All photos and videos disappeared leaving empty folders !!

[Tyke55]

Can anybody help ??

They were there yesterday but now for no reason at all , all my photos and videos have disappeared just leaving empty folders. All thats left are a couple of loose photos on my desktop. !!!

Thats all iPhotos and desktop folders !!

 

[Tyke55]

Just been left with a Thumbs file in the folder

 

[simonsi]

Well....have you imported them into a Photo's or iPhoto library without realising?
Have you uploaded the originals to the cloud leaving the low-res thumbnails behind?
What was the story of what you were doing while it happened?

 

[T5BRICK]

If you don't have a backup you can use to recover the data, I'm not sure what to tell you.

 

[simonsi]

Are they in the Trash? DON'T empty the Trash...
If you haven't overwritten the space then Photo Recovery SW will likely find them BUT it has all the hallmarks of an App doing this, a file system error would be so selective and pervasive...

 

[Tyke55]

Thanks for the replies. I've checked Trash and they weren't there also not in Photos or iPhotos.
I wasn't doing anything when I realised they had gone except checking my emails.
I'll check iCloud and see if they are there

 

[simonsi]

Thanks for the replies. I've checked Trash and they weren't there also not in Photos or iPhotos.
I wasn't doing anything when I realised they had gone except checking my emails.
I'll check iCloud and see if they are there

They don't show in Photos or iPhoto I take it?

 

[Tyke55]

No they dont

 

[simonsi]

No they dont

Check iPhoto Trash and Photos Trash - they are different to the systems Trash, if still nothing then you should get some photo recovery software, I have used Photo Recovery from the App store before with success, you may be able to scan for free and only pay if you see there are photos to be recovered.

Or you could just restore the drive from your backup, or look in Time Machine to see the files there and bring back just the photos.

If you don't have a backup then your only shot would be photo recovery - be warned that this normally doesn't get the filenames and won't get 100%, you may just be left with a huge mass of photo files to sort/rename.

 

[Tyke55]

I've got a few photos back from Photos 'Recently Deleted' but most are still missing and all the videos are gone. iPhoto Trash doesn't have any content.
Thanks for the help, I'll try that recovery option.

 

[simonsi]

I've got a few photos back from Photos 'Recently Deleted' but most are still missing and all the videos are gone. iPhoto Trash doesn't have any content.
Thanks for the help, I'll try that recovery option.

Photos Recovery is the one I have used.