Missing Photos after enabling iCloud Photo Library

Question

Missing Photos after enabling iCloud Photo Library

So I've been battling with iCloud photo library for a few days now.

I have a semi-large collection of about 15k photos, upgraded my iCloud storage and enabled iCloud Photo Library. It uploads (forever), but after it finishes it randomly drops all kinds of photos. This last time it wiped out around 96 photos from my collection, no trace of them not even in recently deleted.

Example: My library has 14850 photos, when it finishes uploading, it now reports 14754 photos (difference of 96) and I can see a few photos are now missing. iCloud.com reports that I have 14583 photos (difference of 267). The photos are completely gone from my local Photos library, they are there during upload, but once it finishes it just removes them as if they never existed. I've ran consolidate against the library, nothing is referenced and everything is in the library. I've also started over and re-migrated my iPhoto library and same results.

I have backups of the last good iPhoto library prior to the upgrade, backup of the new Photos library prior to enabling iCloud photo library. I've restarted this process about 3 times on two separate macs, deleting all photos and starting over, but with the same varying results. I have wasted a lot of time on this, and deleting photos is a serious problem.

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 23, 2015 9:21 AM

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Answer 1

markwmsn

Level 6

15,017 points

Apr 23, 2015 9:33 AM in response to geek of the week

Is it possible that this is due to differences in what Photos and iCloud Photo Library consider duplicate photos (versus iPhoto/Aperture)?

I did see at least one report go by that Photos seemed to ignore a photo from an iPhone 4 when a photo from an iPhone 5 happened to have the same image number (file name) and possibly other similar characteristics. I tried to recreate it using the import function but failed.

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Answer 2

Apr 23, 2015 9:44 AM in response to markwmsn

Filename doesn't seem to matter, searched the library for a few of the missing photos (file level and in the library) and nothing else shows up. It would be a bad process if it was filename based. Camera used also seems random.

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Answer 3

markwmsn

Level 6

15,017 points

Apr 23, 2015 12:17 PM in response to geek of the week

geek of the week wrote:

Filename doesn't seem to matter, searched the library for a few of the missing photos (file level and in the library) and nothing else shows up. It would be a bad process if it was filename based. Camera used also seems random.

I agree. Just passing on a report from somebody else and the results of my attempts to duplicate it.

I also had an unexplained discrepancy in picture counts between iPhoto and Photos on the only machine I've tried with a migration, but I have not (yet) identified specific missing photos. You are ahead of me in that part of the investigation.

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Answer 4

Apr 23, 2015 12:29 PM in response to markwmsn

I was able to figure out a few based on a library on another Mac with iCloud library never turned on, Flickr, and Dropbox backups. At this point I couldn't recommend this service to anyone based on it loosing photos like this, most people are not as thorough on the diversity of backups and location of backups I keep.

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Answer 5

Owen A

Level 2

235 points

Apr 23, 2015 3:45 PM in response to geek of the week

Geek of the week,

Have you sent Apple feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html ?

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Answer 6

Apr 23, 2015 5:04 PM in response to Owen A

of course, but that is just the usual black hole.

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Answer 7

Apr 23, 2015 7:02 PM in response to geek of the week

My initial upload uploaded all but about 500 of my photos. Then stopped. Now Apple tells me that it has to upload all of them again, and it is uploading about 20 per hour, and I have 17,000 left. so I figure in about 45 days I will have all my photos. This seems ridiculous. They say they will eventually come into the program, but not sure I am that patient. I do have these 500 or so photos on my iPad, so they are not lost, but still, a long time to wait. According to Apple, everyone is uploading photos and that is why it is taking so long. ?????? Any ideas????

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Answer 8

Apr 23, 2015 7:27 PM in response to Mdsmith37

Mine is less of an upload completing problem, I can upload the entire 70+GB library in about 7 hours with my internet connection, and more with it loosing / deleting my photos once the upload completes... including my local copy of the photos not just what is on iCloud.

The amount of time it takes to upload is all dependent on your internet connection. Most ISP upload speeds tend to be way slower than download speeds, which is what they advertise to you when you sign up or pick a package, upload speeds are usually in the fine print.

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Answer 9

Old Toad

Level 10

207,667 points

Apr 23, 2015 8:09 PM in response to geek of the week

Did your videos/movies get uploaded OK? Or could the difference be the videos?

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Answer 10

Apr 23, 2015 8:30 PM in response to geek of the week

What is this going to cost you monthly? I didn't think I upgraded but lost my photos on my Mac anyway. Where do I go to get my photos back? Is there an app I need to d/load?

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Answer 11

Apr 23, 2015 8:41 PM in response to Old Toad

Videos are fine, only random photos. Have yet to connect a pattern to them.

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Answer 12

Apr 23, 2015 8:44 PM in response to geek of the week

It costs the iCloud storage rates per month depending on how much storage you need. I have multiple backups of the photos themselves and the actual libraries. I keep them in multiple locations including more than one offsite location. I don't mess around with photos, I can't replace them. Given this problem, I know a lot of people who don't backup as stringent as I do and could have catastrophic results trusting in Apple and turning iCloud photo library on.

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Answer 13

Rysz

Level 8

44,391 points

Apr 23, 2015 8:52 PM in response to geek of the week

Some observations based on my personal experience which might help:

1. My early attempts at migration also resulted in substantial differences in image counts. Running Photo Library First Aid (hold down Option + Command at launch) of iPhoto, repaired iPhoto Library database and also identified some orphaned files that needed to be deleted. Performing a fresh migration to Photos resulted in a substantially smaller count discrepancy.

2. Remaining discrepancies were narrowed down to Burst photos being counted differently in the two apps, and to some no-longer present images not having been cleared from albums/events.

3. Some of my videos did not migrate properly, just their tiny-sized links. Finding the original files and replacing the links, brought down the discrepancy to zero.

Also, I might have misunderstood your statement, but if you already identified which images have not migrated from iPhoto, can you just add them manually to Photos?

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Answer 14

Apr 23, 2015 8:56 PM in response to Rysz

1. I actually did a fresh migration from iPhoto before attempting this last time. I had a backup of the library prior to upgrading to 10.10.3. Still photos were missing, but it was a smaller amount this time. The amount varies in each of the 3 attempts I've made.

2. Burst photos seem to have uploaded properly, I don't have a whole lot of them. I have identified some of the photos missing, but not all since it is around 100 or so in a library of 15k. Looking at some albums (events) it was pretty clear a large chunk was missing, and they are missing everywhere not just the album (File system level in the photo library as well). While I could potentially track them all down given enough time, or running a script against it, I'm not sure I would trust it not to loose my photos in the future. The only reason I noticed right away is I was keeping an eye on it giving Apple's track record with cloud services. If I could find the root cause or a smoking gun I would feel slightly more comfortable.

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Answer 15

Rysz

Level 8

44,391 points

Apr 23, 2015 10:47 PM in response to geek of the week

1. My main point in #1 was that repairing and rebuilding the iPhoto Library BEFORE a fresh migration made the biggest difference for me.

2. The observation about burst photos was not that they did not migrate, but that the apps count them differently.

I can certainly sympathize with being tired after all this effort. If it helps, I have had absolutely no issues with the final Photos version or with iCloud Photo Library. Perhaps just take a one or two day break, repair iPhoto Library and then try a fresh migration.

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