Q: Lost old pictures after a Time Machine Restore
-
Apr 20, 2016 12:50 AMby léonie,half of my photos appear blurry and when I click on the blurred image, it doesn't open.
That could mean, that Photos cannot find the original image file. Do you get any error message, when you try to open the blurry image? Can you export the photos with "File > Export > Export original file"?
Are you using iCloud Photo Library? If, yes, what are your preferences?
I tried re-restoring the library from Time Machine backup which didn't help either.
Did you try a different Time Machine backup by going back in time to an earlier moment in time?
-
Apr 24, 2016 6:01 PMby LarryHN,well that is why your photos are blurry
for one of the problem photos right click on the Photos library and show package contents - do not change anything (EVER) and look in the masters folder can you find the original for that photo?
and pleaser answer
Are you using iCloud Photo Library? If, yes, what are your preferences?
Also just to verify in the photos preferences is he preference to copy imported items to Photos checked (default) or not?
LN
-
Apr 30, 2016 9:20 AMby Kotappa,Hi LN,
I already verified in the master folder and I don't find these pictures in the master folder of photos from the backups.
I do not use iCloud photo Library since my photos collection is huge. My photos preferences are to copy imported items to photos.
My biggest questions is if my Time Machine say I have a backup from certain date, why am I not getting all the data from that date?
Will Time Machine store partial backups from some dates? (if so how do I know if a backup is full or partial?)
-
Apr 30, 2016 9:32 AMby LarryHN,and to verify yo are using the TimeMachine application to restore these libraries - not the finder - is that correct?
Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support
FAQs -- http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Troubleshooting - http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
LN
-
Apr 30, 2016 9:35 AMby léonie,How did you restore from Time Machine? Did you launch Time Machine to restore the library, or drag the backup from the Time Machine drive in the Finder to restore it?
Have you run any cleaning applications before you made the backups? Some duplicate cleaners manipulate directly the library and can remove original image files as supposedly duplicates.
-
Apr 30, 2016 5:12 PMby Kotappa,Yes, I have tried both, restoring from time machine backup as well as copying photos library from finder and opening it in photos app.
i Also tried accessing the master folder of backup'ed photos library and didn't find photos which are supposed to exist in that backup.
I Haven't used any cleanup or de duplication tools.
the thumbnails exits but not actually images!
-
Sep 23, 2016 6:06 PMby Barbara Lewis,I have had a similar experience. I made the mistake of letting a highly rated mac guru in my town do a clean install of El Capitan on my older iMac trusting only the Time Machine backup disk to restore from. He had done this "hundreds of times" with no problem. I should have had another backup, I know now. Anyway, Time Machine had stopped backing up new iPhotos library originals from the middle of March 7th on. I use photos professionally and had been opening, editing and sorting those I had imported after March 7th with no problem right up until I did this clean install in August and after the TM restore, those originals were all gone (not the thumbnails, though. I lost those, too, later after trying to rebuild the iPhoto library.) Hours with senior level Apple advisors could not find these photos anywhere or explain how this happened and why TM had stopped backing up only this part of my computer. I was able to find some of my photos from other sources but lost hundreds of important photos. TM is not always reliable. I understand I was stupid not to have multiple backups but I am probably not the only one who trusted TM.
