"Missing File" in Photos

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Level 1

15 points

"Missing File" in Photos

My Photos library lost all photos from Sept 1, 2021 on. They still appear in the library, but when clicked to open, the message reads “Missing File,” and directs me to click “Find Original.” Reading previous postings I’ve tried the following:

I did try to repair the library (Option + Command when opening) but the repair had no effect.

I confirmed these are not “referenced files.” The setting “copy item to Photos” IS checked. I have always put my photos in “Photos,” backing up the library in-full. I never needed to retain the original jpegs (wish I had!). Unfortunately, a backup of a corrupted library is also corrupted.

Also interesting is I have two libraries, one for my photos, the other for jpgs of scanned piano music. BOTH libraries along with their backups are “missing files” from the SAME time, Sept 1, 2021 – a strange coincidence.

I just bought a MacAir. Apparently the corruption pre-dated that. I still have one backup on my mac mini that I can still open in Catalina—that is, it has NOT been opened/updated in Sonoma. It has the same problem: “missing files” all photos after Sep 2021.

The photos WERE in the library. I’m certain I have accessed them in the past 2+ years. If they are still in the library, they just need to be re-linked to the thumbnails that still appear. In Apple Music I could go to the Media file, locate the song and reopen in Music. But Photos does not have a folder that holds the photos individually. Is there a way to peak inside the library data file to find individual photos that can be re-linked to their thumbnails?

If the photos have been lost, is there some way to capture the thumbnails that still appear? I know they would only be few “K” in size, not MBs, but that would be better than losing them all together.

Macbook Air: sonoma 14.2.1, Photos 9.0; mac mini catalina 10.15.7, Photos 5.0

MacBook Air, macOS 14.2

Posted on Jan 17, 2024 12:31 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

smelending Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 19, 2024 4:42 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

STEPS TAKEN as instructed: right clicked on library in Finder, “Show Package Contents”, located and copied Originals folder. Opened Photos app creating a new library. File >Import > selected entire Originals folder > “Review for Import” > “Import all new items”

RESULT: imported 13,477 photos. Opened several – all opened as they do in source library – but confirms the photos from Sept 2021 are, in fact, missing. You are correct: appears to be original raw photos. excludes edits (even rotation), no albums or folders, manually input titles, etc. Appears to include several duplicates. Metadata

does include date taken & source camera. View Sort only offers Date Added…which is the same for all photos (duh). But Photos do appear in order of date taken. Tried same technique on older backups with same result.

Regarding the copied folder “Originals:” expanding it reveals several subfolders labeled 1-9 then A-E, each contains many photos with no obvious logic: all have overlapping dates. Nevertheless, it is a very

convenient folder! (1) Change the Finder view to “icons” allows one to literally “see” what’s inside. (2) Given that the Photos app has lost 2 years of my photos, I am now going to keep a copy of all photos in jpeg OUTSIDE of the library. But no need to export from the library, this folder starts me off. I just need to think how I will keep it updated and maybe reorganized.

Richard, it is curious that all backups, including a backup made in Catalina & Photos 5.0 back in 2023, and a backup of a separate library (scans of sheet music) ALL lost files from the same date! I don’t think we can figure out what happened.

THAT LEAVES ONE HOPE: My library continues to show thumbnails of the missing photos. Any possibility we could recover the thumbnails AS photos? Granted they’d be low resolution.

Thank you! I've learned alot!

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Answer 2

smelending Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 20, 2024 9:52 AM in response to léonie

"Tail between my legs" embarrassment.

Leone, my first reaction to your post was, "I checked that!" But then it hit me... I did confirm that "copy items into photos" was checked.....on my new Mac Air. I now see that it is not checked on my old Mac Mini. That explains why BOTH of my libraries stopped importing at the same time! Why? How? I can't blame Apple. My best guess is that two years ago I was trying to learn how to prevent my entire library from uploading to icloud and mis-read and overreacted to the note "only items copied to the library will upload to iCloud Photos." ("OK, anything to stop them from uploading!")

I'll try yours and Richard's suggestions to find the originals but it was my practice to delete them after "importing" them and dutifully backing up the library.

It is a user error, but it is a surprise to learn that photos appearing in the library are NOT in the library. It is a painful way to learn about "referenced" files. Maybe, to prevent ignorant users (like me) from making this mistake, when that box is checked, Apple could pop up a warning: "From now on, when you import photos, you are NOT importing photos!" ;-)

Thanks to both of you for your patient, expert guidance!

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,741 points

Jan 20, 2024 1:30 AM in response to smelending

Could it be, that you have changed the Photos > Settings > Importing from "copy items into the Photos Library" starting from 2021? Then Photos will just have referenced the originals outside the library in their original location and you need to search for the files in a backup of the device where you imported these photos. Could you restore a backup of the old Mac to an external drive, so you can use a tool like "Find Any File" to search outside the library?

Two other potential reasons for missing originals:

Originals can be missing, if your library has been syncing with iCloud Photos and not all originals have been downloaded from iCloud Photos, when you transferred the library to your backup drive. In that case the save copy will be incomplete. Have you temporarily been using iCloud? Then you need to recover the originals by connecting again to iCloud, if the photos are still there.
Or cleaning software to remove duplicates can damage the library badly by trying to remove the originals and replacing them by the edited versions and linking them incorrectly. Have you recently used any software with "clean" in the name?

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Answer 4

smelending Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 21, 2024 10:22 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Last feedback and a new tip:

Richard, the dates of the files in Resources>Derivatives are the same as the files in Originals, perhaps "originals" with edits? but those are not the missing referenced files.

Leonie, I did exhaustive searches and did find that I had not yet deleted the photos from an SD card for our trip to Poland. Yeah!

Here is a tip if the originals are gone and all that exists are the thumbnails -- This is only practical to recover individual missing files: open the thumbnail, cancel the "missing file" pop-up notice, expand to full view, take a screen shot which saves it as .png - re-import and crop (better yet, screenshot a portion).

Thanks again Richard and Leonie! Have a great 2024!

Steve

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Answer 5

Jan 18, 2024 10:31 AM in response to smelending

If I had a solid backup of the library, I would do this: control-click on the library, and there appears a menu with "Show Package Contents." Going in here can screw up the library, so you I would be very careful-- not moving or changing anything. But I would make a copy of the folder called "originals." I would make a new Library in Photos and drag that copied originals folder to Photos and see what I got. Edits and newer added metadata won't be there, but maybe the pictures will be.

Heed the warnings, and let us know what you find.

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Answer 6

Jan 20, 2024 7:27 AM in response to smelending

It sounds like you're having some success. As long as you have a backup of your library so you're not worried about messing things up, you can "Show Package Contents" as you did before and search around. In Resources>Derivatives, for instance, there may be lots of intermediate level pictures that Photos keeps to make loading faster. You could make a new Library and drag the entire Derivatives folder in to see what you have. You could create a library with both sets, but there will be tons of duplicates. Photos can help with sorting that out, but it will take some time.

As léonie said, you should search outside of Photos for the 2022 pictures. You can do a Finder search and restrict it to capture dates within a range. Start searching in Finder like this:

With the + button you can add criteria like dates. You may find you missing pictures in Finder folders.

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"Missing File" in Photos

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