Restore single photo from Time Machine?

OSX 10.8.3, iMac Mid 2011, iPhoto 9.4.3, Time Machine


How do I restore a single photo into my iPhoto library from Time Machine? It appears that my only option with Time Machine is to restore the entire library.

My iPhoto library is 47 GB in size.


Thanks in advance.

Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on May 12, 2013 8:05 AM

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Posted on May 12, 2013 8:09 AM

There is no supported way to do it, but if you know the file name you can search for it using a utility such as Find Any File


http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/


which can search inside the TM back ups. This will allow you to copy out the required photo.

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May 12, 2013 8:09 AM in response to Dan5718

There is no supported way to do it, but if you know the file name you can search for it using a utility such as Find Any File


http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/


which can search inside the TM back ups. This will allow you to copy out the required photo.

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May 13, 2013 3:22 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thank you for your prompt response. Can you or anyone help me understand Apple's position for an iPhoto user.....if iPhoto user makes an editing error (6 MB file) and his/her only option is to replace/reload the entire library from TimMachine...that's crazy...isn't it?


Dan from NY

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May 13, 2013 6:55 AM in response to Dan5718

Further to comments by Terence Devlin...


If you can select from the Menu >Photos>Revert To Original, iPhoto should replace the edited photo with the original image.


If you want to find an original image file using time machine, and iPhoto no longer recognises this image exists, you should be able to select a photo from the same batch, select from the Menu File>Reveal In Finder>Original File, and once the Finder window is open, click Time Machine in the Dock.


With Time Machine running, I expect that you should be able to work your way back through this normally hidden folder until you find the "extra" or "missing" image file in this iPhoto batch folder.

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May 14, 2013 1:47 AM in response to andrewbuilder

This from Apple support article: H4927, modified: May 31, 2012. Apple ONLY supports replacing the entire library.

Summary

When using iPhoto ’11 (version 9.2 or later) and Time Machine with OS X Lion 10.7.2 (or later), iPhoto no longer has the Browse Backups option. This means that instead of restoring specific photos within your iPhoto Library, you must restore your entire iPhoto Library.

Thanks all for your input.


Dan from NY

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May 14, 2013 7:17 AM in response to Dan5718

That is correct - but you can recover a single photo to the desktop as TD described and then import the photos into iPhoto


There is no supported way to do it, but if you know the file name you can search for it using a utility such as Find Any File


http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/


which can search inside the TM back ups. This will allow you to copy out the required photo.

The better way to eliminate a poor edit is to go back one level or more using undo (command - z) or to revert to the original as suggested


Two options:


Command-z undoes the last thing you did.


Photos -> Revert to Original allows you to start over on that shot again.

LN

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May 14, 2013 9:47 AM in response to Dan5718

This is what you will get using Find Any File while searching for a single photo by file name as Terence suggested:

User uploaded file


If you find it drag it from the search results window to the Desktop and from there into iPhoto.


Be sure to pick the one in the Masters folder.



OT

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Sep 5, 2014 1:48 PM in response to l.aluffi

There is no difference. Be sure you have the full file name including the extension. The search can take a while due to the nature of the backup files.


To make sure all is working as it should search the TM drive for a known file on your hard drive, like one in your documents folder.

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Restore single photo from Time Machine?

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