How do I put back deleted Photos app folders?

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So I recently noticed that my Picasa sidebar got gunked up with a bunch of "garbage" folders containing just a few (if any) files. I have never been a fluent user of iPhoto or the new Photos app, and I don't use iCloud for photos. I use my own organization system in Finder. After showing the *thousands* of "garbage" folders in Finder, it looked like they were just face recognition thumbnails, which I don't care about, so I put the lot in the trash. I also changed Picasa's settings so it doesn't find the folders from Photos any more. Now I am missing a massive bunch of photos in Picasa (and Finder, obviously,) so I presumably trashed something in the folders that I still need (#!@*$.) For example, Picasa now shows only one video, where it should have around 50. When I open trash, which has not been emptied, there either is no "put back" option or it doesn't work when I do click "put back." Is there a way to un-trash all these folders? Please?!
 
M

MacInWin

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Welcome to the forum. I presume you have no backups? The easiest way to get them back is to restore from a backup.

Lacking that, the "put back" function in the trashcan only puts the files back where they came from, it does not re-register them with Picasa. Could that be part of the problem?
 
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Thanks for your reply!

I have most of my photo library backed up on an external HDD and another computer, but the last couple months haven't been backed up yet. (oops!) I don't care if they show up in Picasa, that's an easy fix, I just need to get them put back to wherever they were stored so I can locate them in Finder. When I open trash, the "put back" option is available if I only select one folder or file at a time, but it doesn't seem to do anything when I click it. There is a sound like it's being put back, but it still sits in the same place in trash. Typically when a folder is put back in this manner, it disappears from the trash (if I'm not mistaken.) For some folders, or if I select multiple folders at once, the "put back" option is simply not there.

I hope that's not confusing. :)
 

chscag

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"Put Back" will not work if the folder or area that the deleted item came from no longer exists or has been moved.
 
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The only change I've made was in Picasa settings so Picasa doesn't automatically search for files in the Photos library. Nothing in Finder has been changed since my dumb mistake of trashing the weird folders- I didn't want to mess with it any further until I get this issue resolved, so I'm only really using Safari and Mail right now.
 

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