Lost photos - no backup

I have lost most of my photos from the iphoto library. I have searched through the post to find solution, but in every post I see so far, the user has had a backup. I do not have any backup. Can I retrieve lost photos using iphoto Library Manager or anything else if I do not have backup? Is there anyway for me to retrieve the lost photos? When I look in my iPhoto Library under a certain date either all the photos are gone or only 2 or 3 are still there instead of the entire number of pictures taken on a certain day.

nbutts
welcome to the Apple user to user assistance forums
can you describe a bit more about your situation
what happened that "lost" these photos?
How do you know they are lost - do you have thumbnails in iPhoto but no full sized photos - no thumbnails but still have full sized photos
Tell us as much as you can about what happens, what you did and what you have done since discovering the problem
And now is the perfect time to begin backing up - this will happen again (all computer fail sometime and without a backup yo are in trouble)
LN

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Lost Photos

I just lost photos in iPhoto 11. I imported my photos from my Canon point and shoot camera, did some light editing, closed and reopened iPhoto, and they were gone. No trace. Also the last import is an old import. I repeated this whole scenario and the same occurred. What do I have wrong? Could it have been my original method of migrating to my new Mac Air?

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
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How can I find a group of lost photos from iPhoto?

When a recent Mac OS X update was installed on my computer which included the new Photo App, my iPhoto upgraded to this new app and was replaced by it on my desktop. In beginning to use the new Photo App, I discovered that it did not have the same editing functions as my iPhoto did. I decided then to go back to iPhoto, but when I opened up my iPhoto I realized in my album list that I had lost about a year’s worth of photos all the way back to the middle of 2013. I then decided to restore my computer to an earlier time using Time Machine so that hopefully my iPhoto would be restored with all of its photos. I went ahead and did this and had to do a rebuild of my iPhoto library to recover the lost photos. When I did this, I was not aware, that I had still lost some other photos out of albums from early September 2014. Before I was aware of this, I also erased my external hard drive and then did a backup because I kept getting messages in my computer that the computer could not do additional back up’s because there was not room on the external hard drive.
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You created a mess and there is no solution - with the actions you have taken those photos are gone unless you have access to them from some other source - they existed in two place - in your iPhoto library and on your backup drive - you have traded the backup drive and restore an earlier iPhoto library so all you have is what you have
LN

How to get back all lost photos after updating the iOS8?

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If you backed up to iCloud, you might be able to choose from more than one backup. Each backup made in iTunes on your computer usually replaces the older one, except if you use a backup to restore from. Go to iTunes/Edit/Preferences/Devices and check if there are more backups listed, which you can then use to restore.
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Hi - we have 'lost' photos in the iphoto library

Hi - we have 'lost' photos in the iphoto library & relevant albums & slideshows frm 2009-2012; they are shown as empty. Older photos (pre 2009) were backed up & are all there in the library, album and slideshows although jumbled up in the library - this totals 1239 items, when there should be 10,000. We don't really know when this occurred - although photos from August 2011 were put on the computer around Xmas time - since that period this has occurred. Also when we try to open a 'empty' slideshow, the iphoto application often automatically closes.
OS is v10.4.11, iphoto v6.0.6.
Only 3.5GB of 149GB is free on HD.
Restarting didn't help.
We have a LaCie external HD which we were going to use to do a backup and to transfer the Iphoto library across to, to then delete older photos in the main Mac HD and free up space; this is when we noticed the lost photos. We have not plugged in the external HD at all yet.
Pls help. Thanks

Hi Barry
thanks for your response.
After digging around the pictures folder on the mac HD I found all the rolls located under pictures/iphotolibrary/originals - here it appears all recent photos are present in folders by year, and can be viewed in preview as jpegs.
Before trying a rebuild of the iphoto library - and viewing various related posts- I did a drag and drop of the entire pictures folder onto a external hard drive as a back up.
I have now tried to do a rebuild with the original mac HD iphoto folder but it is still the same - only early pre 2009 photos shown.
I have tried to create a new iphoto library using the external HD - When I try to create a new iphoto library from the external HD it only shows the same as the one currently on the mac HD however if go to next level down and I select the originals folder it appears that all 16000 photos are now being imported but none of the albums and slideshows are retained.
Any further thoughts on this?
Thanks

Lost photos after iPhoto library rebuild - what happened?

After noticing that there were albums entitled Recovered photos in my iPhoto library, I deleted those albums. As expected, i got a message that i was not really deleting the originals, just getting rid of such albums. There were about 5 of those "recovered albums": one contained about 30 photos; three had zero and another had over 1000 photos. Subsequent to that, thinking of making this library totally clean, I decided to do a "libraty rebuild" using the option-command rebuild procedure of iphoto. I checked all the options presented for that procedure. To my surprise, when the process was finished I had less events, and less photos. A careful visual check of the display pane of events and photos confirmed that i had lost actual photos. I tried to reclaim those lost photos with another rebuild -- this time using iphoto library manager, but without success. What happened? Is there any way to reclaim those lost photos?
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I'm using the newest version of iPhoto: 8.1 and OS X 10.5.8 on a MacBook 2.4 Ghz - 2Gb Ram - 250 GB HD, 42 GB available. My iPhoto library has over 12000 photos

Why these things happen is always difficult to answer. My experience with iPhoto is using it since v1 on with a single library that's upgraded each new versions and migrated from G4 iMac to G5 iMac to Intel iMac and then a second Intel iMac. I load photos in, my wife does and my 12 year old does too.
And never had a problem.
The database gets corrupted when the app is interrupted when writing to it. The usual causes of this include a crash, a force quit or a lost connection to the Library on an external disk. More rarely minor disk or directory damage might be a cause.
I wondered when I read your report
Subsequent to that, thinking of making this library totally clean, I decided to do a "libraty rebuild" using the option-command rebuild procedure of iphoto. I checked all the options presented for that procedure.
The options presented for that procedure include various items that require the app to read the database file plus this one
Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
+I Wonder+ - I stress, I wonder, no more - if reading to rebuild various thumbnails from a file that is being vacuumed +while at the same time+ is being replaced by a backup is what caused the issue.
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But that's just a guess.
Regards
TD

How can I retreive lost photos on my iPad

How can I retrieve lost photos on my iPad?

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After reset ipad i lost photos i want recover photos

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Could I have lost photos when I upgraded to 9.2? I seem to be missing random photos after updating.

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IPhoto 08 "Lost Photos?" folder

I recently upgraded from:
iPhoto 05 on a G4 Mini running 10.4 (early 2005 model)
to
iPhoto 08 on a core 2 Duo MacBook running 10.5.7 (late 2008 model)
Initially iPhoto 08 would not open the 05 library until I had rebuilt it on the mini then it upgraded OK.
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Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The items are in the "Lost Photos" Event, right? I don't know if reimporting them will correct the Date issue but you could try with a test library and see what you get. Here's what I would do:
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3 - open the new library with iPhoto and drag the Lost Photos folder into it. Before you do go into the iPhoto/Events preference pane, set the Autosplit into Events menu to what you want and check the checkbox Inported item from Finder. That will create Events based on the time frame you establish and not put them all in one Event.
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1 - open your primary library, delete the Lost Photos event from your primary library, set the Event preferences like in the test library, and drag the Lost Photos folder from the Desktop into your open primary library.
2 - open your primary library, delete the Lost Photos event and use the paid version of iPLM to copy the events from the test library into your primary library. IMO iPLM is well worth its cost.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier versions) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
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How do I recover lost photos in iPhoto?

How do I recover lost photos in iPhoto? Instead of photos I have dotted borders or, in a few cases white boxes.

You could try rebuilding the database ...
Launch iPhoto while holding down the Command + Option keys.
The Photo Library First Aid window should open.
Select: Repair Database
Click: Repair
If that doesn't help, open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder
Type or copy paste the following:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPhoto.plist
Click Go then move the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file to the Trash.
Quit and relaunch iPhoto.
If that doesn't help, copy paste the following:
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto/Cache.db
Click Go then move the Cache.db file to the Trash.
Quit and relaunch iPhoto.
If you do not currently have a wawy to backup your iPhoto library, you need to do that so that you can recover your photos in the event of a hard drive problem.
Help here > Mac Basics: Time Machine
message edited by: cs

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I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.
<Edited by Host>

Texas Mac Man wrote:
iPad Photo Recovery: How to Recover Deleted Photos
http://www.iskysoft.com/iphone-data-recovery-mac/ipad-photo-recovery.html
How to Restore Lost or Deleted Files from iPad
http://www.iphone-ipad-recovery.com/recover-ipad-mini-files.html
How to Recover Deleted Files from iPad
http://www.kvisoft.com/tutorials/recover-deleted-files-from-ipad.html
iSkysoft Free iPhone Data Recovery
http://www.iskysoft.com/iphone-data-recovery/
Recover iPhone/iPad/iPod touch lost data, Free.
Free recover iPhone/iPad/iPod touch lost contacts, photos, videos, notes, call logs and more
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Thanks for this! I've found and saved the file as you explained, and I've downloaded the software, however I can't see how I upload teh file into touchcopy - can you help? I've tried right clicking on the file, open with and choose touchcopy, but it just keeps looking for my iphone. Thanks!

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Hi tupp,
Try creating a new library and following the next instructions. All images that are in the old library should end up in the new library.
Since this is iPhoto 6 it might work differently so I am not sure of the results. Make sure you do this on a duplicate library folder. You can also drag out the Data folder first before you do the import because that contains large thumbnail files which you don't need or want to import as new ones will be made.
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Close iPhoto
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Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
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Choose to create a new library
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Lost photos - no backup

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