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Missing albums after importing iPhoto Library into Photos.app / iCloud

When the Photos app was released, I downloaded and installed it and migrated all of my photos from iPhoto into Photos. I additionally enabled iCloud Photo Library so that all of my pictures could be stored online.


When the initial data import was complete, everything looked fine in Photos on the Mac - then the upload began. Around 8,000 photos and 400 videos.


Over time I have noticed that several of the imported iPhoto Albums / Events that were imported successfully at the time have disappeared from any device which is hooked in to my iCloud Photo Library. This includes an album of over 3,000 photos of my daughter, plus a couple of albums of work nights out, and albums I used to filter photos for making calendars. As far as I can see I haven't lost any "Smart" Albums - just manually created ones. I don't know off the top of my head how many are gone without opening iPhoto and comparing the lists side by side (I still have the old library backed up) - I assume, if required, there would be no risk in doing this as the library files are completely separate?


The photos themselves still exist in the library - thankfully - but the albums I created are gone. How - if possible - can I get them back?

Posted on May 12, 2015 4:36 PM

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May 26, 2015 8:00 AM in response to MikkyX

Did you have a device plugged into your computer at the time? I had this same problem, but after I unplugged my iPhone, all my old albums and imports from iPhoto showed up again under the albums tab. I think when a device is plugged in, Photos only shows you what's on the device. Hope this helps!

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May 27, 2015 11:34 AM in response to Guitarguy429

Hi,

I've had my iPhone plugged in on occasion when I've had Photos open - but there was no indication that it was only displaying the phone albums. Even if it had been, isn't the whole point of iCloud Photo Library to sync everything across all enabled devices?


I've just reopened Photos without anything plugged into my Mac and the missing albums are, unfortunately, still missing. So thanks for your suggestion but it doesn't look it's the one in my case. 😟

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May 28, 2015 1:36 PM in response to MikkyX

Hi, I have one more idea...

I noticed that when I open Photos, it takes me to the album I was perusing previously. Normally the "home" screen for albums should look like this:

User uploaded file


Whereas if you were in an album previously it would open up in that album and would look something like this:

User uploaded file


Notice the top left corner has an arrow to go back:

User uploaded file


The only way to get back to the albums "home" is to click the back arrow. Not very intuitive, in my opinion. You may have already been aware of that. But could this be your issue? Perhaps you are stuck in one of your albums and just need to click the back button? Just throwing out ideas...

Hope you are able to figure it out! It certainly scared me when I couldn't find all my pictures.

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Missing albums after importing iPhoto Library into Photos.app / iCloud

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