Why am I getting this pop-up to delete incomplete items in Photos, and if I do so, will I lose things?

Question

Why am I getting this pop-up to delete incomplete items in Photos, and if I do so, will I lose things?

After choosing which library I want Photos to come from (my MacBook Pro has been deleted and reformatted multiple times in the past two weeks due to a faulty external HD, and I this week I used Migration Assistant to bring EVERYTHING back because the Home Folder repair/rebuild at the Apple Store last week left me missing vital information I need for work), even though I thought Photos had already been rebuilt, I got the pop-up seen above. I also got it once last week when I was at the Apple Store. If I choose Delete Incomplete Items, will I lose anything? What does it even mean? Does this mean that it started to download the complete library and then was interrupted? I thought that what I'd be opening would be coming from what had been saved on my external HD.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Jun 17, 2016 8:31 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,141 points

Jun 17, 2016 8:42 AM in response to Joanne Davis1

The warning message means, that your Photos library has been synced with iCloud Photo Library, and you used "optimize storage" . Has the library you restored been an iCloud Photos library? Because of that many or some of your photos have not been stored in full resolution in your library, but only in iCloud. photos cannot use these optimized versions, so it will delete them.

ARe your photos still in iCloud? Then enable iCloud Photo Library again, after you continue and wait for the full versions to download back from iCloud.

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Answer 2

Jun 17, 2016 8:56 AM in response to léonie

Honestly, I'm not sure anymore if it was an iCloud photos library. I just logged into my iCloud acct via the website, and some of the albums are empty. One of the (many) times I was at the Apple Store last week, we tried to save my photos to iCloud (possibly from my iPhone) to make sure that I didn't lose anything. So if I delete, will my originals be lost forever, or just non-optmized versions? If I click Quit, will I just get this pop-up again later?

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

195,141 points

Jun 17, 2016 9:54 AM in response to Joanne Davis1

So if I delete, will my originals be lost forever, or just non-optmized versions

It will delete the optimized smaller thumbnails from the library, where the full resolutions originals are missing, not any photos that are stored in full resolution in your library.

I click Quit, will I just get this pop-up again later?

Yes.

You could try to enable iCloud Photo Library for this library afterwards, to download all photos from iCloud to your current library.

It would require to have signed up for enough iCloud storage to be able to upload all photos currently in your library on your Mac to iCloud.

alternately, you could download all photos from iCloud by signing into www.icloud.com, launching the Photos.app and downloading all photos that are missing from your current library.

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Answer 4

Jun 17, 2016 12:58 PM in response to léonie

I think it makes more sense to delete the non-optimized versions. Hopefully everything will still be intact. It was the iCloud library that I noticed were missing items. I can't even see what is in my Photos library currently.

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