How do I find lost iPhotos after restoring OS X?

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How do I find lost iPhotos after restoring OS X?

I attempted to install El Capitan and had to abort after having issues with it finishing. I restored Mountain Lion (10.8.5) from Time Machine and all seemed well until I found I am missing about 1,500 pictures in IPhoto '09 that I cannot seem to restore, despite using all options in Restore page of iPhoto (except for rebuilding of all thumbnails). What's odd is the pictures that are missing are between others that have been restored successfully. Do I need to wipe the hard drive and try again?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 6, 2015 4:40 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

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Oct 6, 2015 10:34 PM in response to stopper228

What's odd is the pictures that are missing are between others that have been restored successfully.

What do you see in the iPhoto Window?

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Answer 2

stopper228 Author

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Oct 7, 2015 6:00 AM in response to Yer_Man

Hi Terence,

I am seeing an outline of the thumbnail, along with a number underneath for the photo and/or movie that should be there. When I click on the thumbnail I see an exclamation point where the picture should be. I have determined that all of the missing items were from a download from my wife's iPhone 6. To further complicate things, she deleted all of the items from her Recently Deleted folder on the phone, so they aren't on there anymore to re-download. How can I check to see what I have in iCloud backup? My concern there is we only have the 5gb, and the large amount of data (1500 pictures and movies) certainly exceeded that, so I'm not even sure what would be there at this point.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

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Oct 7, 2015 7:17 AM in response to stopper228

If you're using iPhoto then there is no iCloud back up for that. If you're hoping it's there for the Phone I don't know, best to ask that one on the iPhone forum.

That ! does mean the files are missing.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

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Oct 7, 2015 10:28 AM in response to stopper228

Try the following:

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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Answer 5

stopper228 Author

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Oct 7, 2015 11:34 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thank you! I will check with that forum also then.

Steve

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Answer 6

stopper228 Author

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Oct 7, 2015 11:00 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks Old Toad, I appreciate it. One question...my iPhoto Library is 200GB. I assume I would need that much space to create a separate Library, correct? I do not have that much space on my hard drive at the moment.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

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Oct 7, 2015 11:34 AM in response to stopper228

I assume I would need that much space to create a separate Library, correct?

Yes. If you have an external HD available that's formatted OS X Extended (journaled) you can have iIPLM create the rebuild library there. If you test it and are satisfied with it you can delete your current library and copy the rebuild one to your Pictures folder on the boot drive.

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Answer 8

stopper228 Author

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Oct 7, 2015 11:36 AM in response to Old Toad

How do I know if my external HD is journaled? I have a My Book Studio 1TB external HD.

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Answer 9

Old Toad

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Oct 7, 2015 11:53 AM in response to stopper228

Control (right) - click on the EHD's icon on the Desktop and select Get Info from the contextual menu:

In the Info pane that appears will be the formatting:

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Answer 10

stopper228 Author

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Oct 7, 2015 1:25 PM in response to Old Toad

Well...I built a new Library Database and placed it in the EHD successfully. Unfortunately, I noticed right off the bat that I had about 1500+ less photos in the Default Library than my iPhoto Library, but checked through all the photos anyway to see if the lost iPhone ones were there. They were not. I can see where the missing photos are supposed to be (even showing the size of the photo). They supposedly are at: /Volumes/My Book/iPhoto Library/Originals/2015/Sep 24, 2015/IMG_6684.JPG (as one example). I put that in the finder search bar and nothing comes up however. Very frustrating to say the least. Any other thoughts? I'm close to going to an Apple Store and begging for help to find these pictures. I'm so glad I tried to "improve my performance" with the El Capitan OS and instead gained a major headache and hours spent trying to resolve it.

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Answer 11

Yer_Man

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Oct 7, 2015 1:34 PM in response to stopper228

.

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