Lost Last Years Photos

[macular]

1. My used Mid 2007 iMac OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6 was getting tired and I could not afford to replace it so I purchased a custom built PC (traitorous, I know) in December for $625.



2. A year ago, I transferred all of my photos to the OneTouch4 Mini external hard drive which is no longer read on either the iMac or the PC. Early this year, I began the time consuming process of transferring each album or partial album from Photos to a Lexar 64GB flash drive. It took me about a month to move app. 6000 photos to the PC. When I was ready to move last years album, "2017", they were gone. I have looked everywhere that I can think of to no avail.



3. A friend said that somehow some of his photos ended up in iCloud so I went to System Preferences, clicked on iCloud Drive then clicked on the box "Photos" and Photos opened up just as it would have if I had clicked on the Photos icon in the tray. It is empty.

 

[pigoo3]

If the photos are no longer on the local hard drive...and no longer on the Cloud drive...that's a consistent clue that maybe these files were deleted at some point. The Cloud drive usually reflects what's on the local hard drive. The contents of local hard drive & the Cloud drive many times are snyced. If the files are missing from the local drive AND the Cloud drive...the Cloud drive must have been synced with the local drive at some point (when the files were no longer present on the local drive).

Personally...when I have VERY important files...I like to have 2 local backups of these files on separate drives (just in case one of the backup drives fails). What this means is...I actually have 3 copies of the important files (2 external backups & internal computer drive).

Maybe or hopefully I'm wrong (and your files are still located somewhere). But when I hear that the files are missing from both the local drive & Cloud drive...sounds to melike the files may have been deleted at some point.

- Nick

 

[pm-r]

If you still have your Mid 2007 iMac OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6, there's a chance that some or all are still on it or recoverable with a Photo Recovery Utility of which there are several:
https://www.macupdate.com/find/mac/Photo Recovery

You might want to try using one on your other volumes and devices as well but recovery will be more unlikely from flash type sources.




- Patrick
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[macular]

If you still have your Mid 2007 iMac OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6, there's a chance that some or all are still on it or recoverable with a Photo Recovery Utility of which there are several:
https://www.macupdate.com/find/mac/Photo Recovery

You might want to try using one on your other volumes and devices as well but recovery will be more unlikely from flash type sources.




- Patrick
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Thanks for the options. Exif Untrasher 1.5 seems to be the most popular so I may try to download it soon.

 

[macular]

Downloaded Exif Untrasher 1.5 and it is instructing me to Mount the storage medium, which I do not have since the photos were stored on the Mac.

 

[pm-r]

Downloaded Exif Untrasher 1.5 and it is instructing me to Mount the storage medium, which I do not have since the photos were stored on the Mac.

From the developers web page, it seems to give the impression that one could choose a mounted drive, and I assume that could be a Mac, but maybe best to at least read all the details of using it at his homepage:
https://www.bluem.net/en/projects/exif-untrasher/

If things don't qualify, try another app I guess.




- Patrick
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