery service used. Try searching on that drive for all files with the following string


.jpg


or


.jpeg


and see where the files are that are located.

Reply

time machine

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