masters in iphoto

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aslan2011 Author

Level 1

4 points

masters in iphoto

I have a WD external hard drive. As I was editing my photos the external hard drive disconnected from my mac and I lost all photos.(cable was not in socket properly) I tried reconnecting the hard drive but still no photos. I went into disk utility and did a repair still nothing. I tried a recovery program after it found the photos I had to pay for it so I didn't proceed with the process. After reading all forums and discussions, I noticed that my photos were in masters. So I drag and dropped the masters file from my external hard drive into the mac hard drive. The only problem is when I disconnect the External hard drive the photos come up with can't find photos message.I selected find location but still did not work. Please can some one help me as I have over 500 GB of photos. I want to be able to save all photos on my mac hard drive and then import the photos on an external hard drive. I have gone in preference but am I missing something. I have tried adding all photos into another hard drive but the message keeps coming up. Does this mean I have lost all my photos? Is there something I need to tick in preferences or when I am moving master file across do I need to bring across something else? I have also realised that this has happened with movies also. Please can some one help.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Jun 28, 2015 5:01 AM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jul 1, 2015 8:31 AM in response to aslan2011

It is impossible to do what you are trying to do - You can not ever make any changes of any sort to the content of the Photos library using the finder - there are NO user serviceable parts within the Photos library

If your photos library is intact on the external drive try holding down the option and command keys while launching Photos and repair the database

If this does not work then you need to restore your backup from before this problem occurred (which is the reason you always have a good, current backup to protect against bad things happening)

The last resort is to start over - launch Photos while hooding down the option key and create a new library then drag the folders from the Masters folder to the Photo application in the dock to import the original photos

LN

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

207,409 points

Jul 1, 2015 10:26 AM in response to aslan2011

Another option is:

Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library

1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.>Click on the Add Library button,

2 - select the library you want to add from those in the selection window.

3 - make sure that in the rebuild window the checkbox "Scavange orphaned photos" is checked.

4 - now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option

5 - in the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed. Click on the Create button.

Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.

Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

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