I imported a bunch of photos from my phone to iPhoto but now they're gone

"Copy items to the iPhoto Library" is checked.

Now I am seeing your previous posts. It is hard to have a conversation, when half the time the previous answers are not showing.

A question

Why are you using iPhoto? Since you have done nothing except complain I strongly suggest tha tyou stop using it and use another program to manage your photos - iPhoto is a great program but it is not mandatory and it is not for everyone - the solution is extremely simplt - do not use it

LN

Never noticed Image Capture in your Applications Folder?

For feedback to Apple:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Dragging and dropping involves an application too. Image Capture has no database it's just another way of doing what you do with drag and drop.

How big is your Hard Disk? How much free space on it?

Some how it works fine on PC the same way every other digital camera works. Who says image capture won't eat the photos and crash and burn also.

If you have a card from a camera and connect a card reader to an USB port, your mac will show the card as a mounted device with a filesystem and you can simply drag and drop the images and videos to a folder on your mac.

Your iPhone is not only a camera; it is also a general media player and may contain protected content - videos, music. And a smart phone is also a computer. Apple is no longer making it possible to access the file system on an IOS device directly for security reasons. You need an app to be able to read and write to an IOS device. Otherwise you could install unauthorized software or malware.

brsm1990 wrote:

Another question: Why every time Apple turns out an outrageously crappy product does some dolt on the forums here run to their defense and blame the user? You see the same thing going on in threads where people loose their battery life just because they installed an "upgrade" or in this case when iPhoto was used as intended and it ate and destroyed 10 GB of my media. This is not a "great program" this is a POS. I wouldn't have attempted to use it had the iphone worked as it ought to and just let me drag and drop the photos from it as it does on a PC. This is what makes sense. I don't need any "program to manage my photos" except for the fact that apple isn't allowing me to opt out. I don't know what hte other options are but it's ridiculous that I would have to download and install some ohter program just to access my photos without losing them. iPhoto is absolutely one of the worst programs I've ever used and for whatever reason it's the default setup on OSX. I used to be happy with Apple products but lately they just get worse and worse. Battery problems on the phones are another thorn in many a user's side.

Sorry - no one except you is blaming anyone - I am simply pointing out how incredibly stupid it is to beat your head against a concrete wall and then complain that your head hurts

Millions and millions and millions of people love iPhoto - you hate it - the answer is amazing simple - do not use it - it is unbelievably stupid to keep using a program that you hate and amazing arrogant to think that everyone in the world should change anything you do not like just to make you happy

If you do not like it do not use it - an amazingly simple solution although it apparently is too complicated for you to comprehend

And your ignorance of how to use your computer is overwhelming - Apple not only allows you to opt out but gives you all the tools you need to Opt out for free - Image capture is included on every Mac (no download required) - simply set it as the default download program and never use iPhoto again

And just as a note - Battery problems are not a function of iPhoto - there are forums for iPhones - maybe if you have an issue with an iPhone then posting in the correct forum would help you out -- one more example of your inability to learn simple concepts like using the provided free tools to Opt out or posting in an appropriate forum to get an answer

LN

I know this post is old but it's the first one that came up in Google search when I was desparately searching for a way to find my lost photos. This post has helped me to find all my missing photos so I feel I should share what I did in case it might be useful for some people.

Basically I had the same exact scenario with the original poster. I was importing about 5000 photos from my iPhone using iPhoto. Got the pop up message saying that all photos were successfully imported and asked if I want to delete the photos from my phone. I clicked "Delete" (big mistake!). When I checked my computer 10 minutes later, I saw that iPhoto was crashed and quitted unexpectedly. Reopened iPhotos, none of my imported photos were there. Checked the phone and there were only 900 photos left. I've lost over 4000 photos somewhere.

I tried search for the images on the computer and got nothing. Then I googled and found this post. First, I tried rebuild iPhoto database. That didn't work. I also couldn't see the "Previews" or "Masters" folders as mentioned early in this post. When I clicked on iPhoto, it just opened up the iPhoto applications. There was no folder there.

Per leonie suggestion, I installed "Find any File" and searched for "Library6.iPhoto". The app found it but it didn't do anything. When I tried to go there it just opened up the iPhoto. So I tried the following:

I know that the file name would be something like "IMG_xxxx.jpg". So I used Find any File app to search for "IMG" and set the date to be within 2 years (in case it uses the date that the photo was taken) and I found them all! I could see all my missing images through this app even though I couldn't find them by using the search bar on the finder. And the weird thing is, when I clicked on the photo (still on the app), the app would show the location of the photos. They were in the folder "Originals" under the iPhoto Library. However, if I go to iPhoto Library directly on the computer, the folder is not there. It's like it's invisible (search result for "Originals" also came up zero) and I can only see it through the app. But I was able to double click the "Originals" folder on the app and it opens up a window that contains all of my images.

I don't know why it has to be this complicated just to locate my files but I am very grateful for this post that helps me find all of my missing images.

Your library was corrupted in the crash.

Rebuild it with iPhoto Library manager:

http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/