Some photos missing since Time Machine restore...

Hi All,
I have been looking through the forum to find an answer to this, but I haven't seen anyone else with this exact problem.
2009 iMac, Snow Leopard
I had to erase my drive and do a clean install. That went well, and I used Time Machine, and Migration assistant to bring all of my users, docs and media back in.
When I open iPhoto some of the thumbnails in the events browser are missing. Just a gray box. If I double click the Event, a window opens and I can see the thumbnails of the photos in that event. If I click on one of the thumbnails, I get the white exclamation point.
It get's weirder...
All the photos that are missing seem to be ones taken with our iPhones. Not every photo from the iPhones is missing however, only some, mostly recent, but a couple of 2008 events too, just to further confuse things . All the photos we imported from our regular camera are all still there.
It gets weirder...
When I first open iPhoto, if I quickly scroll down in the events browser to the area of missing thumbnails, I can see all of the thumbnails for a brief moment, then they disappear. This doesn't happen every time, only occasionally.
If I hover over the gray event boxes, the pop up still tells me the date and number of photos in the event. Those numbers match the number of thumbs in the event when I double click, but I just can't open the photo.
I have tried rebuilding the thumbnails and searching for orphaned photos.
I have not tried rebuilding from the auto backup, because I recently restored the whole system and didn't know if I still had a "good" auto back-up and didn't want to inadvertently screw things up further...
I am really at a loss here and would appreciate any suggestions...
Thanks in advance!

The exclamation point is an indication that the library has lost the link to the original file. Run the three fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select options #4,5 and 6.
Fix #2
Rebuild the library using iPhoto Library Manager as follows:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 -Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 -Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your User/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - 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
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: It may take some time to create the new library if you have a lot of photos.
Fix #3
Start over with a new library and import the Originals folder from your original library as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
1. Move the existing library folder to the desktop.
2. Open the library package like this.
3. Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4. Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.
This will create a new library with the same Events as the original library if you have the Finder checkbox unchecked in the Events preference pane.

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ALL Photos missing after Time Machine restore (help)

So, I accidently formated the wrong drive while in Windows, (big oops) which gave me the opportunity to take Time Machine for a test drive.
I put the DVD in, and was able to restore from the TIme Machine drive. Very impressed! Everything came back just as I had left it except - whats this? The default Leopard wallpaper instead of a picture of my son? Huh strange, I thought. Until I noticed I had no photos in iPhoto.
There seems to be reminents of photos in the iphoto database - the size is 1.3gb instead of the 7gb it used to be. But 0 photos in iPhoto 08.
I went into iPhoto and choose File/Browse Backups. I selected Nov 8th, which was the last day of my backup and showed all 7000+ photos, and clicked "Restore All". This brought up something odd - a 2nd iPhoto icon in the dock, which showed a progress bar for the restore. Once the restore was completed, I still had a 2nd iPhoto icon the the bar, which was iPhoto running - but no photos in iphoto! I exited the 2nd iphoto, which disappeared, and launched my normal Iphoto icon. Still no photos! (That just seems odd that it would launch iPhoto with a 2nd icon)
So, I moved my iphoto database, and launch iPhoto in order to create a fresh database - thinking maybe that was the issue. I then did File/Restore again, and went through the whole processes again, including the odd 2nd icon. Still, no photos! And another 1.3gb iphoto database!
Is it normal for a Time Machine restore to not include your photos? Surely you are not supposed to restore them separately from within Iphoto?
What do I do now? At this point, everything went very well - except no photos! Which is awful and not at all expected! 7000+ family photos! At least, if I ask iPhoto/Time Machine to restore 'all photos' you would think it would restore 'all photos' - not show a progress bar, and then show me no photos!
p.s. I just tooked at the iPhoto Library. The 1.3gb is in /Data/ which contains folders 2000-2007, my Events, and thumbnails of all the photos - but no actual photos (the 'Originals' folder is missing).
I then went back in time, and found the 8gb iPhoto Library database. I supposed I could copy it over manually via Time Machine, and not iPhoto's Restore/TM - but - i'm so far off track of how this should have went I don't know what to think!
p.s.s. So I did just that - copied the 8gb iPhoto Library manually from TM, and pasted it in place. I help down option, and launch iPhoto, selecting the 8gb library - and BOOM... no photos!
Something is #$%# up here.
Message was edited by: metzen79

This is what it says in the help file:
Reverting to a previous Mac OS X version
If you’ve used Time Machine to back up your computer, you can easily revert to a previous version of Mac OS X if you’re experiencing trouble after installing an update.
IMPORTANT: Reverting to the previous version of Mac OS X will erase any additions or changes you’ve made to the files on your computer after installing the new version of Mac OS X. To save new or revised files, copy them onto a different disk or back them up using Time Machine before you follow these instructions. Use Time Machine only if you’re reverting to a previous version of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), since Time Machine is not available with Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier.
To revert to a previous version of Mac OS X:
Insert the disc you used to install the new version of Mac OS X, and double-click the Install Mac OS X icon.
In the Installer, choose Utilities > Restore System From Backup.
In the Restore Your System dialog, click Continue.
Select your Time Machine backup volume.
Select the Time Machine backup you want to restore. To restore your computer to the state it was in before you installed a new version of Mac OS X, choose the most recent backup.
Follow the onscreen instructions.
If you backed up any individual files as described under the Important message above, you can restore them now. If you backed them up using Time Machine, recover them using the Time Machine application. (You’ll find the Time Machine application in the Dock or in the Applications folder.)
Hope this helps
Denisimo

Cannot view photos after a Time Machine restore.

Hello,
I am running iPhoto 09 version 8.1.2. I attempted to install the SL 10.6.3 update on 3/31 and all of my CIFS shares become slow and unresponsive to the point they were not useable. I chose to do a full Time Machine restore from the TM backup I had initiated just prior to the 10.6.3 upgrade. Now the last 40 pictures I imported on 3/28 appear in the events but when i click on them I get the screen. I selected the iPhoto Library and exposed the contents of the package and the none of the pictures are in the originals directory. Why are the thumbnails still present but the photos are missing? i thought about performing a library rebuild, but it does not make sense if i cannot find the originals.
Your help is greatly appreciated

No there's no point in making a rebuild if the originals are not present. As to why this happened? More a question for the Time Machine folks.
Regards
TD

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I just recently realized, however, that by using this method of restoration, the Lion recovery partition that was created during my first install is gone. This is probably due to it being a hidden partition that disc utility on my install disc was unable to recreate.
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2. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
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4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.

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Hello,
After performing a full restore via Time Machine, the following error message appears constantly in my console:
3/8/08 9:48:00 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (org.postfix.master) Failed to count the number of files in "/var/spool/postfix/maildrop": No such file or directory
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Use these instructions at your own risk.
CONSOLE ERROR MESSAGE:
com.apple.launchd[1] (org.postfix.master) Failed to count the number of files in "/var/spool/postfix/maildrop": No such file or directory</code>
THE FIX:
Open terminal make sure you are at root directory and type:
sudo mkdir /var/spool/postfix [enter]
<password> [enter]
postfix stop [enter]
postfix start [enter]
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The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.
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Restoring photo information from time machine

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C M Clements wrote:
I have lost about 75% of my photos from 2009 -- earlier years seem not to have been affected, and this year's photos are not affected.
Here's what happened: In an effort to free up space on my hard drive, I deleted a very large file called "recovered photos." In 2008, I backed up that file to DVDs, but had not thought that anything had been added to that file since then.
But after deleting that file, I immediately noticed that most of my 2009 photos were missing. The only explanation I can think of is that they were somehow stored in this old recovered photo file.
The last backup I ran on Time Machine was run on Feb. 14.
you should back up more regularly than that if you value your data.
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I posted in the iPhoto forums two days ago, and I have tried the suggestions I received there to no avail. Following those suggestions, I rebuilt my iPhoto library using both iPhoto and iPhoto Library Manager and neither action turned up the lost photos. I am posting here now because I think that restoring from Time Machine is my only chance of recovering those photos.

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Thanks so much Terence. I tried some of the fixes from that page, but then discovered the suggestion to compress the Time Machine Back up of the original library and transfer it as a zip back to my computer as detailed here:
http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html
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Time Machine restored an older version of my system

Hi!
I had to wipe my drive clean before bringing my macbook pro to applecare technicians, and restored the whole back up from time machine upon reinstalling.
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How weird, right?
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Thanks!

Princess Karlotta wrote:
Oh crap. I didn't do that. I waited until the end of the install and chose the "migrate my info back from a TM backup" or something like that.
That's the +Setup Assistant+ (see #19 in the FAQ Tip).
It gives you 4 yes/no options: Users, Applications, Settings, Other Files and Folders.
Now I wonder whether I should do that. It sounds a bit like a pain (I had like 560 new emails, and I downloaded 1500 pictures from my camera since then) but maybe it won't be as horrible asfinding out all the bugs and discrepancies on the way.
What would you advise?
First, if you haven't already, download and install the "combo" update to get back to the proper version of Leopard. That's a combination (thus the clever name) of all the updates to Leopard since it was first released, so installing it should fix anything that's gone wrong since then, such as with one of the normal "point" updates. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacOS_X_10_5_8_ComboUpdate (If you weren't on 10.5.8, change the last digit of the link accordingly). Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.
Then you've got three options:
Have you done any backups since the reinstall? If not, you can use +Migration Assistant+ in your Applications/Utilities folder. It's almost the same as +Setup Assistant.+ Choose Applications (and Settings, if you didn't before). If you have done backups since then, this won't work, as +Migration Assistant+ uses the most recent backup -- you don't get a choice like you do with the full restore.
If all you omitted were Applications, you should be able to selectively restore the ones you're missing with the normal "Star Wars" display.
I don't think it's a good idea, but if you have done new backups, you could do the full restore from the last backup before you reinstalled (in that case you don't need the "combo" update). That will, of course, erase all the new data.
Then use the normal "Star Wars" display to selectively restore the new stuff from the last backup. Take a look at #15 in the FAQ Tip -- depending on where the new emails are, you may be able to selectively restore from the various mailboxes, then move the restored items into the proper mailboxes.
Ditto your photos. Again there's special handling for iPhoto, but if you tell it to restore the whole thing, you'll get a prompt about what to do with duplicates, so although it may take a while, you should be able to get them all back.
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Update from 10.7.2 to 10.7.3 blown - Time Machine Restore blown

Hello,
summary of events:
Update form 10.7.02 to 10.7.3 went wrong
After Time Machine Restore no more Recovery Partion
Lost about what to do
On Saturday, I startet to update 10.7.2 to 10.7.3 on my MB Pro 15" (2007) Apples Software Update showed the combo update, and so I started download and installation. Just before that, I had run Time Machine on an external USB drive, so I was relaxed.
After about 2 hours, the update was still running with no progress. After another hour, I forced a restart. Not very suprisingly, after the login, the wheel beneath the Apple logo kept on running.
So I restarted from the Recovery Partition, selected my Time Machine-Backup from the external USB drive, selected my internal HD as target and clicked on "go".
While the progress bar showed progress, I waited. Then it seemed to be complete and the MBP restarted. Now I got a folder with a question mark. My heart rate did not yet accelerate, since I had a back up, right?
So I restarted again trying to boot from Recovery Partition - BUT, there was no longer a Recovery Partition. Or at least, nothing I could boot from.
What options do I have? I could get my hands on a DVD that contains an Lion installation from the app store, but that is not the most recent version, as far as I can tell. If I would go that way:
Does the version of the Lion-app matter?
Will it create a Recovery Partition?
If not, how else could I restore a complete Time-Machine backup?
Any help and suggestions are very welcome :-)
Regards
Jimbo
Naturally, I a am mad as **** at Apple. First, that they abandoned physical media for Mac OS distribution, and secondly that some not so bright lad thought it not necessary to secure the availability of the Recovery Partition under any circumstances short of phyical damage. This really *****, guys!

Ok... I'm not sure if the following suggestions will work with Filevault 2 enabled. I guess you can try after you create a backup for safety.
You can recreate the Recovery HD two ways. One is to reinstall Lion using a bootable USB thumb drive of the Recovery HD created with the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Or from a bootable USB thumb drive with the Lion installer restored to it.
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How do I safely stop a Time Machine Restore midway through?

I started a Time Machine restore from backup at about 1pm this afternoon.
After about 15 minutes of estimating the size of the files to be transferred, it gave me a 19hr estimate for transfer time. I had heard that it could take awhile, so I wasn't totally blown away by the number.
I'm backing up about 200 GB. Well, I'm about 2 hours into it, and the time remaining has been fluctuating from 19+ hours to 14 hours. I'm at about 18 hours right now.
I'm beginning to question the ethernet cable I'm using to transfer the data, and wishing I used a USB 2.0. I've also read up on a bunch of other threads about how painfully slow Time Machine can be, and there seems to be little rhyme or reason as to when it's slow vs when it's somewhat reasonable.
So, I guess there are two questions.
Question 1) Can I safely power down, swap cables, and retry? What happens to the data that's already been pulled over?
Question 2) Should I just let it run for the next 18 hrs? I've also read other horror stories where people return to their machines after the time estimated, and it's hardly budged.
Any help would be AWESOME! If i could give you a billion help points, i would!

majmanMac wrote:
Was doing a full restore from scratch - I lost a hard drive on Monday, and just got a new one put in. Turns out the estimate was about right, as I'm now writing this from my restored machine.
Yay!
I was restoring from a Time Capsule. For some reason I just assumed it had a USB port.
Ah, yes, it does, but it's for connecting a printer or USB drive, not a Mac.
My concern that i would come back to it this morning and find it still updating has been put to rest. Phew!
Glad it's sorted out, but it does seem like there may be a problem -- that's awfully slow. See #D2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
And be forewarned: since you have a new drive, Time Machine's next backup will almost certainly be a full one, so remain connected via Ethernet. If there isn't enough free space for that, it will take an extremely long time for Time Machine to delete a lot of old backups to make room. You might consider manually deleting a lot of them, per #12 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Some photos missing since Time Machine restore...

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