adss
Level 1 (8 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: Can't relink missing photos in Apple Photos

In both iPhotos and Aperture there were options to "Relocate Originals" and, most importantly, "Locate Referenced Files".

Question: Where are these features in Apple Photos?

Problem: I have several photos that are shown in the Missing category of Photos. I obviously need to re-point them to the actual source image files which I can see in Finder.

 

How can I achieve this? I tried to rebuild the Photo database but did not make a difference.

 

Thank you in Advance.

Adrian

ibook, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Oct 21, 2016 6:55 PM

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adss

Q: Can't relink missing photos in Apple Photos

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  • Helpful answers

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 22, 2016 2:54 AM in response to adss
    Level 10 (108,930 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 22, 2016 2:54 AM in response to adss

    You can reconnect missing referenced original files, but not missing managed originals.  Have your photos been imported as referenced images?

    • Referenced: If you try to edit a referenced image where the original file is missing, Photos will prompt you to reconnect. Click the "Find Original" button and select the missing original.
      Screen Shot 2016-10-22 at 11.46.36 GMT.png
    • Managed: It is more work to reconnect missing managed files. The only option is to find and reimport the original. Then copy and paste all metadata from the old version of the photo (titles, captions) and delete the old version.

     

    A common reason for missing managed originals are cleaning applications that modify the Photos Library directly.  Or keeping the Photos Library in a synced folder like Dropbox or on a drive with a filesystem that is not MacOS Extended (Journaled). Do you remember, when the originals started to be missing and what happened before they vanished?