Photos/iPhoto missing library

Question

Photos/iPhoto missing library

Hi

I have an iMac 2008 and I have been backing up my photo library in case something goes wrong. To my horror, I find it already has and all photos from June 2012 to March 2015 are gone. I only have one iPhoto library in the location me>Pictures>Photos Library. I don't use an external drive (any more as it died and was attached to a MacMini) and as I only have one drive supplied by Apple, I don't use Time Machine. Can anyone suggest where on my 2Tb machine, my photos have gone? I upgraded to Photos from iPhotos which I am not impressed with and that might be the culprit as it seems to have made an iPhoto Library and now uses a 'Photos Library', however the two seem to be exactly the same and I cannot see the missing files in iPhoto either.

iMac (27-inch Late 2009), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 2TB SATA Disk

Posted on May 9, 2015 10:35 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

216,512 points

May 9, 2015 11:12 AM in response to asparagustips

You can still use iPhoto with 10.10.3. It is still in your Applications folder. It will have to be iPhoto 9.6.1 however. If you don't have 9.6.1 follow the instructions in this post to obtain it from the App Store:

Terence Devlin

Apr 14, 2015 11:21 AM

Re: Is Iphoto gone ? i want it back!

in response to Johannes666

Recommended

Go to the App Store and check out the Purchases List. If iPhoto is there then it will be v9.6.1

If it is there, then drag your existing iPhoto app (not the library, just the app) to the trash

Install the App from the App Store.

Sometimes iPhoto is not visible on the Purchases List. it may be hidden. See this article for details on how to unhide it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928

One question often asked: Will I lose my Photos if I reinstall?

iPhoto the application and the iPhoto Library are two different parts of the iPhoto programme. So, reinstalling the app should not affect the Library. BUT you should always have a back up before doing this kind of work. Always.

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Answer 2

May 9, 2015 11:50 AM in response to Old Toad

Old Toad thank you for your reply but it does not address my question. I do have iPhoto and I have already opened it. It opens the exact same Library that Photos opens. I'm sure I mentioned in the post that there is no obvious difference between the Photos Library and the iPhoto Library. It doesn't matter which application I open, the photos are still missing.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

216,512 points

May 9, 2015 2:35 PM in response to asparagustips

There should be a library with the following extension: .migratedphotoslibrary. That is the one you should try to open with iPhoto. If you get a message that you can't edit and save edits run the following 2 first aid/repair routines on it with iPhoto:

1 - Option #1 - Repair Library Permissions.

2 - Option #4 - Rebuild Library Database

and if you have problems with thumbnails

3 - Option #2 - Rebuild Thumbnails.

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Answer 4

May 9, 2015 2:36 PM in response to Old Toad

Old Toad, you genius. Option #1 has solved the problem, but could there be something underlying here that I can resolve to prevent further recurrence?

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

216,512 points

May 9, 2015 2:45 PM in response to asparagustips

It's usually a one time thing associated with the installation of the system.

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