Photos continue to disappear every time I open Photos after upgrading to Monterey.

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Level 1

6 points

Photos continue to disappear every time I open Photos after upgrading to Monterey.

Every time I open Photos I see there are blank squares where so many photos used to be. Its disheartening.

I use the CleanMyMac program often because I close to the limit of my storage, so run their clean up every 10 days or so and I have a suspicion that that may have something to do with that.

I am not a techie, in fact I am an older person trying really hard to keep up with all these changes and improvements.

I have back up but am nervous about restoring in case those photos continue to disappear.

Can anybody help or advise me please.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 26, 2022 8:00 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,867 points

Oct 29, 2022 3:52 AM in response to ibwendpick

CleanMyMac may be your problem.

It has been known to cause problems with photos libraries, deleting some of the files internal to the library. I suggest you stop using it. See:

CleanMyMac 3 messed up my photos library - Apple Community

Then restore your library from backup to recover the images that have been damaged.

As an alternative, you might want to consider moving your restored library to an external drive. See here, paying particular attention to the format for the external drive...

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac – Apple Support (UK)

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Answer 2

Lindsay_B.

Community Specialist

Oct 28, 2022 1:41 PM in response to ibwendpick

Thanks for visiting the Apple Support Communities ibwendpick,

It sounds like you may have narrowed the missing pictures down to the use of CleanMyMac. Before restoring a backup, we can try having you remove CleanMyMac to see if the issue continues. If not, you can restore your backup but not CleanMyMac and you should stop losing your pictures.

If the pictures continue to disappear without CleanMyMac installed, however, try the steps in Get help with the Photos app on your Mac - Apple Support. It's designed to help troubleshoot issues related to the Photos app.

Enjoy your weekend!

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Answer 3

ibwendpick Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 29, 2022 4:23 AM in response to TonyCollinet

AHA, thanks Tony, that explains why I find more and more photos continue to disappear every so often when I open my Mac.

Gosh, what a relief though because that is something which should remedy my problem.

I will do all the steps you suggest and report back.

Sad about CleanMyMac though because its been invaluable in cleaning up to restore much needed space. Is it allowable for you to suggest an alternative maybe?

Regards and many thanks

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Answer 4

Oct 29, 2022 9:43 AM in response to ibwendpick

I would not trust any software that automatically deletes files. MacOS doesn't need it, and you need to know what using your space so you can delete stuff manually.

To find out where my space is used, I use disk inventory X

http://www.derlien.com/

Which gives a graphical and hierarchical list view of the space used.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

195,545 points

Oct 29, 2022 10:15 AM in response to ibwendpick

Can your Mac be upgraded to macOS 13 Ventura? It is coming with a built-in duplicate detector in Photos.

Photos 8 on Ventura will scan your library for duplicates and show you detected pairs of duplicates. You can either merge the pairs automatically into one or delete manually the version you do not want to keep.

But if your large Photos Library is the reason why you need to find duplicates and free storage, it might be easier to move the complete Photos Library to an external volume with enough free storage. A Photos library tends to grow and you may need more storage anyway for the years to come. Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac Official Apple Support › en-us

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Photos continue to disappear every time I open Photos after upgrading to Monterey.

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