iPhoto photos deleted in OSX 10.10.3 migration

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iPhoto photos deleted in OSX 10.10.3 migration

On my computer, the upgrade to Photos worked fine, all my iPhoto photos appeared in it.

My mother's computer is another story. Upon updating to 10.10.3, she had Photos on her computer instead of iPhoto. When it's opened, it doesn't show any photos that were on her iPhoto. I've tried holding option + opening Photos, and it only shows one library on the computer, which has nothing in it and was created today. Can anyone please help, there were many important photos.

Posted on Nov 4, 2015 9:08 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,861 points

Nov 4, 2015 9:24 PM in response to edbrunetti

Where did your mother store her iPhoto Library? In the default location or perhaps on an external drive?

By default the iPhoto Library should be in her Pictures folder.

Have you checked the Pictures folder for a library? Is there an iPhoto Library.photolibrary?

The two most common reasons for an apparently empty library are,

if the library is on an external drive with an unsupported file system: If the library is on an external drive, check if the file system is MacOS Extended (Journaled). If not, move the iPhoto Library to a supported drive.
If the library has been created by a very old version of iPhoto: Which version of iPhoto created the iPhoto Library? If the iPhoto version was iPhoto 7.1.2 or older, the iPhoto library needs to be prepared for the migration to Photos by running the iPhoto Library upgrader, see: Using the iPhoto Library Upgrader tool - Apple Support

Search the Mac, if you can find any iPhoto Library at all.

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Answer 2

edbrunetti Author

Level 1

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Nov 4, 2015 9:39 PM in response to léonie

Unfortunately the only photo library I can find on the computer is the 'Photos Library', which is empty 😟

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,861 points

Nov 4, 2015 9:48 PM in response to edbrunetti

Unfortunately the only photo library I can find on the computer is the 'Photos Library', which is empty 😟

Is the size of this library as shown in the Finder small, like for an empty library or is it large, but showing no Photos?

How did your mother do the upgrade to El Capitan? Did she erase the Mac and make a clean install or install on top of the old system?

Try to find the original iPhoto library. Perhaps it has been moved or corrupted. Search with SpotLight or FindAnyFile for traces of the iPhoto Library.

Download Find Any File here: The trial is free:

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.html http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php

You can search everywhere with FindAnyFile, where Spotlight will not search.

I learned this from Old Toad , see his post here:

Re: My iPhoto Library disappeared...how do I get it back?

Download and run Find Any File to search for a file with "ThumbJPGSegment" in the file name. These are files common to all versions of iPhoto libraries.

FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages. If there's a library hiding somewhere on your hard drive FAF will find it.

If you cannot find another library, try to restore your iPhoto Library from the last backup you made.

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