My iphoto library has disappeared. How do I find it?

Ah, so a "professional" without the most basic back up? When called on it resorts to abuse? So, you're either a very poor professional or a troll.

My photo library disappeared after I opened an old one on an external hard drive. I thought I lost al my photos and I found this:

Switch between photo libraries

1. If Photos is open, choose Photos > Quit Photos

2. Hold down the Option key & double-click the Photos icon in the Applications folder OR click the Photos icon in the Dock to open Photos.

3. In the Choose Library dialog, do one of the following:

* Click the library you want to use, then click Choose Library

* If the library you want to doesn't appear in the Choose Library dialog, click Other Library, navigate to the location of the library, select it, then click Choose Library.

Hopefully you will find your Photo Library if it has not been erased. Directions said to make sure not to alter your Photos file in Finder or you will corrupt it. Good luck.

You do have a backup, right? So why are you having problems? Just restore the library from your most recent backup before this occurred.

Yes I have a back up but for some reason, it would not allow me to restore to the earlier date before this happened. It shows my computer has been backed up but I was not able to "restore". My back up is Airport Time Capsule but I don't think it's hooked up properly. I have AT&T and it's my understanding their equipment interfere with the Time Capsule but I need their equipment for the phone/U-verse television. Upon set up, Time Capsule did not display the green light indicating it was set up properly. That's another problem for me to research....since setting up my time capsule, I have not had any Internet connection problems so part of it is working. Thank you for your response.

Solution: You probably can get your pictures back. First check to see how much free space you have left. You probably have less free space because your pictures were scattered through out you hard drive. Then look you waste basket because some of your pictures are probably there. Be very careful about emptying your waste basket while you are getting your pictures back. If you have any recovery software use it. 1. Use the time machine go back to a time when you had your pictures but not to restore. Move through the folders on the screen like you do on your Mac. When you get to the folder that has your pictures copy them. Then cancel the time machine and paste your pictures back to where they used to be. You may have to do it more then once. Then do next step because you have probably lost more pictures then you thought you had and have many more pictures than you even knew you had. 2. The next step is to use your finder creatively. Start by typing jpg in the finder window and after your computer recognizes the letters hit enter. This will being up every jpeg you have. If you find a picture that interests you write down it's name and the name of the folder. The folder may be a folder of recovered pictures. Then you can use finder to go to the folder where the pictures reside and return them. You should close the file and then come back to make sure the pictures stayed where you put them. This is a good time to clean up your hard disk and making liberal use of the sort function can help.

I had the same problem and this solution worked for me. I ended up with more pictures that I liked and had more disk space to boot. I think they introduced Photo to coverup the problem with iPhoto.

When iPhoto lost all my pictures I hadn't had time machine pluged in for over a year. I recovered most of my pictures using the finder. My solution talks about time machine but then goes on to explain other ways to find you pictures.

When iPhoto lost all my pictures I hadn't had time machine pluged in for over a year

So why tell people how to incorrectly recover images from Time Machine? What do you suggest they recover? Masters? Previews? Thumbnails? How will they tell them apart using your instructions.

Rather more simple - and a lot less destructive of your data - is to recover the Library from Time Machine and then find whatever images you can around the hard drive.

iPhoto '11: Restoring from Time Machine with iPhoto '11 (9.2 or later) and OS X Lion 10.7.2 (or later) - Apple Support

Then learn how to use the Finder and how you can drag from a search window - saves a lot of writing down.

Always warn people if your suggestion risks destroying their data.

My Photos library simply went entirely disapppeaed from my iMac with El Capitan. Its simply empty now. I had over 7.000 photos. I have a backup external hard disk that wasn't connected with the computer so I can eventually recover but, I would like to know why this happened to do not risk a second time. If anyone can help, please?

Do not believe any of Apple's excuses. iPhoto will lose your pictures at random for NO REASON. Too many people have lost their pictures for it to be caused by the user. Let's be very clear iPhoto doesn't ask you every time what library you want. If it asks for what library you want after not asking for a couple of hundred times hat is kind of weird. The program has to be unstable for it to do it out of the blue. For me, it only happened after I upgraded to El Capitan. Isn' Why do you think they went to Photo? They threw Photo together in a hurry because iPhoto is unstable.

One day I added a bunch of pictures to my iPhoto library. The next day I got up bright and early, went to iPhoto and 99% of my pictures were gone. Not all of them which would make sense. Many of my pictures were in my waste basket but the rest were all over my hard disk. When iPhoto lost lmy pictures I hadn't had time machine plugged in for over a year. I recovered most of my pictures using the finder. You can use the time machine to copy files but don't restore. This worked for me. I can't know if it will work for anyone else. I am no expert. I do not work for them.

Be careful who you talk to because they will try to get something on you to cover up their own mistakes. They deny that adware can get on your computer without your knowledge.

If the Time Machine worked they wouldn't be asking the question. And you know it.

Download and run Find Any File to search for a file with "AlbumData.xml" in the file name. This is a file common to all versions of iPhoto libraries.

FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages. If there's a library hiding somewhere on your hard drive FAF will find it.