While the library is intact, all the separate albums have gone missing, meaning that all the photos are now an unorganized mess!
Not sure when this happened, but it had to happen sometime after March of 2024.
Was there some update that could have done this? Is there anyway to retrieve the albums?
They were NOT in iCloud, only on the Mac. (All shared folders are still present)
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.6
I gave that a try and it didn’t work, but it did give me the idea to try and use an older database from Time Machine. That looks like it will work. I replaced it from one from several months ago and the albums returned, but much further back than I expected.
I noticed that the current database was much smaller than previous ones, (I’m assuming what may be missing is the organization) so I’ll play with the back ups and find the most recent one that matches what I feel should be the correct size.
Thanks for all your help and suggestions
I gave that a try and it didn’t work, but it did give me the idea to try and use an older database from Time Machine. That looks like it will work. I replaced it from one from several months ago and the albums returned, but much further back than I expected.
I noticed that the current database was much smaller than previous ones, (I’m assuming what may be missing is the organization) so I’ll play with the back ups and find the most recent one that matches what I feel should be the correct size.
Thanks for all your help and suggestions
Christopher, you wrote "They were NOT in iCloud". have you checked, if iCloud Photos is still turned off? I am asking, because the only way I haver have lost all albums and folders has been because of iCloud syncing. On some system versions iCloud Photos has become enabled automatically by default after a system upgrade, if we had an iCloud+ subscription and we may not notice it for a long time, because there is no warning. If you have not done so and recently upgraded an iPhone or iPad, check, if iCloud Photos is still disabled on all your devices, as it should be.
It is has been some time ago, but all my albums and folder vanished from Photos for Mac, after I enabled iCloud Photos on my iPad.
You also wrote "While some of the albums came from iPhoto, "
Have these albums been in a folder called "iPhoto events"? The albums in this particular folder has been behaving strangely, not like the albums we created ourselves, like Photos were treating the iPhoto albums in a special way. To avoid these problems I have recreated all older iPhoto albums outside the "iPhoto Events" folder. I have not had any iPhoto Events albums any longer in my library after macOS 10.14 Mojave. Perhaps Apple has removed this folder automatically on Ventura, when it has no longer been possible to migrate iPhoto Libraries to Photos and could no longer create iPhoto Events albums and folders.
It sounds like the database is messed up, though it seems odd to be messed up in only one very specific way! Have you tried to rebuild the Library?
To rebuild your Photos Library, close Photos and re-launch by option-command-double-clicking the app icon.
Let us know if that helps or not...
Just in case we are overlooking something subtle, are you sure that the disclosure triangle next to "My Albums" is set to display (rather than hide) your album/folder structure?
What happens if you create a new Album?
Library has always existed on the hard drive.
Nope… sometimes the obvious is the hardest to see, but everything is set to visible and I can create new albums with no issues.
Thanks for the suggestion.
yes, iCloud is still turned off. We simply don’t have the storage space or the money to use iCloud for all the photos we have.
This is awful! Could this have been an iPhoto Library? iPhoto was discontinued years ago, but an iPhoto Library could have its pictures imported to Photos, losing the "albums," since the structure is different.
Photos has Smart Albums and Sorting and Searches that can help. You can make a Smart Album like this:
to gather all the pictures for a certain year or month. You can sort those by date and time.
In the Thumbnail view you can also do a Search for Grand Canyon or Mount Rushmore, etc, to gather vacation pictures. And you can use the People view to gather pictures of individuals.
It may not be as difficult to organize as it looks...
While some of the albums came from iPhoto, we have been using photos for years without any issue.
Thanks for the suggestions. While
it may be easy enough to collect them by the day, I’m afraid so many of them locations will be lost as the albums where the only indication of such. Many photos where taken by devices that didn’t tag location.
Where do you keep your Photos Library? Is it on an external Drive? If so, how is that formatted? We've seen a lot of trouble from drives that weren't formatted for Apple. To avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
All albums/folders have disappeared on Photos
