Missing Photos in iPhoto and Unreadable Files in Time Machine

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Missing Photos in iPhoto and Unreadable Files in Time Machine

I seem to have a gap in iPhoto from 2009 and 2011 -- meaning my photos from this time period are missing and the monthly folders I created are empty.

I found the photos I'm looking for in Time Machine and tried to restore, but got the following result:

-- thumbnails displayed as exclamation points for all the "missing photos"

-- when I try to restore, I get an error box listing the path to the photos with the statement: "Unreadable Files. The following files could not be imported. (The file was missing.)"

I've tried Rebuilding the Photo Library 5-6 times to no avail. I am running iPhoto 7.1.5

I do not have trouble importing new photos as I have seen in other discussions. I am only trying to restore the photos from an earlier time from a TM backup.

Thanks for helping!

Scott

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Nov 23, 2012 8:27 AM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Nov 23, 2012 9:49 AM in response to HomeInNC

Restore the old iPhoto library to a different location, and your photos should be there - TM backups are not to be access directly but to be restored using TM

Once you have the old library you can export the photos you need importing them into iPhoto or you can use iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - to move tehm

BUT

Why are you missing photos? THis could indicate an issue with yur iPhoto library that needs to be resolved

LN

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Answer 2

HomeInNC Author

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Nov 23, 2012 6:30 PM in response to LarryHN

Thanks, LN. Just so I am clear, would you mind to explain how to restore my old iPhoto library to a different location? Much appreciated.

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Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Nov 23, 2012 7:54 PM in response to HomeInNC

To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.

For full TM discussion see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

LN

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Answer 4

HomeInNC Author

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Nov 24, 2012 12:32 PM in response to LarryHN

Sorry, Larry -- I am probably misunderstanding. I tried the steps to restore and get the following message:

"Unreadable Files. The following files could not be imported. (The file was missing.)".

Just so I'm being clear, when I locate the files in Time Machine I see exclamation points instead of the thumbnails. Restoring seems to automatically direct the photos to iPhoto and I do not see an option to direct them anywhere else. I don't see where the instructions you provided indicate how to do this. Thanks.

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Answer 5

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Nov 24, 2012 12:36 PM in response to HomeInNC

For full TM discussion see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

You do not access files in the TM backup - you restore the iPhoto library using the instructions in the twice mentioned Apple support document on using TM

LN

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Answer 6

HomeInNC Author

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Nov 24, 2012 3:57 PM in response to LarryHN

Hmmm -- not sure where I'm not being clear. The instructions below from the link you provided (twice) are exactly what I did.

"To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both."

This is the error message I received:

"Unreadable Files. The following files could not be imported. (The file was missing.)".

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Answer 7

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Nov 24, 2012 4:42 PM in response to HomeInNC

Launch Time Machine, go back in time to the time you want to restore from, go to the pictures folder, select teh iPhoto library, click restore and when ask select keep both

from the link I provided twice

Restoring data from Time Machine backups

With Time Machine you can go "back in time" to restore files, versions of files, or your entire system. Make sure your backup drive is connected and mounted (if not, Time Machine will alert you that "Your Time Machine backup disk can't be found."

If prompted, enter an administrator name and password to proceed with the restore.

Restoring specific files or folders

Choose Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu and the restore interface appears. You can literally see your windows as they appeared "back in time."

You can use the timeline on the right side of the window to reach a certain point back in time (the timeline shows the times of all backups on your backup drive). If you don’t know exactly when you deleted or changed a file, you can use the back arrow to let Time Machine automatically travel through time to show you when that folder last changed.

Note: Dates in pink indicate the data resides on your Time Machine backup device. Dates in white indicate the data resides on your Mac. In OS X Mountain Lion and Lion, portable Macs have the feature of local snapshots. See thisarticle for details.

You can also perform a Spotlight search in the Time Machine Finder Window search field to find a file. Simply type the Spotlight search field and use the back arrow to have Time Machine search through your backups to find what you are looking for.

Before you restore a file, you can also use Quick Look to preview a file to make sure its the one you want. Highlight the file and press the Space Bar to bring up a quick look.

To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.

LN

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Answer 8

HomeInNC Author

Level 1

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Dec 2, 2012 4:09 PM in response to LarryHN

Not sure if I can open this thread back up, but my iMac has now slowed to a halt since restoring my photos. It will reboot, but shortly thereafter becomes totally unresponsive and requires me to hold down the power button to restart. Time Machine backups have also failed since restoring my photos.

Is there a possibility I duplicated my whole hard drive and bogged everything down?

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Answer 9

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Dec 2, 2012 11:00 PM in response to HomeInNC

how big is your HD? How much free space on it?

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Answer 10

HomeInNC Author

Level 1

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Dec 3, 2012 3:51 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks, Terence. Based on the below I think I know how you're going to respond, but I don't know the best way to go about correcting my space issue.

Hard Drive Capacity: 297.77 GB

Available: 900.50 MB

Used: 296.89 GB on Disk

External HD Capacity: 297.77 GB (used for Time Machine)

Available: 127.54 GB

Used: 170.23 GB

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Answer 11

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Dec 3, 2012 3:55 AM in response to HomeInNC

Available: 900.50 MB

You have less than 1 Gig of space left on that disk. This is a major problem that you need to deal with immediately.

OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on. Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially.

Your first priority is to make more space on that HD.

Nothing else can be done until you do. Purchase an external HD and move your Photos and Music to it. Both iPhoto and iTunes can run perfectly well with the Library on an external disk.

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Answer 12

HomeInNC Author

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Dec 3, 2012 5:29 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks, Terrence. I am going to purchase another external hard drive to store my photos & music.

I suspect I recently duplicated my photos, music, or both while trying to correct a different issue. Is there a way to determine if I did this inadvertantly? I want to understand this so I don't transfer twice as much as necessary to an external HD.

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Answer 13

Jan 15, 2013 2:41 AM in response to LarryHN

There is a choice between "Restore" and "Restore All" - which one should I use?

Thanks

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