iPhoto deleted photos after import

Which version of iPhoto do you have? And which MacOS X version?

Did you already restart the Mac? If not, don't do it right now, so the temporary folders will not be cleared.

Sometimes iPhoto stores photos in temporary directories, hidden in the system. Look, if you can find a folder with photos there.

• Launch the Terminal.app from the older Applications > Utilities.
• Copy and paste into the Terminal window the following line and hit return

open /tmp; open $TMPDIR

This will open two Finder windows showing you the caches used by applications. Look for folders with iPhoto in the name and look inside. Does one of them contain your missing photos? If yes, copy them to a folder on your Desktop.

If there is nothing, post back with the version numbers.

I have exactly the same problem. Photos disappeared after import, as iPhoto crashed when trying to comment photos. Unfortunately, I restarted my Mac, hoping it will solve the problem. Sorry, but I am rather new to Mac, and I don't know how to launch the Terminal.app (I don't know where to find Applications/Utilities - I am using a French version).

I am using Yosemite 10.10.2, and iPhoto 9.6.1 (910.42).

I do not dare to import new pictures, nor to try a repair or rebuild of the library, as suggested on other forums.

I would greatly appreciate help.

Terminal should be located in your Applications/Utilitaires folder (Google translation).

If you still can't find it use Spotlight to locate and open it by using the Command(⌘)-Space Bar key combination to bring up the Spotlight window. Type in Terminal and hit the Return key. That will launch Terminal.

Unfortunately, I restarted my Mac, hoping it will solve the problem.

The restart will have erased the caches, so don't bother to launch the Terminal.

as iPhoto crashed when trying to comment photos

So you have seen the imported photos already in your iPhoto Library and started to edit them?

Then look into the iPhoto Library, if your photos are inside the iPhoto Library package.

• Ctrl-click the iPhoto library and use the command "Show Package Contents".
• A Finder window will open. Look for folders with "Masters" in the name. You will see subfolders named by year, and inside by month and day. Are your missing photos there?

Many thanks Leonie. YES, the pictures are there! How can I have them back into iPhoto?

Also thanks to Old Toad. I have found this terminal (and learned a new way to launch apps; previously, I only used the launcher).

If all photos are in the Masters folder, rebuild your iPhoto Library.

Make a backup copy of the iPhoto Library. Use an external disk for that, so you do nor run out of space on the drive with the library.

Usually rebuilding your iPhoto library using the First Aid Tools should fix this,

see iPhoto 6 and later: Rebuilding the iPhoto library

and if this does not suffice, rebuild using iPhoto Library Manager as described by Old Toad, see: OldToad's Fixes: Rebuild the iPhoto Library

Many thanks. I will do this when I will be back home, since I am travelling in Ethiopia and not having an external disk at hand (unless I can find one, which is rather unprobable). Indeed, my library weighs 97 Go, and I only have 57 Go free space on my HD.

Bon Voyage! 🙂

Danke vielmal Leonie,

yes it does work. The library is fine now (although it is very heavy; is it the reason for iPhoto to be so slow? I will look at the forum and maybe post a separate question for that).

Once more, many thanks!🙂

The library is fine now (although it is very heavy; is it the reason for iPhoto to be so slow?

That would depend on a number of things. How much free space do you have on your boot drive? How much RAM installed? The speed of the CPU.

Also if you've run any "cleaning" or "optimizing" apps that can definitely adversely affect not only iPhoto performance but the entire system. Never run any such types of apps. The are a no-no.

I am going through the same thing, we lost my son's first birthday pictures when iphoto crashed, after they had been imported. However, I could not find a "Masters" folder in my contents. Any thoughts if the photos could be hiding anywhere else? When this happened last month, we thought we had recovered the photos from our SD drive, however, come to find, we did not recover all, there are about 50 pictures just missing some how from the batch, that just so happen to be only birthday pictures. Thank you so much for your help, still holding a little hope those pictures are hiding somewhere in this computer.

, I could not find a "Masters" folder in my contents.

Did you ctrl-click the iPhoto Library in your Pictures folder or the iPhoto application in the Applications folder?

You need to look inside the iPhoto Library. Each library has a Masters folder.

iam not getting the photos

iam not getting the photos

Please start a new discussion and explain in more detail. It is hard to trouble shoot all the different kinds of missing photos in the same discussion because it hard to keep track of the different system versions and the steps already taken.

You are AMAZING, it worked! Thank you so much, I wish I could give you a giant hug!