Q: How can I restore missing Faces tiles in Photos app?
Product info:
Storage capacity = 1TB
App info: Photos Version 1.3 (350.23.0), Photos library file is just over 300GB
Issue: I use the application CleanMyMac to keep my Mac in shape. Recently, they came out with an update that suggested I delete "unnecessary" data from the Photos app to save space. They promised that there was no harm in deleting this data. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Now when I go into the Faces album on my Photos app, many of the Face tiles are just gray circles. When I click to open the photo, it opens, but the Faces album is pretty useless if I can't see previews of the photos. Is there any way to restore the data that allows me to see the Faces tiles in a preview? Here is a photo of what my screen looks like with the grayed out tiles:
I have tried the "Repair Library" option when starting the Photos app, but it didn't seem to do anything. I also tried some other troubleshooting that took me deeper and deeper into a hole that caused me to have to restore my library from a Time Machine backup point. Thankfully I didn't lose any photos, but I'm back to square one with the Faces tiles issue. Any suggestions are appreciated!
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)
Posted on Feb 19, 2016 10:57 PM
There is no way to restore the faces by repairing the library.
The faces thumbnails will only be created, when you import photos. You cannot force Photos to repeat this step. Only reimporting the photo will help.
But the missing faces are only one symptom of the real damage CleanMyMac has done. It deleted the original versions of your photos and replaced them by the edited versions, Your photos lost quality, you can no longer revert to the original version of a photo, and if you had several edited versions of the same photo, they will be incorrectly linked. Your projects - books, calendars may now have missing photos. Don't even try to repair this damage. It cannot be done, because important files have been lost. Restore from your backup as Larry advised.
There are no useless copies in your Photos Library as CleanMyMac is suggesting. CleanMyMac is destroying your precious originals and only keeping the smaller, less quality edited versions creating for sharing. http://macpaw.com/cleanmymac
It’s not your photos that are wasting space, it’s the hidden copies in your Photos library. You see, anytime you edit or rotate a photo, Photos creates a duplicate of the original and hide it for safe keeping. This means gigabytes of useless copies. CleanMyMac 3 cleans out all of them without harming any of your photos.
Posted on Feb 19, 2016 11:22 PM

