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Help me restore my iPhoto library which disapeared

So I have a 2013 217 GB Macbook air running OSX 10.9.4. Last night, I accidentally deleted some pictures off of iphoto that I wish I hadn't. About an hour ago I went into my time machine (fully backed up) and attempted to restore my iphoto library. After 3 minutes it asked me if i wanted to replace the file the preexisting file of the same name, obviously I said yes. After about 10 minutes I received the following error message: "The finder can't complete then operation because some data in 'iPhoto Library.photolibrary' can't be read or writted (error code -36)." After this I noticed that not only did the library not get restored, but now my entire iphoto library has disappeared. I don't know where it went: it's not in the trash or anywhere on my computer as far as i can tell. I attemepted to restore the library 2 more times from different time machine backups and recieved the same message. Could somebody please help me to recover my lost 44 gigs or photos? This is not good.

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Sep 15, 2014 6:14 PM

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21 replies

Sep 15, 2014 6:32 PM in response to televud

First follow these steps:

  1. Go to Photos;
  2. Right-click on iPhoto Library;
  3. Select Show Package Contents;
  4. Browse the folder Masters. (It should contain all the original photos you imported into iPhoto.)


I think the problem is the library file you mentioned which got corrupted.


To solve:


  1. Copy the Masters folder somewhere (don't move, keep alt pressed while you drag);
  2. Create a new Library from within iPhoto;
  3. Import the masters there.

Sep 15, 2014 6:47 PM in response to televud

I'm suggesting that you connect another hard drive, and restore the library to it, rather than to the original location. You do that by right-clicking an item in the time-travel view and selecting Restore ... to... from the popup menu. If possible, try to choose a snapshot that was taken when iPhoto was not running. The library is not completely backed up when the application is running.

Sep 15, 2014 7:54 PM in response to giuseppecal

giuseppecal wrote:


First follow these steps:

  1. Go to Photos;
  2. Right-click on iPhoto Library;
  3. Select Show Package Contents;
  4. Browse the folder Masters. (It should contain all the original photos you imported into iPhoto.)


I think the problem is the library file you mentioned which got corrupted.


To solve:


  1. Copy the Masters folder somewhere (don't move, keep alt pressed while you drag);
  2. Create a new Library from within iPhoto;
  3. Import the masters there.

This is ONLY a last resort as you lose all edits, al metadata changes and all projects - everything except the original photos exactly as you originally imported them


Sometimes it is the only way to save your photos but it is not a solution of most problems - it is only a last resort after more reasonable solutions have failes


Generally it is better not to overwrite existing files until you have verified that the restore was good


Linc's advice it the next thing to try - another hard drive and try restoring to it


LN

Sep 15, 2014 9:30 PM in response to televud

The drive needs to be formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled) before you can copy an iPhoto Library to it.

Read this document: iPhoto: Issues with FAT32-formatted drives http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168


And also this on instructions how to format the drive: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3509


Reformatting will erase the drive completely. So save any data you want to keep to another drive, before you reformat it.

Help me restore my iPhoto library which disapeared

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