please help me find my photos in el capitan - the screen comes up blank after update and restart - i need my photos I'm having a breakdown

Question

please help me find my photos in el capitan - the screen comes up blank after update and restart - i need my photos I'm having a breakdown

I just updated from Yosemite to El Capitan so I had already made the move from iphoto to photos. When I updated and restarted my computer w/ the new uprade, I go to open my PHOTOS, and the screen is completely white with nothing there. I am freaking out - All the forums seem to reference people upset about going from iphoto to photos, but I had already made the move. Doesn't seem to be a way to update - I am freaking out I had thousands and thousands of pictures - someone please help!!!

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 17, 2015 9:43 AM

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Answer 1

leroydouglas

Level 10

200,166 points

Nov 17, 2015 9:52 AM in response to blakefromnew york

Restart the Photo.app holding the option key down.

See if you have more than one library to choose from.

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Answer 2

Nov 17, 2015 9:55 AM in response to leroydouglas

i did that - nothing happened - I launch photos and literally nothing happens except it opens in the broswer- when I hit - show window it's just a big white square. this is complete crap

(thanks for your help i wish it had worked) - this seems really unfair

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Answer 3

Nov 17, 2015 10:02 AM in response to leroydouglas

tried after seeing the rest of your post - when I click on photos, there is no drop down -

i found under pictures - photos library from last week- and nothing is there.

i dont know what to do -

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Answer 4

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Nov 17, 2015 10:06 AM in response to blakefromnew york

Backup your Photos library and then hold down the option and command keys while launching Photos and repair your database

LN

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Answer 5

Nov 17, 2015 10:07 AM in response to LarryHN

sorry to be dumb but i dont know what you mean when you say "backup your photos library"

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Answer 6

leroydouglas

Level 10

200,166 points

Nov 17, 2015 10:09 AM in response to blakefromnew york

Yes you can try Repair Library, restart holding the option command keys

Get started with Photos for OS X - Apple Support

http://osxdaily.com/2015/04/17/move-iphoto-library-to-photos-mac/

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Answer 7

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Nov 17, 2015 10:24 AM in response to blakefromnew york

Backup - Make a copy preferably on a different disk although for this purpose that is not critical

But if you do not know what a a backup is you are 100 Guaranteed to lose everything on your computer sooner or later - computer hard files, computer software has bugs and humans make errors and when any of those occur without a good, current backup you lost things - at a minimum you should be running TimeMachine with its default settings - Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support

LN

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Answer 8

Nov 17, 2015 10:29 AM in response to LarryHN

hi larry, i appreciate it - i do recognize and understand the importance of back ups - what i was/am saying is that I dont know how to back up the library, when there is nothing there- when i open photos, there are no photos to back up.

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Answer 9

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Nov 17, 2015 10:39 AM in response to blakefromnew york

a backup does not involve opening Photos or the Photos library - it is strictly making a copy of the Photos library (which by default is in your Pictures folder) - to make a backup the library should not be opened and PHotos should not be running

Backup your Photos library and then hold down the option and command keys while launching Photos and repair your database

Backup - Make a copy preferably on a different disk although for this purpose that is not critical

LN

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Answer 10

Nov 17, 2015 10:55 AM in response to LarryHN

thank you so much for that clarification - I just began the back up - it says 22 hours but it keeps changing - so i guess it will take a while. When its complete, I will do what you said next - launch photos again while holding option/command keys - and then repair library - fingers crossed it works- thank you

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Answer 11

Nov 17, 2015 4:31 PM in response to blakefromnew york

hi- i backed it up - then did option command and open photos - still nothing happened! it didn't launch a repair database, or anything - just the same blank screen as before. Any thoughts here????!!!

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Answer 12

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Nov 17, 2015 4:40 PM in response to blakefromnew york

To confirm - you depressed the command and options keys and launched Photos keeping the command and option keys depressed until the repair library window appeared?

LN

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