Somehow when I was deleting some old files my photo app ended up in the trash aswell. I’ve tried ‘putting back’ but it constantly says preparing to move and doesn’t actually move. It’s a 105gb file and was preparing to move for 4 days which isn’t right. Why can’t I and how do I move it back?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.2
When your Photos are all in iCloud Photos, you need just to create a new, empty Photos Library.
Once you have your photos back, we can try to get rid of the library in the Trash.
When your Photos are all in iCloud Photos, you need just to create a new, empty Photos Library.
Once you have your photos back, we can try to get rid of the library in the Trash.
Nelliebellie, are you sure, you moved the application Photos to the Trash? The app is much smaller, just 50MB or so. I suspect, you moved the Photos Library.photoslibrary, the library where Photos is storing your Photos. The library needs to be restored to the Pictures folder, not the Applications folder.
The background process of Photos may still be trying to use the Photos Library. Have you already tried to restart your Mac to finish all running processes?
If you already had started to empty your Trash, they Photos Library may already have become damaged and useless. Then it will be safer to restore your Photos Library from your backup. What kind of backup are you keeping? Are you backing up with Time Machine? Or are you syncing your Photos with iCloud Photos?
Nelliebellie12 wrote:
Somehow when I was deleting some old files my photo app ended up in the trash aswell.
Oops.
It’s a 105gb file and was preparing to move for 4 days which isn’t right. Why can’t I and how do I move it back?
Did you mean 'photo app' - I suspect if it's a 105GB file, then you are referring to the Photos Library and not the app.
You should be able to restore your Photos Library from your Time Machine backup. (You do have a Time Machine backup, do you? :-)
Is the Pictures folder missing from the Finder sidebar, or is it missing from your user Home folder?
In the sidebar you can add Pictures back, if it is still in your Home folder.
What has happened, directly before you found your Photos Library in the Trash?
Have you used some third party software, that you have never used before?
Ha yes I see that the pictures folder is still in the finder side bar. It is empty. What is missing is the photo and also the media folder that was towards the bottom of the side bar. I was cleaning up some files and deleted items from the downloads folder.
Hi, yes I meant photo library. I have no idea how which is weird. It’s still there in the trash as it hasn’t deleted as far as I can tell. But I don’t seem to have a pictures folder anymore either!
Good advice from léonie which I see was posted before I'd finished my own reply!
No problem, The_Knowledge_Seeker. 😊
We had the same ideas.
Back up to I cloud photos
The Media folder in the sidebar will be missing, if you no longer have a system photos library.
Tritt make a new System Photos Library, as I have explained above.
How can I recover my Photo library after deletion?
