Sky Kogachi

Q: Photo app missing iCloud Photo Albums

I had a lot of albums organized using the Photo App for Mac and synced using iCloud Photos.

I turned off iCloud Photos on my iPhone, cleared all photos from the phone, and turned it back on again.

All the albums that were organized in different folders in my Photo App for Mac disappeared.

The single albums are still there.

When i go to iCloud Photos on the web, all the albums are there.

How do I get the albums back on my Mac, iPad and iPhone?

Mac Pro (Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on May 15, 2015 7:05 PM

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Q: Photo app missing iCloud Photo Albums

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  • by anarchytecture,

    anarchytecture anarchytecture Jun 8, 2015 3:30 AM in response to kerouacjack
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 8, 2015 3:30 AM in response to kerouacjack

    I have the exact same problem as KerouacJack, and am working with Apple Support on the same.

    I'll post any updates here.

    I have to say - Apple still can't really get it's stuff together when it comes to online sync of large data sets.

    Google Photos is looking mighty fine to me right now...

  • by notcloudy,

    notcloudy notcloudy Jun 8, 2015 1:23 PM in response to kerouacjack
    Level 4 (1,200 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 8, 2015 1:23 PM in response to kerouacjack

    kerouacjack wrote:

     

    Also, one other comment.  The fact that the Photos app database still recognizes the existence of the albums (because they show up in the search box results when I start typing the names of missing albums) as does iCloud makes me think that the bug has to do with folders and how these are handled across the cloud.  iCloud.com does not have folders, only albums --  and all of the albums that disappeared from the sidebar were albums within new folders that I created.   Just a guess...

    With my previous comment -- I looked at the IS08 manual for Iphone/ipad (in PDF and downloadable)  and the issue may in the synchronization/share options.   There are a number of ways to share photos, also some discussion of if you can change  a photo on the phone/ipad.

     

    It may be a problem with the various programming groups/and testers working with the ICLOUD project, the Photos project, Yosemite, and IS08.

    If there was not communication between them it might be some area running at cross purposes.

     

    Your answer may be in that manual - they are in PDF and IBOOK.

     

    http://support.apple.com/manuals>Apple - Support - Manuals

  • by William Ziobro,

    William Ziobro William Ziobro Jul 8, 2015 1:12 PM in response to notcloudy
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 1:12 PM in response to notcloudy

    l

  • by William Ziobro,

    William Ziobro William Ziobro Jul 8, 2015 1:11 PM in response to anarchytecture
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 1:11 PM in response to anarchytecture

    anarchytecture wrote:

     

    I have the exact same problem as KerouacJack, and am working with Apple Support on the same.

    I'll post any updates here.

    I have to say - Apple still can't really get it's stuff together when it comes to online sync of large data sets.

    Google Photos is looking mighty fine to me right now...

    I am having the same issue, did you have any luck with Apple?

  • by Private.Parts,

    Private.Parts Private.Parts Sep 8, 2015 3:23 PM in response to William Ziobro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 8, 2015 3:23 PM in response to William Ziobro

    Hello all.

     

    I can't offer a resolution to this common problem we've all faced/facing but i have had some recent advances with raising the case with Apple's High Command. Following a one-hour appointment with my local genius's, a subsequent call from Apple Support was arranged for me. Long story short - seventy minutes on the blower to two Apple techies, two screen-shares and three highly detailed explanatory emails later... a very helpful Greek techie has punted my case on toward their iCloud Engineering department.

    Now let's be candid for a moment; I'm NOT expecting my 208 albums and folders to re-materialise any time ever but i am expecting the access they now have to my broken library to be of benefit to others - afterall, the after effects of the links dissappearing yet remaining searchable is 100% repeatable.

     

    Just as an extra thought... has anyone else noted that the albums are all still visible (and selectable) via #1 iMovie and #2 also by creating a Photos Smart Album set to sort by Name? All ~208 of mine popped as selectable for the filter.

     

    Lastly - an' i dunno how significant this'll turn out to be - my albums visibility has been removed on three very separate occasions, but i realised the only common action to preceed each loss was the disabling of iCloud Photo Library - erasure if everything - then re-enabling of the same. At some time after the rebuild completed i noticed the albums had gone, it just took three unrelated issues (leading to a need to turn off the library) to see the potential link. Note that a full erase wipe of either of these iOS devices did not cause the same album access loss.

     

    Anyone else care to try it out?

  • by keven-77,

    keven-77 keven-77 Sep 22, 2015 9:19 AM in response to Sky Kogachi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 22, 2015 9:19 AM in response to Sky Kogachi

    I just noticed a similar issue only that the majority of my albums are gone whether they were in folders or not. A handful are still available for some reason. Also, the missing albums do not show up anywhere (Mac, iPhone, iPad, iCloud.com, iMovie) as some others have reported. This is all very frustrating due to one particular album I had created for my Mom's memorial slideshow which took several hours to put together.

     

    I don't know exactly when this all occurred as I just noticed it, however, I did turn off iCloud Photo Library on my iPad about a month ago, removed the photos and then turn it back on because I was having sync issues with Photos on the iPad. Based on the comments here I'm guessing that is when I likely lost my albums.

     

    I am away from my Time Machine backup for a week so am not able to restore from an older backup and I was hoping that I wouldn't have to. Has anyone found a solution to this without restoring? I was looking to see if there's plist file or something in the Photos Library package that might list all the albums but I can't seem to find that. Does anyone know the location of this file if there is one? Any help would be much appreciated.

  • by Sky Kogachi,

    Sky Kogachi Sky Kogachi Sep 22, 2015 4:44 PM in response to keven-77
    Level 5 (5,480 points)
    Peripherals
    Sep 22, 2015 4:44 PM in response to keven-77

    I wish I had a good answer for you. Right now, the only way I know to restore the albums is to get them from a back up like Time Machine.

     

    On another note, I had to disable my iCloud Photo Library on my iPhone because, even with the optimization, it still takes up too much space on my 16GB iPhone. My albums did not disappear when I did it. I haven't turned it on again and I don't plan to on this phone. When I get my new 64GB iPhone 6S on Friday, I will us iCloud Photo Library on my iPhone again.

  • by keven-77,

    keven-77 keven-77 Oct 2, 2015 8:19 AM in response to Sky Kogachi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2015 8:19 AM in response to Sky Kogachi

    Unfortunately I tried restoring my photo library (from time machine) to an external drive and opening that library (using the "option" key during Photos launch) but the most recent backup didn't have the missing albums either.

     

    I posted some additional information on this thread: iCloud photo library deleted my albums

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