All Photos total does not match Exported Photos from OSX Photos App

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All Photos total does not match Exported Photos from OSX Photos App

Dear Community,

Surely someone else has run into this problem before. I am trying to move my entire photo library to my NAS from the Photos App; however, when Exporting my entire Library from the "All Photos" section in the App I am getting a different total number of exported photos than are in the App.

I have 26,834 Photos and Videos in the Photos App; however, when I go to export, it is only exporting 23,791. What is happening to the other 3,043? I tried to solve this by creating Smart Albums for each year and exporting these but this just got even worse.

2015 Folder in the App contains 7,043 photos

After exporting the 2015 folder to a folder on my mac, the folder holds 12,934 photos.

What on earth is going on? I just want to pull the Original photos and videos out so that I can store them.

Thanks,

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Dec 13, 2016 5:05 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 26, 2017 9:23 PM in response to remigirr

I am having this same problem and came across your post while searching for a solution. I keep getting different numbers too! One time (when I used the Photo Library's "Master" folder as my source) the difference was due at least in part to Photos' metadata having a camera field of null on some photos; those photos were ignored/not exported. Definitely a bug.

When I did old-school select group within Photos (by year, say) and export, the difference was exactly my number of videos; they didn't export. But the photo number was correct, so that's something!

Now I'm doing another full Photos export to another external hard drive, and the numbers by year are different again. So now I have to deduce what the discrepancy is THIS time :/

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Answer 2

remigirr Author

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Dec 13, 2016 6:24 AM in response to remigirr

This is the 2016 folder.

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Answer 3

léonie

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Dec 13, 2016 6:29 AM in response to remigirr

Tha AllPhotos album is also showing "My Photo Stream. Do you have My pHoto Stream enabled?

When I try to export from AllPhotos, the message always is matching the number of selected photos:

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

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Dec 13, 2016 6:33 AM in response to remigirr

2015 Folder in the App contains 7,043 photos

After exporting the 2015 folder to a folder on my mac, the folder holds 12,934 photos.

This can happen, if you have been shooting RAW&JPEG pairs. Photos is showing the pairs stacked as one photos, but its will export both originals (RAW & JPEG), so the number of exported photos will be larger than shown in All Photos.

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Answer 5

remigirr Author

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Dec 13, 2016 6:37 AM in response to léonie

I did have Photo Stream enabled at one point in time but not anymore. The 'Export Unmodified Original For xxx" shows the same number as in the top right but once the export kicks-off it does not show the same number anymore (like the images above)

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Answer 6

remigirr Author

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Dec 13, 2016 6:39 AM in response to léonie

Ah right, well that might solve the more issue; however, at the moment unfortunately it seems to be less for each Smart Album sorted by year.

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

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Dec 13, 2016 7:17 AM in response to remigirr

t but once the export kicks-off it does not show the same number anymore (like the images above)

That might happen, if Photos cannot access some of the originals. Do you get an error message, once the export finishes? Usually missing originals will result in a panel with error massages about images not found.

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Answer 8

remigirr Author

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Dec 13, 2016 3:45 PM in response to léonie

That's the thing, I am not getting any errors coming up, just incorrect export numbers. But again, not on all exports - it's like it keeps changing. I have one a library repair but that did nothing.

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Answer 9

remigirr Author

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Dec 13, 2016 9:33 PM in response to remigirr

So I just tried something else - I opened iPhoto (I still had it installed but not used), created a new Library and dragged the 'Photos' Masters folder into it for import - It started importing and indicated that there were 23,6xx odd photos. Now When I CMD+A all photos in the Photos.app then it shows as 26,394 . If I unselect some the number goes down sequentially, i.e. deselect 2 then it says 26,392

So Photos.app literally thinks that there are 26,394 but I am not sure why the Photos app cant export them when I select to export 'All Photos' from the Photos.app.

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Answer 10

remigirr Author

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17 points

Dec 14, 2016 3:38 AM in response to remigirr

I have deleted some photos and have now tried exporting again. When exporting unmodified photos it is still showing approx 2k less than the Photos.app; however, if I select "Export 18,455 Items" and set everything to Max then it successfully starts exporting all the photos, the whole 18,455.

Is there going to be any difference if I export it in this manner?

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Answer 11

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Dec 14, 2016 4:37 AM in response to remigirr

TThe difference will be, that you will not be saving the original photos you imported to Photos, but your modified versions with all adjustments and cropping applied. If you later want to revert to the original version, because do not like the adjustments any longer, it will not be possible.

on the other hand, you will be saving the work you invited into adjusting the photos.

it looks like you were having more edited versions than originals. Did you perhaps edit your photos originally in Aperture with the preference setting "create new versions for edited photos"?

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Answer 12

remigirr Author

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Dec 14, 2016 5:33 AM in response to léonie

Ok, so I am not sure what is happening; however, I had determined that there are a lot of duplicates and some of them there is no information in the exif data anymore - just shows no camera information available when the exact same photo further up in the all photos list has all the data. I am not sure how this has occurred but it seems to have.

I have gone through and exported 1000 block photos at a time and when the numbers were not matching, made the blocks smaller until I found the exact row of 10. One example was, I selected 10, said export and it exported 8 of them. I then went through and exported the exact same row again, image by image and it did all 10. So there seems to be some sort of bug in the Photos.app; however, I can't determine what it is!

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Answer 13

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Dec 14, 2016 5:43 AM in response to remigirr

One example was, I selected 10, said export and it exported 8 of them. I then went through and exported the exact same row again, image by image and it did all 10

Are your photos in iCloud Photo Library?

Where is your Photos Library stored? In your Pictures folder or also on your NAS?

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Answer 14

remigirr Author

Level 1

17 points

Dec 14, 2016 5:44 AM in response to léonie

No, local machine just in Photos. I was trying to clear photos out into folders by year and store them on the NAS.

I generally download all the photos from my iPhone 2ce a year and put them into a folder to store on the NAS.

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Answer 15

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Dec 14, 2016 5:55 AM in response to remigirr

Photos has one known bug. If you export with the file naming preset "Use Title", and if the title has been erased, the photo will be exported with a filename starting with a "." and are invisible.

Which filename preset are you using? Title, Filename, or sequential?

If it is not a problem of invisible files, your Photos Library may need repairing. Make a backup copy and repair according to this Help page: https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.2/?lang=en#/pht6be18f93

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