BadtzMaru37
Level 1 (4 points)
iLife

Q: 5 years of pictures lost in iPhoto! Help!

I lost my entire collection of pictures in iPhoto. Five years of memories, gone! I was an idiot for not backing it up, I know. I don't even know how it happened. In the last couple days I updated my macbook software and synced my new iPhone to the macbook (although it never warned me that I would lose old data during the sync--don't they usually warn you?). The iPhoto library is simply empty, like when it was first purchased.

 

How did this happen? Is it even possible to recover my pictures/videos?? Thanks.

Posted on Aug 20, 2016 10:35 PM

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BadtzMaru37

Q: 5 years of pictures lost in iPhoto! Help!

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Aug 20, 2016 11:30 PM in response to BadtzMaru37
    Level 10 (139,597 points)
    iLife
    Aug 20, 2016 11:30 PM in response to BadtzMaru37

    Go to your Pictures Folder and see how many iPhoto Libraries are there, also what size are they?

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 21, 2016 8:00 AM in response to BadtzMaru37
    Level 10 (85,697 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 21, 2016 8:00 AM in response to BadtzMaru37

    What version of the OS and of iPhoto do you have?

     

    Hold down the option key while launching iPhoto and see how many iPhoto libraries you have in the resulting select library window - test each one - the most likely situation is that you have created a new empty library and your old library is still there

     

    And you unless you have a good backup you will lose things - bad stuff does happen

     

    LN

  • by BadtzMaru37,

    BadtzMaru37 BadtzMaru37 Aug 21, 2016 9:25 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iLife
    Aug 21, 2016 9:25 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Hi, thanks for the reply! There's only one iPhoto Library, and its 7.4MB.

  • by BadtzMaru37,

    BadtzMaru37 BadtzMaru37 Aug 21, 2016 9:29 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iLife
    Aug 21, 2016 9:29 AM in response to LarryHN

    Hi Larry, thanks for the reply. OS 10.9.5, iPhoto 9.5.1. I was hoping your answer was right, but there's only one iPhoto library =/ Any other ideas?

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 21, 2016 2:22 PM in response to BadtzMaru37
    Level 10 (85,697 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 21, 2016 2:22 PM in response to BadtzMaru37

    Try

     

    1 - backup your iPhoto library and hold down the option and command keys while launching iPhoto and repair permissions hen rebuild the library

     

    if that does not work

     

    2 - download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function to rebuild the iPHoto library - this created a totally new independent library leaving the existing one untouched for any future needs.

     

    LN