Pictures missing in Photos App for Mac

Hold down the Option key and launch Photos.

Select the library you want to open and then click Choose Library. If the library you want isn’t listed, click Other Library. Navigate to the library you want, and click Open.

reference:

Updating from iPhoto to Photos for OS X - Apple Support

I also had this problem as I had migrated data from one old mac mini to a new mac mini. I thought everything was slightly okay. I noticed some photos I had taken with my phone weren't showing up. So I figured I should update the photos app.

What a problem that created.

It had appeared that all my photos from 2015-2017 had disappeared. I wasn't too choked up about 2015-2016 but 2017 contained baby pictures. That freaked me out.

Tried Time machine- didn't work

iCloud only had a few photos from late 2017 to mid 2018

Somewhere in the freaking out I noticed I has Photo Library and Photo Library 2. #2 was the one that ignored the missing years.

I renamed Photo Library 2 and all seems well.

Hi Everyone, I have been experiencing the same issue with the Photos app Store, I would be missing about 10,000 pictures and then they would appear again. This has happen a couple of times since I switched from iPhotos to Photos app, its been a few years. Over the last few days it happen again and ever since then I've tried and tried to recover my precious valuable photos but had not luck, until this morning. I HAVE RECOVERED ALL OF MY 10,000 PHOTOS! what i did was

1. open finder

2. go to pictures

3. scrolled all the way down until I found a folder labeled "A Day at the Museum" and another one labeled "Photos Library

4. I doubled clicked on the "Photos Library" and Photos app opened up and a small window pop up asking me if i wanted to switch from " a day at the museum" to "photos library". I clicked yes, although I was terrified of loosing the remaining photos, and after it made the switch and Photos app re open all of my pictures appeared. Hope this is helpful, best of luck. Let me know if it worked for you guys.

Thank you thank you thank you!!! I was on the verge of tears but you just helped me recover over 15k pictures. You are the true MVP! 🙂

I know this post is from a couple years ago, I just had same thing happen no help from Apple. Did you ever solve the problem ? I have 1,000's of pictures gone. All my kids births etc. ugh

Thank you! I’ve been pretty much crying for an hour I had years of memories lost. My last pictures with my grandad and granny. I really appreciate your help my photos are the most precious to me!

This has happened to me too and I am totally devastated I have a life in pictures on there. I have tried these instructions but there is nothing in my pictures with either of those folders, any suggestions?

I had a similar problem - suddenly my old photo albums were empty. I checked iCloud and all the photos were there. Apparently the Photos app is optimising storage space this way. How I solved it:

Go to Photos -> Preferences -> Check iCloud photo library -> Select Download originals to Mac. When connected to power, Photos started to download photos from iCloud back to the Mac. It takes a while, but slowly the pictures started to reappear.

I am using an iMac with macOS Sierra. When I open Finder, I don’t see anything that says pictures? I’d appreciate any help you could give because I too just lost 10K+ photos.

1. Press Option-Command and double-click the Photos icon in the Applications folder (or click the Photos icon in the Dock).

   The Repair Library window opens.

2. Click Repair to rebuild your photo library.

Photos for Mac: Repair your library
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Take care.

Thank you! This helped me recover/repair Photos and get all my pics back!

this seems to only work if there is still a document remaining. However, it completely delted every photo. Any clue how to get it back?