Photos disappeared from some albums

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Level 1

10 points

Photos disappeared from some albums

I have many albums and folders, including one folder with 94 albums of photos for my website. When adding a photo to one of those folders yesterday, ALL the photos in ALL 94 of those albums disappeared. How can I get them back? Other unrelated photos in different folders and albums are still visible. I looked at Time Machine but only saw iPhoto. How is it possible to get photos from that backup and to have those photos sorted into the proper albums?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), iPhoto 11 (9.4.3)

Posted on Nov 29, 2015 9:49 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

207,409 points

Nov 29, 2015 9:56 AM in response to hypertyper

How is your library file named including extension and where is it located? You can see where it's located in Photos' General preference pane.

That's what you search for and restore in Time Machine, the library file. Normally it's in your Pictures folder and here's how you would restore it:

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Answer 2

hypertyper Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 29, 2015 10:07 AM in response to Old Toad

I don't see a "Pictures" folder. My iPhoto Preferences has General/Appearance/Sharing/Photo Stream/Accounts/Advanced tabs. General has options for Connecting camera opens: and Autosplit into Events: and Email photos using:

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,409 points

Nov 29, 2015 10:13 AM in response to hypertyper

The Pictures folder is in the Users/Home folder:

Is your Photos library set to be the System Photos Library?

If not then make it so. The Library Location will then visible in the General preference pane.

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Answer 4

hypertyper Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 29, 2015 10:23 AM in response to Old Toad

I can't get to a screen that matches what you're showing me. I tried iPhoto and Finder. And, once again, as I look at iPhoto it "quit unexpectedly." It's been crashing often the last week or two.

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Answer 5

hypertyper Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 29, 2015 10:36 AM in response to hypertyper

I finally found a Pictures folder and it has a few folders/albums(?) in it, but they seem to be dated in 2011 and have just a very few photos.

I just looked under my website name and found the images used in my site. These will just be the optimized images I have saved in Dreamweaver, I think, and not all the photos I'm looking for. At least it's a start…but now what do I do. I'm afraid they won't come be in their separate albums.

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

207,409 points

Nov 29, 2015 10:39 AM in response to hypertyper

Are you using the new Photos app or iPhoto? You've posted in the Photos forum. Post a screenshot of your Preference pane.

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Answer 7

Nov 29, 2015 10:39 AM in response to hypertyper

Oh, I am starting to get the impression that recent updates to OSX El Capitan. Posts in the past 10 days related to data and app storage whether on the Mac or in back up drives, as in multiple drives because just one became dangerous. I have lost 20 years worth of data because of the self destruct instructions Apple seemed to have included for iOmega and WD back up hard drives. Apple people please forgive me for pointing out the damage done by releasing updates before they are fully tested.

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

207,409 points

Nov 29, 2015 10:51 AM in response to H. Lamar Thomas

Until you tell us exactly what your setup is, what you did and how you did it your post is just a rant and we can't offer any help. We're not mind readers and can't see your Mac.

what system version are you running?
what version of Photos are you using?
what type of Mac?
how much free space on your boot drive?
where is your library located? If on an external HD how is that drive formatted and connected to the Mac?
how big is your library, i.e. how many photos?
did you apply any updates or upgrades just prior to the problem occurring?
are you running a "managed" or "referenced" library?
have you run any "cleaning" or "optimizing" apps on your Mac?
what fixes have you tried?

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Answer 9

hypertyper Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 29, 2015 10:54 AM in response to Old Toad

IPhoto 11 (9.4.3) Here's a screen shot of the Preferences:

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Answer 10

hypertyper Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 29, 2015 10:56 AM in response to hypertyper

I just now changed the email preference to Mail because sending w/iPhoto usually didn't work.

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Answer 11

hypertyper Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 29, 2015 11:10 AM in response to Old Toad

Here's a screen shot of iPhoto showing some of the folders/albums. The 94 albums under librarydogs site are the ones where the photos don't show up. Each shows just one photo in the upper right of the page, like this one of Sunny, with the (no photos) comment below.

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Answer 12

Old Toad

Level 10

207,409 points

Nov 29, 2015 12:06 PM in response to hypertyper

Do the following:

1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down to open the First Aid window. Be sure to follow the circled recommendation in the screenshot.

2 - apply Option #4, Rebuild Database.

3 - repeat with Option #2, Rebuild Thumbnails. This might take more than one attempt to get them all.

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Answer 13

hypertyper Author

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10 points

Nov 29, 2015 2:15 PM in response to H. Lamar Thomas

That sounds terrible, losing so much data.

I haven't upgraded from Mountain Lion because I use CS3 software for my website and can't afford to upgrade or subscribe to newer versions at this point.

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Answer 14

hypertyper Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 29, 2015 2:20 PM in response to Old Toad

My problem, as I mentioned earlier, is the Pictures folder I finally found seems to have only a few albums that look like they're dated from 2011. Certainly not the hundreds of photos I'm looking for, and nothing sorted the way it should be. I'm afraid this will not be a full backup of my photo library.

Do you think using First Aid and rebuilding the database will restore all my photos to their proper places, or will I wind up with more missing photos?

As I mentioned, all the photos in all the other albums do show up. It's only the 94 albums under the Library Dogs folder that have missing photos.

I appreciate your help very much.

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Answer 15

Old Toad

Level 10

207,409 points

Nov 29, 2015 2:27 PM in response to hypertyper

Give this a try (see the note in red at the end of the post):

Starting over from scratch with new library

Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:

1. Open the library package like this.

2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.

3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.

This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.

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

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