Help needed! I lost the folder tree in iCloud Photos

Update 3 - The disaster continues …

So, I waited 30 days for my iCloud Photos account to delete all photos and then I synced again from my iMac Photo library. It took 4 days to complete the sync with 21k photos and 540 videos. I also synced with my iPad and iPhone. Everything went OK.

Then I wanted to give my father a copy of my photo library. Using Shared Library was not an option because Shared Library does not sync folders. And since my father has an older iMac I could not give him my Photo Library file. I had to download the pictures and videos from iCloud. So, I created an account for myself on his iMac and synced the iCloud photo library. That went well. Everything OK.

In the next step I created a new empty photos library on my fathers iMac in my account and made it the system library. A pop-up window informed me that: “Any photos and videos that have not been fully downloaded will be removed from this Mac and Shared Albums will be disabled.” I accepted because in the previous system library containing the entire iCloud content I selected “Download originals to this Mac” in the Photo app settings. Therefore I assumed that no content would be deleted. 

However, my assumption was wrong. The entire iCloud content was deleted from the previous system library. And not only that. Again folders disappeared from my iCloud photo library. I have two top folders and many, many subfolders. One of the top folder with all the subfolders disappeared. 

That is terrible!!!!  Now, there is absolutely no way to sync the folders back to iCloud. I have to start from scratch again. Delete everything in iCloud and sync again from a backup iMac Photo library.

Apple, please, the way folders are dealt with is not fool proof! It just happens too easily that folders get deleted in iCloud, which results in an incredible amount of work to fix it again. 

Update 5: Finally got it right …

To transfer my Photo Library to my fathers account on his older iMac running an older macOS I did the following:

1. On my iMac in Safari I removed everything from iCloud Photos and emptied the trash.

2. Then I created a new empty Photo library, made it into the System Library and activated iCloud sync.

3. Then I deleted the previous System library. That is, the Backup copy that caused trouble described in the previous post.

4. Then I made a copy of my Photo library backup file and opened it in repair mode.

5. Then I made this repaired backup copy to my System Library and activated iCloud sync. 

    This time the sync worked. All photos, videos and all albums and album folders synced to iCloud.

6. Then I created a new Photo library file on my fathers iMac in my account and placed it in the Users/Shared folder.

7. I made this Photo Library to the System Library and activated iCloud sync and selected download originals.

    The sync worked well.

8. Then I made a duplicate of the Photo Library file and changed the permissions of the file.

    I gave my father read and write permission.

9. Finally I went into my fathers account moved the Photo Library file to his Pictures folder and renamed it.

    I was able to open the Photo Library and found that all photos, videos, albums and album folder are there.

    And all videos play.

Update

I thought that perhaps if I rename the top folders in My Albums on my iMac that the folder tree would not get deleted. However, that turned out to be wrong.

As a result, I ended up deleting all 20,000 pictures and 500 videos from my iCloud, all iOS devices and I had to delete my iMac Photo library. Then I created a new empty library, made it the system library, and used it to empty the iCloud trash.

Then I copied my backup library to my iMac and made it the system library. So far so good. The library on the iMac is now OK again with the complete folder tree in My Albums. Shared Albums are also OK.

However, I was unable to turn on iCloud Photo in the Photos app settings. The message at the bottom of the Library said that iCloud is turned off and deleted photos will be completely deleted in 30 days.

I then restarted the iMac and tried again. Now it says it is syncing with iCloud. I am crossing my fingers that this will work.

And all that just because I deleted the empty folders on my iPhone ...

Update 2

After syncing overnight I checked the progress. Nothing was uploaded to iCloud.

In iCloud, I get the message at the top in orange:

”iCloud Photos has been disabled. You have 30 days remaining to make sure you have a complete copy of your photos and videos.”

I then turned off iCloud Photos in the settings of the Photo app on the iMac. I was then told that 15000 low-resolution pictures will be removed. That is weird because I deleted all pictures in iCloud before I turned iCloud off. In the iCloud settings under Manage Account Storage Photos is listed as occupying zero kb.

It looks like I have to wait one month before I can sync my photo library with iCloud again.

What a mess. And again all that just because I deleted the empty iCloud folders in the Photos app on my iPhone.

Update 4 - The disaster continues #2 …

To recover from the disaster I described in my previous post I did the following.

1. Turned iCloud Photo off in all iOS devices and on my iMac

2. Deleted my iMac Photo Library and replaced it with a backup

3. Deleted the entire content in iCloud Photo 

  (BTW, it is very annoying that one can only delete 1k photos/videos at a time)

4. Made the backup Photo library to the system library and synced with iCloud.

Result:

Not all photos and videos synced. Approximately 1k photos and 300 videos did not sync.

Strangely, the status at the bottom of the photo library did not list any photos/videos that did not sync.

Next step:

I closed the iMac photo library and reopened in repair mode.

Result:

1. After the repair was finished all pictures and videos were still present in the iMac photo library

2. However, after the iCloud sync the photos and videos missing in iCloud were deleted from my iMac library.

Instead of syncing the missing photos and videos to iCloud they were instead deleted from my iMac library!!!!