Redlava
Level 1 (9 points)
iLife

Q: How can I recover photos lost in Photos conversion?

Had an iPhoto library of >90k photos and around 200 albums. Bought a new iMac with El Capitan and converted library to Photos. Post conversion, most of the albums displayed blank place holders, some with title data, but most without. Backed up and did repair (command option, open Photos). Post rebuild, it is now only displaying 8k photos with about 10 albums. See no pattern to what is retained and what was lost, although older DSLR photos seem to be most of what has gone missing. Any assistance would be appreciated.

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 24, 2016 11:05 PM

Close
Redlava

Q: How can I recover photos lost in Photos conversion?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 25, 2016 5:52 AM in response to Redlava
    Level 10 (85,697 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 25, 2016 5:52 AM in response to Redlava

    first thing I would do is migrate the original library again - restore your backup of it and drag the restored backup to the Photos icon in teh Dock to migrate

     

    LN

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Sep 25, 2016 9:24 AM in response to Redlava
    Level 10 (141,805 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 25, 2016 9:24 AM in response to Redlava

    Was the iPhoto library a "managed" or "referenced" library?

    Where was the iPhoto library located and how was the volume formatted?

     

    Are you able to still run iPhoto?  If so restore your last backup of the iPhoto library before the migration and run the following iPhoto First Aid procedures on it:  Repair Permissions and Rebuild Database.  Then migrate again to Photos.

    OTsig.png

  • by Redlava,

    Redlava Redlava Sep 25, 2016 5:14 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iLife
    Sep 25, 2016 5:14 PM in response to Old Toad

    Not sure how to know if it was managed or referenced. It was just an iPhoto library located in the Pictures folder on my Mac OS Extended (Journaled) drive.

     

    Do you have links to the Repair Permissions and Migration steps so I can ensure I can follow step by step?

     

    Thank you.

  • by Old Toad,Helpful

    Old Toad Old Toad Oct 10, 2016 6:08 AM in response to Redlava
    Level 10 (141,805 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 10, 2016 6:08 AM in response to Redlava

    The iPhoto's Advanced preference pane:

    iP11advprefs.png

  • by Redlava,

    Redlava Redlava Oct 10, 2016 6:14 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iLife
    Oct 10, 2016 6:14 AM in response to Old Toad

    Looks like it was a managed library. Should I take different steps based on that info?

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Oct 10, 2016 10:19 AM in response to Redlava
    Level 10 (141,805 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 10, 2016 10:19 AM in response to Redlava
    Should I take different steps based on that info

    No.  A managed library is what it should be.  It's the most reliable and stable type of library.