Sjaalman

Q: I lost my iPhoto Library by moving it to iCloud Drive ?

Yesterday I moved my iPhoto Library from its regular place to my iCloud Drive.

It "uploaded" quickly, and showed the library file being present in iCloud Drive if opened through Finder.

I was on Yosemite at the time, but experienced a number of system "bugs", so decided to back up everything to either iCloud drive and/or dropbox.

I clean installed Yosemite again after that only to find all documents but the iPhoto Library there?!


I've gone through approaching through iCloud.com, but also there it does not show the library being present.

Trying to import a library through iPhoto from within iCloud drive does not deliver any files either.

Has it miraculously disappeared or is there a setting that prevents me from "seeing" the file?


Thanks for the support.



MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 19, 2014 1:56 AM

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Q: I lost my iPhoto Library by moving it to iCloud Drive ?

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  • by nessaspeedy,

    nessaspeedy nessaspeedy Oct 19, 2014 6:59 AM in response to Sjaalman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2014 6:59 AM in response to Sjaalman

    Hi there,

     

    The exact same thing has happened to me (same machine too)!

     

    Can anyone shed any light on this?

     

    Many thanks

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Oct 19, 2014 7:06 AM in response to Sjaalman
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 19, 2014 7:06 AM in response to Sjaalman

    It is not possible to store an iPhoto Library either in Dropbox or iCloud Drive. Syncing the library over a network will destroy the database integrity. You can store folders with photos in Dropbox or on iCloud Drive, but don't risk an iPhoto Library or Aperture library in a synced folder.

     

    I tested with a few test libraries, and all of them needed rebuilding and had missing photos after putting them into Dropbox or on iCloud Drive.

     

    Photo Libraries (iPhoto, Aperture) need to be on locally mounted volumes:  Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library

  • by nessaspeedy,

    nessaspeedy nessaspeedy Oct 19, 2014 7:37 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2014 7:37 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks so much for your response! Is there any way of recovering the library? Or have I lost everything?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 19, 2014 9:14 AM in response to nessaspeedy
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 19, 2014 9:14 AM in response to nessaspeedy
    Is there any way of recovering the library? Or have I lost everything?

    That is hard to say. DO you have any other backup of your Mac? For example a Time Machine backup?  The easiest option would be to restore from Time Machine.

     

    If you don't have another backup, it will be rather tricky to find any traces of your photos in the iCloud folder.The system is hiding folders, that we are not supposed to see.  Are you seeing any folders named "Masters", "Previews", "Thumbnails" inside the iCloud folder?

  • by Sjaalman,

    Sjaalman Sjaalman Oct 19, 2014 9:18 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2014 9:18 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks for the support first of all.

    No I am not seeing any hidden files like you mentioned: is there a way to make them appear?

    Thanks.

  • by nessaspeedy,

    nessaspeedy nessaspeedy Oct 19, 2014 9:32 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2014 9:32 AM in response to léonie

    Same for me; no relevant files in view.

     

    I have just downloaded a trial version of a recovery program called iSkysoft, and am running a 'Raw Data Recovery'. It's taking a while, but I can see within the preview for the found jpgs that all of my photos are coming up! I hope I can salvage something from this. Sadly, I guess I will have lost all the metadata from iPhoto

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 19, 2014 9:37 AM in response to Sjaalman
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 19, 2014 9:37 AM in response to Sjaalman

    You can check with the Terminal.

    Open the folder "Applications", then "Utilities" inside and launch Terminal.

     

    Then copy and paste the command below into the Terminal window and hit return:

     

    ls -aix ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents

     

    It will list all files and folders on your iCloud Drive, even files that are hidden. Do you see anything, that might relate to your iPhoto Library? If you are unsure, paste the list into your next post.

  • by Sjaalman,

    Sjaalman Sjaalman Oct 19, 2014 10:09 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2014 10:09 AM in response to léonie

    Hi Léonie, thanks for this; if I run ur command, this is the only "clear" reference to iPhoto I can see in the list, the rest is all related to other apps, software and docs: 407505 82J93X7T25~com~apple~mobileiphoto and 405687 com~apple~CloudDocs

     

    Is this worth anything?

    S

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 19, 2014 10:22 AM in response to Sjaalman
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 19, 2014 10:22 AM in response to Sjaalman

    I'm afraid not. The "mobileiPhoto" folder is created by iPhoto on mobile devices.

    But you can look inside by typing the following command into the Terminal:

     

    open ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/82J93X7T25~com~apple~mobileiphoto

     

    This will open a Finder window and show you the content. But I am afraid, the folder will be empty.

     

    If all fails, give recovery software a try.

  • by Sjaalman,

    Sjaalman Sjaalman Oct 20, 2014 3:49 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 20, 2014 3:49 AM in response to léonie

    Hi léonie, yes the folder is empty unfortunately...

     

    I am actually backing up my files through a corporate crashplan account, but due to the loss of my VPN, I haven't been able to check if the folder is present on the server.

     

    Thanks again for all your help, really appreciated!

  • by Sjaalman,

    Sjaalman Sjaalman Oct 24, 2014 4:01 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2014 4:01 AM in response to léonie

    Hi léonie, just a quick message: was able to recover my iPhoto Library through the crashplan setup I have with my company!

    All fixed and learned a lesson..

    Have a lovely day and thanks again for the help.

    S

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 24, 2014 7:27 AM in response to Sjaalman
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 24, 2014 7:27 AM in response to Sjaalman

    That's terrific!   I am glad, you got your photos back thanks to a good backup scheme!