Lost photos!!!!!!!!!!

Is there anyway on my imac I can recover all of my pictures to my photo program all at once from icloud photos? I did a stupid thing and listened to someone and now have lost over 1000 pictures.
My pictures from my imac were not transferring to my iphone X into the albums, maybe half of them.So.........................I made folders on my desk top and put all of the pictures into each folder. I then deleted them from Photos.Well I dont know what happened but all of those new folders on my desktop are EMPTY. So except for on icloud,I do not have over 1000 pictures.What the heck happened and how do I get them back? I tried to get them from my back up,but the folders are empty there also. The photo issues are about the only thing on my Apple products that I cannot grasp.

I'm truly sorry that this has happened to you.

I think I can explain the loss. Folders cannot contain photographs; only Albums (which do contain photographs, but these are linked to your Photos Library).

Deleting the Folders or Albums would not have mattered as they were linked to their source in Photos app; BUT deleting photographs from the Photos app was the killer. With these gone, any Albums, or Folders containing Albums would become empty.

Some things you can do:

1. Open Photos app and look at the Sidebar on the left. You may see an Album called "Recently Deleted". Click on it. You might find your deleted photographs there as that is where they go when deleted.

2. If your Photos app is gone, or there is no "Recently Deleted" Album: Do you have a Time Machine or other form of Backup (BU) from which the photographs can be retrieved?

3. If, when things were working normally, you had selected "iCloud Photo Library" in Photos > Preferences > iCloud, then all your photographs should be stored there. And you can recover them from iCloud by signing in to iCloud via your Browser and selecting Photos.
If you didn't select "iCloud Photo Library" previously, then they won't be in the Cloud.

Please post back.

Ian

You said you have a backup? What backup are you using? Is it Time Machine? If so and if you have Time Machine running all the time, I am sure the pics are in one of the backups. Let us know so we can better help you.

Thanks for the replies.
Yes I have a back up running 24/7. The photos were not in the folders all the way back to where I did the change.Yes they are all on the cloud,but I need them back into photos now. So can I go back in time to recover the photos from photos library or only download them from the cloud? As there was way over a 1000 I will never figure out which ones they were.

IWT said:

I think I can explain the loss. Folders cannot contain photographs; only Albums (which do contain photographs, but these are linked to your Photos Library).

Click to expand...

I assume you mean folders within the iphoto or photo application......

Because I have a number of folders on my desktop with tons of pictures in it.

I don't use iphoto or photo; some people in my family do and it's a bit of a pain.

Thats what I did ,I had 6 folders with all photos in,then the folders became empty,now they are no where but on the cloud. I need them back in photos in their albums

@krs

Of course. You are quite correct. I was indeed referring to the Photos app. But there was confusion all round. I had to assume that Folders had been created with Albums containing photos. Maybe they had been dragged to the Desktop. It was all a mess really.

But the good news is that the OP has, apparently, saved/stored his photos in iCloud; and there is a 24/7 BU, which is great - don't know if that's Time Machine and if it is, the OP only has to go back to the time when all was well to recover them. Jolly site quicker than downloading them from iCloud, requires no bandwidth and is easy.

So what I said in post #2 is accurate, but at the same time makes assumptions about what really happened, and how it was executed. Trying to cover all angles.

All we need now is to confirm Time Machine - or not. Get the photos from there- easy enough. Or, last resort, use iCloud to recover and wait, wait, wait till that finishes.

Ian

Thats what I did ,I had 6 folders with all photos in,then the folders became empty,now they are no where but on the cloud. I need them back in photos in their albums

Click to expand...

But how did you get the photos from the Photos app into these Folders? If they were Exported there, the Folders wouldn't be empty. Somewhere in the process something went wrong; so that when you deleted the pictures from the Photos app, you lost everything.

BTW, did you look in the Photos app to see if there is a "Recently Deleted" Album?

Ian

Our time machine back up went kaput,so we each use an external hardrive (Seagate backup plus portable drive.)

I dont know how to put them back into my photo library from icloud.com/photos.I have tried many ways.

When I go to 'FINDER' and open photo library about 20 or more pop up. I need some bourbon in this coffee.

I really really appreciate your patience.I dont mind putting them all back from icloud.com, but there has to be an easy way.WHERE do I put them so that I dont have duplicates of the over 2000 I still have in the photos library? Can I build a new photos library and put them all in there and still have them show up in my photos program?I hate the program too, but do not know what else to use that can sort from 'date taken'. Sorry if I'm not explaining it well.
Yes, there are no recently deleted photos or albums that I want or need.

OK; Time Machine is out. Great pity, but that's life!

If you are sure that all your pictures are in iCloud, this is what you do:

Open Safari (or whatever your favoured Browser is).

Where you enter the URL (ie where you would type in weather in Utah), type in "iCloud.com" and then Enter.

This will take you to iCloud.

It will ask for your Apple ID username (usually [email protected] or, if you go far enough back [email protected], or whatever email address you use as your username for your Apple ID)

Then it will ask for your Apple ID Password. Enter that.

Now you are in to iCloud.

This is what you will see:



Click on Photos.

And there they are! You can download them from there.

Does that help?

Ian

Ian, honestly I have done all you suggest,but I cannot recover them from icloud.com/photos back to my photos library. HOW DO I DOWNLOAD FROM THERE? That is what I cannot do. This is just one album I need to recover.They are spread out over 3000 pictures if not in an album.

I believe, I believe you, honestly!

OK. You signed into iCloud.com with your Apple ID, got to the screenshot I posted above.

Click on Photos and this is what you see above all your photos:



Make sure that you have chosen Photos (Left Red arrow).

Now select all the photos you want to download - in your case, probably all. So Click on one photo and the use the keyboard and use Command + A. (that means ALL)

Now Click on the cloud sign shown by the the right yellow arrow.

That starts the download.

Be patient - it can take a very, very long time. The photos should be downloaded into your Photos app in time order, Albums etc, exactly as it was before - unless you deleted the Photos app, which I understand you didn't.

Don't worry, we are always here. We know that certain things are difficult. But this works because I just did it. It assumes your photos were backed up to iCloud.

Ian

PS Ignore bottom attachment. That's the mistake.!

Everything Ian said it Spot On. The only difference when I went to iCloud and my photos is I had to select the photos I wanted first then click the download Cloud symbol and all came down.

Oops, looks like IAN said that also and I missed it! Grin

OK, I see what my problem was, I tried to do it from an ALBUM, not from Photos. I guess I will have to go through and pick out one by one those that are missing. They were all in albums to begin with,but my albums did not transfer to my phone in their entirety.
So that is why I put them in folders on my desk top, knowing then they would be under FILES on my phone desk top. Guess I will just need to be patient to transfer over the 1500 or so from the 3300 I have.
It might be quicker to transfer them all and then go in and delete all the duplicates. I do have a program that does that,but its pretty useless.
THANK YOU so much for all of your help and kindness.I know its hard to follow whats in someone elses mind..................lolol,especially when I'm in my 70s.

royalpei said:

It might be quicker to transfer them all and then go in and delete all the duplicates. I do have a program that does that,but its pretty useless.

Click to expand...

That's what I was going to suggest.
Why is the program you have pretty useless?
Or better - which programs are recommended to find duplicates (of any type) on a Mac?

There are over 50 photo duplicate finder apps available via the App Store on your Mac.

I haven't used one, so can't give a personal recommendation; but I do know that over the years, numerous Forum members have recommended their favourites.

This Google search brings up lots of comparative tests https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=photo+duplicate+finder+Mac&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Ian

krs said:

That's what I was going to suggest.
Why is the program you have pretty useless?
Or better - which programs are recommended to find duplicates (of any type) on a Mac?

Click to expand...

similar photo cleaner - DOESN'T EVEN FIND THE EXACT ONES.