penbysk

Q: rRecovering Photos

I transferred my iPhoto library from my external hard drive to my Macbook Air. It worked, so I deleted the one on my external hard drive, and somehow it also deleted the library on my laptop. Can you please recommend some recovery software I can download? I don't know what to use. I'm using OSX 10.8.5.

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Feb 3, 2015 5:28 PM

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Q: rRecovering Photos

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  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Feb 3, 2015 5:31 PM in response to penbysk
    Level 10 (122,402 points)
    Apple Music
    Feb 3, 2015 5:31 PM in response to penbysk
  • by penbysk,

    penbysk penbysk Feb 3, 2015 5:34 PM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2015 5:34 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

    It didn't work. Even the trash in my iPhoto is empty.

  • by penbysk,

    penbysk penbysk Feb 3, 2015 5:55 PM in response to penbysk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2015 5:55 PM in response to penbysk

    All my trash is empty, iPhoto and computer.

    I don't know what to do.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 3, 2015 6:37 PM in response to penbysk
    Level 10 (84,882 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 3, 2015 6:37 PM in response to penbysk

    How exactly did you do this transfer and how did you tell iphoto where the library is?  the correct way is

    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)

     

     

    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto

     

     

    And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive

     

    If you launch iphoto while holding the option key down what do you see in the select library window - hopefully you can select the library you moved to the EHD

     

    Your description sounds like you copies the library to the EHD and never switched to it using the option launch to select it so you never used it - you were still using your old library and when you deleted it then it was gone - if that is correct the option launch will show your library on the EHD and you can start using it

     

    If this does not work then you need file recovery software like File Salvage

     

    LN

  • by penbysk,

    penbysk penbysk Feb 3, 2015 7:10 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2015 7:10 PM in response to LarryHN

    I dragged the photos from my external hard drive to iPhoto, and agreed to make it my iPhoto library. I guess I'll have to use the recovery software. Does File Salvage download directly once you buy it?

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Feb 3, 2015 9:47 PM in response to penbysk
    Level 10 (84,882 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Feb 3, 2015 9:47 PM in response to penbysk

    Details are critical

    I dragged the photos from my external hard drive to iPhoto

    and

     

    I transferred my iPhoto library from my external hard drive to my Macbook Air

     

    are totally different things

     

    what exactly did you do and how did you do it?

     

    And do you have a backup?

     

    LN