How do I recover my lost Photos on my old iMac?

old imac lost all my photos, iPhoto is empty! Help! cannot recover from iCloud as I never backed up my photos there. I now use a new iMac and as I opened the old one, all the iPhoto photos are gone!

Note : The migration to the Photo app never worked properly and I left this important task on the back burner for too long. Hope I can find these pictures another way.

Time machine is not an option either as the external drive went kaput years ago...


[Re-Titled by Moderator]


Posted on Dec 2, 2024 5:40 AM

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Posted on Dec 2, 2024 8:18 AM

One possibility is that you've accidentally created an empty Library, and the other Library is still there, somewhere.


To look for Libraries, close Photos, and option click the Photos icon-- you should get a dialog like this:

As you can see, I have several Libraries. If you find that you have more than one, you can try choosing a different Library to see if it has your pictures. Below the list, you can also see the path to the location of any Libraries you find.


"Photos Library.photoslibrary" is the default name for a Photos Library. You should look in the Trash to see if a photoslibrary has escaped to there.


I'm not sure of anyplace else to look. Let us know what you find…

11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 2, 2024 8:18 AM in response to gypsie2012

One possibility is that you've accidentally created an empty Library, and the other Library is still there, somewhere.


To look for Libraries, close Photos, and option click the Photos icon-- you should get a dialog like this:

As you can see, I have several Libraries. If you find that you have more than one, you can try choosing a different Library to see if it has your pictures. Below the list, you can also see the path to the location of any Libraries you find.


"Photos Library.photoslibrary" is the default name for a Photos Library. You should look in the Trash to see if a photoslibrary has escaped to there.


I'm not sure of anyplace else to look. Let us know what you find…

Dec 3, 2024 5:17 AM in response to gypsie2012

How have you been searching? If you have Find Any File use it to search for photo libraries.

You can search on both your Macs for photo libraries using the Finder.

Try the following:

  • Open a Finder window and select your computer in the sidebar.
  • Enter the shortcut ⌘F to start a search
  • Enter .photolibrary into the search field and hit return.
  • Select "Kind Photolibrary" from the search options.

For example:




Dec 2, 2024 10:06 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you Richard, I will look into it... Although I remember well when I purchase my new iMac,

PHOTO had replaced iPhoto and the Apple technician was unable to import the pictures into the new computer (!)

The 'migration' was never completed when it came to my photos...

So now I will check with your idea (although -Librairies- it is above my ease of searching into a iMac...)

I appreciate your time. I'll let you know if something pans out!

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How do I recover my lost Photos on my old iMac?

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