lost photos after upgrading to El capitan

Question

Level 1

1 points

lost photos after upgrading to El capitan

HELP,

i have lost priceless photos of a lost loved one after updating my old OS to El Capitan.

i am trying now relaunch photos holding down the option button and selecting another photo library to see if that will bring my photos back.

i was using an old OS and when my iphone 5s was stollen over the weekend i bought a iphone 6 when i plugged the new phone in to put all my previous setting and data on it said that i must update my operating system to sync this phone.

i was hesitant to update the system but did it anyway.

then when it opened the only photos that have remained on the computer are ones that were taken with my iphone or pics that were from the internet or social networks.

i have lost all my albums of photos taken with a canon ios camera.

these photos are not in time machine either.

how can the computer just delete photos on its own... how does it choose what to keep and what to delete.

Please help... i refuse to give up and accept that the computer can just delete photos and videos.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Dec 12, 2015 4:06 AM

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Answer 1

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Dec 12, 2015 4:14 AM in response to sjnadinic

Have a look in your Pictures folder and see if there is an iPhoto library.

What OS did you upgrade from.

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Answer 2

sjnadinic Author

Level 1

1 points

Dec 12, 2015 4:21 AM in response to Eau Rouge

there is not even a pictures folder. that has also gone.

i dont remember which was the OS i uodated from but it was old.

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Answer 3

sjnadinic Author

Level 1

1 points

Dec 12, 2015 4:25 AM in response to Eau Rouge

i think it was 10.6.something....

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Answer 4

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Dec 12, 2015 4:53 AM in response to sjnadinic

So going from 10.6.8 to 10.11.2 is a huge leap.

so are you sure there is no Pictures folder it is standard mac folder configuration

this is the path

Macintosh HD/ Users/Users Home Folder/Pictures, this is the default location for any iPhoto/Photos library

Were you using iPhoto for your images prior to the upgrade or did you store your images elsewhere.

And how did you do the upgrade

And no backup! Yikes

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Answer 5

sjnadinic Author

Level 1

1 points

Dec 12, 2015 4:57 AM in response to Eau Rouge

i have found the picture folder. but it has only the iphoto library that contain the photos that photos is showing. it doesnt contain my old iphoto library conplete with all the lost albums. seems like it just deleted them .

i am on the phone now with a apple tech person but they dont have any idea.

i just cant believe it.

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Answer 6

sjnadinic Author

Level 1

1 points

Dec 12, 2015 5:05 AM in response to sjnadinic

i have always used iphoto without any problems. i never wanted to upgrade because i was always worried that this sort of thing would happen.

but unfortunatly my phone was stolen over the weekend and in order to sync my new phone with the computer i was told i must upgrade to the new OS.

when i was using iphoto previously i have taken a small selection of my photos of my lost loved one and out them in a folder. these photos were taken before i even owned an iphone. these photos which i put in the folder have remained but the albums in iphoto/photos which these photos came from have disappeared.

It seems that iphoto/photos has only saved the photos i have taken with my iphone or that i have shared or recieved on the internet/phone (instagram,facebook, whatsapp etc) but all the original .IMG files that i was storing in iphoto have gone.

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Answer 7

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Dec 12, 2015 5:13 AM in response to sjnadinic

Try this

go to your iPhoto library and press the control key whilst clicking on the iPhoto libray

you should get a drop down menu, click show package contents, from there go to masters folder

all your original images are in there unfortunately in a labyrinth of folders but might be worth hunting around.

you may want to download this iPhoto Library Upgrader 1.1 not sure if it will be of any use

but you could try.

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Answer 8

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Dec 12, 2015 5:20 AM in response to sjnadinic

have you tried a Spotlight search, make sure Images is selected in System Preferences>Spotlight>Search Results.

if you remember the name of a particular file and its extension.

or you could just enter .jpg or the relevant file extension.

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Answer 9

Lexo408

Level 1

0 points

Dec 19, 2015 11:01 PM in response to sjnadinic

This is irritating can somebody please tell me step by step how to get my pics back I had the stock firmware from 2 years ago on my Mac book whatever that was called..and decided to upgrade to El Capitan and lost all my pics so how can I get them back I don't have Iphotos cuz it was replaced by photos I don't need a story on why they were lost just a simple step by step explanation on how to get them back

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Answer 10

Apr 4, 2016 1:02 PM in response to sjnadinic

Did you manage to resolve this? I'm having the exact same problem.

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Answer 11

Old Toad

Level 10

215,784 points

Apr 4, 2016 1:10 PM in response to sjnadinic

First download and apply the OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 Combo Update. It brings some bug fixes and new features to both the system and Photos.

When that's done launch Photos with the Option key held down and see if there is more than one library listed in the Open window. If there is the other library may contain your other photos.

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Answer 12

Apr 4, 2016 1:56 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks, I will try the upgrade although looking at the list it doesn't seem to cover this. I just can't understand where they can all have gone. It's basically all the photos from the Canon camera, the ones from the iPhotos are there. Could the application I viewed them in have been wiped away with the upgrade? Not sure if it was image browser. I've looked in every file, every library but nothing there. Thanks for your help with this.

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