Import Photos taken on iPhone from External Hard Drive

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Level 1

8 points

Import Photos taken on iPhone from External Hard Drive

HI,

I just got my mac back from Apple, super clean and I worked with a Apple team member last night importing all my photos and documents from my external, hard drive. I was told all photos would be imported into iPhoto the way i have previously had backed them up using time machine, however when I opened iPhone this morning not all my photos/events were present that I had taken with my iPhone. Where could they have gone? I tried making sure we gathered all pictures by going though my external drive and I did not see anything different then what we imported last night. Its been a super frustrating ordeal getting my mac fixed and running up to snuff. Any help appreciated!

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 14, 2015 9:42 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 14, 2015 9:44 AM in response to Genuine Jane

OK, not getting the connection between restoring your photos to iPhoto on your Mac, and what you have on your iPhone. Missing a piece here.

Cheers,

GB

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Answer 2

Genuine Jane Author

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Mar 14, 2015 10:02 AM in response to gail from maine

Yes, so everything was backed-up on my external hard drive. Which would have included all my events and photo streams, right?

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Answer 3

Genuine Jane Author

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Mar 14, 2015 10:09 AM in response to Genuine Jane

When I opened iPhoto this morning, none of my streams were present.

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Answer 4

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Mar 14, 2015 10:11 AM in response to Genuine Jane

Not clear

If you backed up using TimeMachine then you do not import anything - you use TM to restore the iphoto library as a single entity - no importing just a restore and then opening the restored library

SO what exactly was done? And are the missing photos missing from the library? From MyPhotoStream? From a shared PhotoStream? Exactly what

LN

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Answer 5

Genuine Jane Author

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Mar 14, 2015 10:25 AM in response to LarryHN

Ok, So I backed everything up using time machine. When I got my mac back from apple i had a guy last night tell me how to restore my photos and documents. we basically copied them from the external hard drive, we did not use time machine to restore them. He told me all my pictures would be as I last left them in iPhoto, except when i opened it up this morning, non of my photos from my iPhone were present, which were streams marked dec. stream, nov. stream, etc...where can they be. How can i get them back? Is this making sense?

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Answer 6

Genuine Jane Author

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Mar 14, 2015 10:31 AM in response to LarryHN

Ok, So I backed everything up using time machine. When I got my mac back from apple i had a guy last night tell me how to restore my photos and documents. we basically copied them from the external hard drive, we did not use time machine to restore them. He told me all my pictures would be as I last left them in iPhoto, except when i opened it up this morning, non of my photos from my iPhone were present, which were streams marked dec. stream, nov. stream, etc...where can they be. How can i get them back? Is this making sense?

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

Mar 14, 2015 10:36 AM in response to Genuine Jane

. When I got my mac back from apple i had a guy last night tell me how to restore my photos and documents. we basically copied them from the external hard drive, we did not use time machine to restore them.

That is the problem. Copying back directly from the Time Machine drive works for simple files, but your iPhoto Library is actually a package of linked files, and you need to Time Machine to restore it, so the links will be recreated correctly.

See this support document: iPhoto '11: Restoring from Time Machine with iPhoto '11 (9.2 or later) and OS X Lion 10.7.2 (or later)

Quit iPhoto.

Connect your Time Machine drive.

In the Finder, open the folder containing your iPhoto Library. Unless you've moved your iPhoto Library, it can be found in Home/Pictures/iPhoto Library.

Enter Time Machine. (Time Machine can be found in the Dock or in the /Applications folder.)

Choose your desired backup. The timeline on the right side of the screen displays a purple tick mark for each of the backups stored on your Time Machine drive.

Select the iPhoto library you would like to restore, and click the Restore button.

iPhoto may prompt you to repair your library if there are some inconsistencies in your files. If so, please allow it to proceed by clicking the Repair button. If you notice blank thumbnails, reopen iPhoto while holding down the Command and Option keys. When the Rebuild iPhoto Library window appears, enable the "Rebuild all of the photos’ thumbnails" checkbox. This may take a long time, depending on the size of the library.

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Answer 8

Old Toad

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Mar 14, 2015 10:38 AM in response to Genuine Jane

we basically copied them from the external hard drive, we did not use time machine to restore them.

That is where you the Apple guy went wrong. An iPhoto Library must be restored using Time Machine. This screenshot shows how.

Any time you restore from your Time Machine backup use Time Machine. That's how it's designed to work.

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Answer 9

Genuine Jane Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 14, 2015 11:10 AM in response to léonie

So by doing this, I am only restoring iPhoto, nothing else, right? In defense of the Apple guy, we did it this way because I didn't want to import everything last saved through time machine on my external hard drive, if that makes sense. I wanted to keep all the settings and other things, reset, not how they were on my last back-up. I'm trying to stream line everything and keep everything fresh because I've been having so many problems with this Mac.

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Answer 10

Genuine Jane Author

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Mar 14, 2015 11:10 AM in response to Old Toad

So using time machine will allow for me to have access to those streams, correct?

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Answer 11

Old Toad

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Mar 14, 2015 11:22 AM in response to Genuine Jane

So using time machine will allow for me to have access to those streams, correct?

Only if the library that you restored is good and has the streams in it and the streams are still in iCloud.

But first try the following on your current library:

1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down to open the First Aid window. Be sure to follow the circled recommendation in the screenshot.

2 - run Option #4, Rebuild Database.

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Answer 12

Genuine Jane Author

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Mar 14, 2015 11:29 AM in response to Old Toad

So what is the purpose of trying to rebuild the database first?

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Answer 13

Old Toad

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Mar 14, 2015 11:34 AM in response to Genuine Jane

It usually is the operation that fixes most of the problems. Do whatever one you want first. It makes no difference.

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Answer 14

Genuine Jane Author

Level 1

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Mar 14, 2015 3:53 PM in response to Old Toad

So I tried to enter time machine and I get this message: Can't connect to a current time machine backup disc. Do i need to back up again to try and connect it to time machine?

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Answer 15

Old Toad

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Mar 15, 2015 8:23 AM in response to Genuine Jane

Check some of the topics in this webpage, Troubleshooting, for one that might aid you in connecting to the TM hard drive, particularly those in Section E.

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