Photo library gone!

I had lots of albums in my iphoto library yesterday. I just went to download some more photos and all of my albums are gone. The only thing in my library are the photos that I have just downloaded, can anyone help?

Open the library with the Finder
Click to view full size
and check inside the Masters (iPHoto 11) or Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) to see if your photo files are in the subfolders. DO NOT DO ANYTHING BUT LOOK !
If they are there make a temporary, backup copy (if you don't already have a backup copy) of the library and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

Similar Messages

Photo library gone during copying the file...

I bought a new Mac and wanted to import the library into my new computer. So I started to copy the file onto my external hard drive wth the idea to connect that drive to my new computer and use if from there to imported into my new iPhoto 11.
However, the copying was going to take 256 hours accoring to my G5 because the file was 25 GB big, so I cannceled it to try something else. After canceling, the copied file showed a size of 500 mb and the original file was gone! I checked everywhere, but it seems that I lost my comlete iphoto library. This is rerrible, how can a file dissapear only because I canncels a copy, (not a cut and past).
Does someone has suggestions?
André

How did you go about trying to copy the library from the G5 to the EHD? Did you just click and drag it to the EHD?
Or did you use the Move method? That is hold down the Command+Shift key and drag the file from the G5 to the EHD. This method copies the file to the destination and delete it from the source when the copy is done. If you did use the move method and cancelled the "move" when you did it might have deleted the source file and left you with just the partial file on the EHD. The "move" feature was an issue a while back as I recall.

Photo Library Question

I'm confused about the photo library. I have a folder on my drive just called Pictures and when I tell Itunes to use this folder and sync it to my iPhone I end up with another folder called Photo Library with the same pictures? And no matter what I do I can't delete those folders.
Thanks

@Kasen, Looks like everyone is having same problem.
I hope they fix this bug soon.
@Roaminggnome, this is not how "Apple handles photos".
If you load a photo to iPhoto, it will sit in the generic library.
You can then create albums, which like iTunes playlists are essentially just "shortcuts" to the original file in the library.
This bug with the iPhone album in ios 5 is different.
In iPhoto, the albums depends on what is available in the library.
In ios 5, the library depends on what is available in the album.
In ios 5:
If you create an album called "test 1" in iPhoto, and sync "test 1" to iPhone throu iTunes, you will see a "test 1" album in iPhone along with all the identicle photos in "test 1" in "photo library".
If you then create an album "test 2" on your iPhone, and copy all photos from "photo library " to "test 2", you will now have 3 folders on iPhone displaying all the same photos.
If you then go back to iTunes and uncheck the original option to sync "test 1", and resync your phone, you will end up with an empty "test 2" album on your iPhone and nothing else, photo library gone included.

I just created a new iPhoto library with holding the option key down and then opening iPhoto with version 7.1.5. I changed the name of the first library to iPhoto library 1 and now I all my photos are gone. My operating system is Mavericks.

I just created a new iPhoto library with holding the option key down and then opening iPhoto with version 7.1.5. I changed the name of the first library to iPhoto library 1 and now I all my photos are gone. My operating system is Mavericks.

launch iPhoto wile holding down the option key and select the original library - when you create a new library of course it is empty
And you seriously need to backup your iPhoto library and purchase and install iPhoto '11 version 9.5.x from the App store and download and run the iPhoto library upgraded \then run the new iPhoto - 7.1.5 is not fully compatible with Mavericks
LN
PS you also need to update your profile - it states that you have OS X 10.6.8

Original Photo Library Totally Gone!?!?!

Hello,
I seem to have "synced" a sample photo from my computer desktop to my iphone (via iTunes). In doing so, it seems that all of the original Photo Library Images (factory installed) are completely gone. It would be nice to recover these somehow? Please... anyone, help?

I have the same problem and the only three people I know that have the new iphone has the same problem also and we all want our sample photos back too. I was thinking that if you could find someone that has the origional photos in their iphone they could email them to you then you could copie them into your iphone.

Photo Library has gone

When I clicked on iPhoto, a window said my Photo Library had gone and iPhoto couldn't open. It asked if I wanted to create a library and I said yes. So now there's a library, but it's blank. The library with all my work (digital images of my paintings) is still missing. How can I get it back?
Joan

Joan:
You should have two iPhoto Library folders in your Pictures folder, "iPhoto Library" and "iPhoto Library_1". The second one will be the new one that's empty. Move it to the desktop and then launch iPhoto with the Option key depressed. It will give you an opportunity to locate a library to open. Navigate to your Pictures folder and select the original iPhoto Library folder. If is is not damaged for some reason it will open and you'll be back in business.

Gone library "which photo library do you want iPhoto to use"

my photo library is gone!! and this message appear when trying to open iPhoto " which photo library do you want iPhoto to use" i have triend holding the option key and command key but leads me to the same message, Can anyone help please? i'm desperate

Does the file "iPhoto Library" simply no longer exist in your Pictures folder? You may have somehow erased it or put it in another location. Use Spotlight to search for "iPhoto Library" and see if you can find the file - the file will contain your "Masters" or "Originals" directory.
Good luck,
Clinton

All photos gone after I activeted Icloud Photo Library

Once I activated iCloud Photo Library all my photos that used to be in the photos shared folder simply disappeared from my iPhone and do not appear in iCloud. I missed all those pictures? It is possible that iCloud is still carrying all since I had over 1000 photos?

I have this same issue. Very frustrating. Made a similar post an no answers yet.

How do i delete my photo library from my iphone 4?

My computer downloaded my entire photo library to my iPhone 4s & I'm almost out of storage space. As far as I can tell, there is no way to delete the photo library from the phone itself; I have tried.
I have gone into iTunes library to delete it from there, but I don't have a "photo" option. I clicked on all of the other choices on the tab in the upper left-hand corner: Music, Movies, TV Shows, Books, Apps, & Tones. None of these options have anything related to photos or photo libraries.
I have cleared my "My Pictures" folder on my PC and re-synched the phone; that didn't work either. I've gone through everything under the "Settings" tab on the phone itself, but to no avail.
I'm almost to the point where I just want to take my phone to the wireless provider and have them wipe everything out and reset the phone back to its original settings, but I'm thinking there's GOT to be an easier way to solve this problem. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance...

As far as I can tell, there is no way to delete the photo library from the phone itself; I have tried.
Yes there is and if you are unable to via the iTunes sync process, there is a problem.
I have gone into iTunes library to delete it from there, but I don't have a "photo" option.
Photos transferred from your computer via the iTunes sync/transfer process are not stored in your iTunes library. iTunes serves as the transfer conduit only between the location on your computer's hard drive where the selected photos are stored and your iPhone.
This is selected under the Photos tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes. If all photos that were transferred from your computer to your iPhone are not removed from the iPhone after deselecting Sync Photos under the Photos tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes followed by a sync, try creating a new folder on your computer's hard drive that will remain empty. Select this empty folder under the Photos tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes instead of your My Pictures folder followed by a sync.
I'm almost to the point where I just want to take my phone to the wireless provider and have them wipe everything out and reset the phone back to its original settings,
You don't need to take the iPhone anywhere to do this ends up being needed. You can erase all data and settings direct on the iPhone at Settings > General > Reset which will erase everything but the iOS version installed and the included apps, or you can restore the iPhone with iTunes on your computer as a new iPhone or not from the backup.

IPhoto library Gone! (replaced in just one click w/o ever dragging 2 Trash)

iPhoto library gone / replaced in just one click (w/ o ever dragging anything to the trash)!
I currently own multiple PowerMacs all sharing the same high speed local network. All of them run the latest / Mac OS X.4.9 and have multiple HD’s (both internal and external) as well as iLife’ 06. And all of them also have iChatAV3 and are able to video chat one with the other at will while on the same local high speed network.
This is my very first iPhoto library nightmare since I’ve owned a mac. and yes I’ve always been conditioned to backup everything one wishes to keep. This particular scenario is no different. (altho my back up HD for one of the three G4 computers involved was a bit dated by at least 6 months).
This was essentially triggered via two separate iLife ‘06 apps , namely iPhoto and iChatAV3 (combined with at least an ounce of stupidity on my part). That combined with 2 people not communicating properly / being on the same page (or rather the same Folder) when working on the very same task. Hey... I do NOT claim to be an expert at this particular application even though I have used macs since apple first introduced the Apple IIe decades ago. So this does not stem from lack of experience but rather not thinking things thru entirely in terms of all the possible consequences of simple, yet catastrophic actions when it comes to replacing or authenticating one particular folder containing the entire iPhoto Library simply titled “pictures”.
Starts like this, ichatav is open on 2 of three macs and my teenage daughter asks me to send her a roll of pictures she downloaded into my computer (since it’s twice as fast as her own) from her digital still camera. Now she wants all 12 photos on her computer as well. So I drag all 12 photos to my desktop and place them in a folder titled “Jackies pics”. I drag this folder to her icon on my buddy list and ichat AV simply refuses to allow sending the entire folder and ask me to send them one at a time. That should have been my first clue. Strange I thought. Always worked well in the past. Why not now? So I tell her over ichatav that the app simply won’t allow me to send her the entire folder and that I’ll have to send them one at a time. Please make a new folder on your HD called Jackie’s pics. She agrees and creates a folder on her end called .... (you guessed it) ...... “pictures”...... to which she drags each of the 12 images I sent over our local network.
Little did she realize this newly created folder has the makings of an atomic bomb when it comes to importing the entire folder into iPhoto’s library on her own mac. A dialog box quickly materializes asking that she “authenticate” or hit cancel. So she ask me what to do. I said that’s fine, hit authenticate (assuming she titled it Jackies pics). BIG mistake! She hits authenticate and now she has the 12 images I sent her in iPhoto....BUT .... the 1600 or so originals in the entire iPhoto library quickly vanishes. Her entire iphoto library is now wiped out or rather replaced with this new folder. She asks me, what happened? And in less than 30 seconds she in complete tears. Over 2-3 years of her photos (all 1600 images) gone in the click of a mouse.
Today is father’s day .... and I remembered that I have a complete backup of her HD (even though it is a bit dated). So together, we managed to recover about 90% of the lost images. If anyone reading this knows how I can possibly recover the final 10% (most current photos) then please help us.
Bottom line: We were fortunate. This Father’s Day iPhoto Nightmare ended happily....
TIA
(3) G4 PM's/(3) S-Drives/Sony TRV900/Nikons/6FWHD's/PS7/iLife06/FCPHD/DVDSP/etc. Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Just another update .... Today, my daughter was multitasking on her G4 powermac working within iPhoto as well as email account and last but not least the latest iTunes. As she opened this final app (and I mean "final").... her entire hard drive bit the dust after she saw the spinning beachball and hence attempted to force quit. (I should also point out we are having a heat wave in San Diego today ...which also may have contributed to this hardware issue mainly).
This time, I had a complete updated copy of her HD and simply cloned it to a new hard drive. Took me a few hours to troubleshoot, clone and install a new drive in its place. But all is working normally again (sure hope it stays that way this time).
Friendly reminder to those who read this post .....
BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP .... ESPECIALLY IN IPHOTO & ITUNES!

"An error occurred while trying to save your photo library..."

Installed iPhoto6.
Started app. It said it would take a few seconds or minutes to upgrade.
About 6 hours later after churning on thumbnails it is now claiming this error over and over with some time that goes by in between:
"An error occurred while trying to save your photo library."
"Some recent changes may be lost. Make sure your hard disk has enough space and that iPhoto is able to access the iPhoto Library folder."
It says I have 22,759 photos in Library. The Library was a subset of my images, named "iPhoto Library 2005" and it was intentionally kept below the 25,000 limit of iPhoto5.
Since Steve claims iPhoto6 can easily handle 250,000 photos, I clicked on the upgrade button with confidence. This now appears to be a mistake. Last night I was working on an iDVD for the local school and the majority of that work has simply vanished. There were 320 photos. I spent hours adding keywords, ranking, adjusting temperature, focus, exposure, etc.
Of the 320, only 16 photos survived. They are 16 in a row from the middle of the roll near the end but not at the end. The roll name was lost. The name is now just "Roll 226" and none of the photos have keywords. I know at least one of the 16 should have the keyword "DUPE" and the ranking 2 STARS since it precedes a double that I ranked 2 during a slideshow, sorted by ranking, and dragged to the DUPE keyword. All 16 should have the ACROCK keyword which I initially assigned to all photos.
Again, 304 of 320 have vanished and the 16 that remain have no keywords or rankings.
I watched the slide show in iPhoto5 three times with different music candidates so I know the keywording and rankings evaporated in iPhoto6. I also clicked ACROCK and option clicked DUPE and POOR so that all of the music program photos except dupes and poor images would vanish. I only deleted one photo so there were not a lot of changes to the library in terms of photos in it. I cannot think of any reason why the 16 chosen survived. Only two were placed in a DVD dropzone and they are scattered amongst the 16 survivors.
Also, the ACROCK and DUPE keywords are also gone while the POOR keyword added in August is in the keyword table just fine.
I exported these 320 photos last night to iDVD and tried almost all of the different themes and I dragged about 10 different photos to the dropzones, hit play, hit motion, etc.
It seems very strange that 16 photos from the middle of the pack would survive.
It seems extra odd that iPhoto5 and iDVD treated these as "established" photos, not photos hanging in the wings somewhere ready to vanish in an upgrade.
I gracefully saved and quit iDVD and iPhoto5 and there were no crashes and nothing strange happened while making the DVD. I was hoping today to try out the new themes and maybe find one that is just right for the kids. Instead, about 300 of 320 photos of the kids went bye-bye along with all the work on the photos!
I'm nervous that many more photos are missing but I will need to do a ton of checking to see what else has been deleted by the upgrade.
The user message that iPhoto6 presents is nearly useless and strange. It offers little if anything to go on in terms of a repair procedure. After saying an error has occurred, it says some recent changes could be lost but doesn't expand at all on what they may be or why.
From my experience, recently added photos, keywords, keyword assignments, rankings and maybe more can all be lost. To compound matters, before the upgrade it says that you cannot go back to the prior (working!) library in iPhoto5. Beware!
It finishes by suggesting two vague steps to take. The first is to make sure your disk has "enough" space. How much is "enough"? It doesn't say something like X GB available, Y GB needed. A user would have no clue about how much space to free up. I have over 17 GB and assumed that would be enough. I sure hope it doesn't require double the space of the existing library. I would hope it has a smarter algorithm than that since 23,000 photos at about 3 MB each maps to about 70 GB. That's a lot of "temporary" space to require to perform an upgrade. Since the upgrade/error message provide no details (unlike package installers which supposedly tell you how much space you need), users like me would have no clue if 70 GB is plenty or not enough.
I found 24 GB secretly used by iPhoto 5 for an iPod Photo Cache and a tech bulletin saying this just grows and grows without control and it can be deleted SO I wouldn't put huge hidden disk usage past iPhoto6.
The last none-to-helpful suggestion is that a user make sure that iPhoto is able to access the iPhoto Library folder. Huh?!??!?
Wouldn't this be a great thing to confirm via software before setting about on 6+ hours of work, especially if there is an error message hard-coded in the software confirming that Apple knows the result may be losing valuable customer photos and hours of work on enhancing, keywording, creating DVDs, etc.?
Of course. This appears negligent. To know that customer file loss will likely result but not checking these things out in advance before taking that risk seems like putting the cart before the horse at customers' expense & pain and certain loss of irreplaceable family photos (for the, say, 80%+ of iPhoto users that "plan" to get a backup routine established?).
I got burned in the iPhoto5 upgrade as well, losing photos, so I was sure to have a backup so it wouldn't happen again. Most I fear won't be so fortunate so be advised of the risk and work with copies of your photos only.
Also, why would iPhoto5 have all the permissions it needs to store, edit, tag and otherwise work with 320 photos added last night? Why would version 5 have plenty of permissions to use the folders and the photos in them. Why would iPhoto 6 suddenly lose those permissions or not have enough? This hardly makes any sense. The only way the permissions were set, the iPhoto libraries got created and the albums got created was by dragging a folder of images onto the albums pane in iPhoto5. So, iPhoto5 set all the permissions, everything is under one user account and there should be no surprise permissions for iPhoto6 to deal with.
It seems unbelievable that iPhoto 6 couldn't do what iPhoto 5 was doing. I never changed permissions and never touched files in the iPhoto 5 structure.
I can only guess that recently added keywords, recently added photos and recently added rankings and keyword taggings linger in some at-risk staging area that a version 6 upgrade doesn't know how to deal with. This seems like a lame way to code this app so I don't consider this a good guess but what else could it be?
Anyone else have a better hunch at a root cause?
Anyone else have an idea of a cure?
Anyone else run into this?
It sure doesn't look like there was a test case for having near 25,000 photos (an iPhoto 5 documented requirement), working with the latest roll and then doing a version 6 upgrade because it failed miserably--user data loss--without any special effort to find defects. In a former life I tested software and released software was much more difficult to break than this.
I would appreciate any other user experiences/solutions related to this problem. I am reluctant to import another 22,000 photos from iPhoto Library 2004 only to find more photos go poof without any rhyme or reason.
Thanks in advance for your help and I hope this alerts others to a potential for valuable photo loss (i.e., back up before you upgrade, verify iPhoto Library permissions--whatever that means--and have scads of disk space available assuming there's any truth to the error message!).
--Sam
G5 Dual 2.7 GHz 2 GB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I'll check if I have copies of copies of copies. This could take a while due to the number of files.
I picked up a brand new 300 GB Western Digital hard drive thinking 20GB or so was not enough for temp files for upgrading and/or importing.
I formatted it as a mac os extended, journaled drive, not case sensitive, one full-size partition. I started iPhoto6 with the option key. I had a CF in my other WD 300 GB (with media reader). iPhoto6 asked about the photos on the card. I told it not to download those (again). Because I was holding the option key down, iPhoto6 asked if I wanted to select a different library or create one. I created one on the brand new, 100% empty 300 GB drive. I'm not sure if/where iPhoto6 creates temporary/cache files (like iPhoto iPod Cache folder) as it sets up a new library. I was hoping the empty 300 GB drive would give it ample room to load an existing iPhoto5 library.
When I dragged an old iPhoto5 Library onto the new iPhoto6 Library Album pane. I saw the "Importing..." start and it went on and on and on and... I let it run for HOURS and HOURS. When I checked around midnight, it had crashed. When I started it again, it said it had run across some huge number of stray photos.
I have no idea why iPhoto6 would have trouble importing an iPhoto5 library that was below the 25,000 photo mark for 5. This is especially bizarre since iPhoto6 claims it supports 250,000 photos!
I'll be trying to figure out if these stray photos got imported as dupes, if they lost iPhoto5 keywords, etc. I fear something different but equally bad happened since the number of photos it came up with was like 79,000--again many stray photos that didn't make it into the first import for no known reason. Since libraries in iPhoto5 were around 25,000 or less, I'm not sure what's happening.
Maybe there's a cache or temp file still created on Macintosh HD and not on the empty new 300GB drive and a bug exists for imports when space on Mac HD is "low" (i.e., under 3.5 GB). Maybe it's seeing thumbs as files it should import? Maybe it's seeing Orig and Modified images as worthy of reimporting?
I had told it not to import dupes but who knows if it goes by file name, checksum, byte-for-byte comparison, etc.
I'm not sure if I can even pull up iPhoto5 and 6 at the same time now to scroll through the libraries to see if dupes, thumbs, original/modifies/etc. are showing up to boost the count from under 25K to 79K!
Ideas? At least I know I'm not the only G5 dual user with this problem!
--Sam
G5 Dual 2.7 GHz 2 GB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.4)
G5 Dual 2.7 GHz 2 GB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I try to open iphoto and it comes up with You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto. I have downloaded photo manager and it's telling me to update but it wont update...

I try to open iphoto and it comes up with You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto. I have downloaded photo manager and it's telling me to update but it wont update...

iPhoto is Apple's included program to manage your photo's and pictures.
It receives updates over time with Software updates and new machine or iLife purchases.
When iPhoto gets updated or a newer version is used, it may alter iPhoto support files, but newer iPhoto versions usually always compatible with older files which it then updates.
If you used a newer iPhoto on your iPhoto support files, then they got altered to the newer format, older iPhoto versions can't read the older format.
Somewhere along the line you somehow got a older version of iPhoto on your computer, you need to fine the newer version of iPhoto (not this photo manager, sounds like another program)
Or somewhere along the line you used a newer iPhoto version (like on another Mac) and it altered the iPhoto support files on your older version of iPhoto.
So the key here is to find the newest version of iPhoto and use that to access your iPhoto support files.
If you didn't access your iPhoto support files from another Mac, then you should have the newer iPhoto version on your computer.
Once you find it, and get it in the Dock, you should remove the older iPhoto version from your computer to prevent this from happening again.
Lastly, if the newer version of iPhoto is somehow gone off your computer, you should be able to get a copy off the latest OS X install disk or iLife using a free program called Pacifist.
http://www.charlessoft.com/
Then you need to check for updates for iPhoto in the program itself, the current version is 9.1.2

ICloud Photo Library & Family Sharing

Hi there,
is there a way to share the "iCloud Photo Library" with Family Sharing ?
Since iOS 8 do not allow to use "Share my location" on multiple devices a.k.a. "Find my Friends" (Me & my wife use one iOs account) I have to use two accounts with Family Sharing. But now the "My Photostream" is gone on my wife's device as expected.... So can I have this with "iCloud Photo Library" ?
For me it makes no sense that I have all photos and my wife don't...
Sven

Each family member has their own Apple ID, but uses the main one for purchases. It seems to make sense that each AppleID could have its own Photos library, but I can't find anything in the support area that says this to be the case definitively. I want each family member to have their own Photos library that syncs between their iPhone and their ID. I hope that's how it works.

How can i remove my Photo Library ? i have two folders inside Photos which are Photo Library and Camera Roll, i can't remember how Photo Library got there but i wanna remove that folder and the photos inside + i really messed up

someone told me to try iFunbox and delete thumbs file from filesystem so i did and now i have the same pics but only thumbnails when i click on one of them its black screen.
mow after restarting my phone and syncing all photos and videos from camera roll are gone i think i messed up so bad and photo library folder looks so messy like a long black screen
can someone tell me what to do ? i don't wanna restore and lose all my apps/games
thank you

You cannot remove photo library.
It will always be there. This is where all photos synced to iphone reside.
Have you tried a reset?
If that fails, then you will likely need to restore.

How do I get rid of iCloud photo library beta?

the iCloud photo library beta seemed like a good idea - but it deleted all of the photo that had been automatically shared from my iPhone. Basically doing exactly he opposite of what I understood it to do. So I want it gone.

I came on this site for a similar reason. Where did my pictures go that I saw in my photo library prior to upgrading to this iCloud beta crap?

Photo library gone!

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