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HELP! iPhoto deleted ALL of my pictures :(

T

todd2000

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 14, 2005
1,632
34
Danville, VA
I realize this should be in the software forum, but I thought it would get more attention in here. Please delete it if it's a problem, but here goes...

So I just got back from taking some pictures and inserted my memory card, and iPhoto poped up and asked if I wanted to import them, so i clicked yes. Normally I just copy them to my HD manually, and import the ones I like, but I decieded I'de let iPhoto do it. So it finished importing, and all of my other photos are GONE!. The only pictures in my library are the ones I just imported. I think I have copies of most of the pictures but Im not sure. What happened to my pictures? I cheked the iPhoto library folder and it is only ~50MB, which would be about the size of the pictures that I imported today, so the old ones seem to have been permently deleated. Help!

Thanks
 
Cube54 said:
iPhoto put your photos in it's default directory - not yours!

Relax.
Click to expand...


I did a spotlight search for iPhoto and it only brought up one Library Folder, I also did a spotlight search for HPIM, which is what all of the pictures from my camera start with, and I could tell that there were pictures missing from the search results.
 
Don't empty your trash and stay away from 'Disk Repair'. Then bounce over to the real help sections

P.S. When did you actually get Spotlight to *relocate everthing on your hard drive* (so to speak) ????
 
Cube54 said:
Don't empty your trash and stay away from 'Disk Repair'. Then bounce over to the real help sections

P.S. When did you actually get Spotlight to *relocate everthing on your hard drive* (so to speak) ????
Click to expand...

what do you mean by *relocate everything on your hard drive*? I tried searching for files as soon as I noticed they were gone. Should I force Spotlight to re-index my HD?
 
YES! Get Spotlight to do that. It's *read only* but it could take several hours to do so.

What version of OSX are you using, exactly -> as in 10..3.9 10.4.5 10.2.8??
 
Cube54 said:
YES! Get Spotlight to do that. It's *read only* but it could take several hours to do so.

What version of OSX are you using, exactly -> as in 10..3.9 10.4.5 10.2.8??
Click to expand...

10.4.8 How do I get spotlight to re-index again? I know theres a way but can't remember how.
 
They're still on your computer. They're just in their old folders. They never moved. The photos you imported through iPhoto are probably being handled directly by iPHoto, so they go in the iPhoto library. You probably told iPhoto not to move the photos from their folder, and so the photos are located exactly where they were when being imported, so they were never moved to the iPhoto library.

todd2000 said:
I realize this should be in the software forum, but I thought it would get more attention in here.
Click to expand...

That's just plain selfish and inconsiderate. :rolleyes: Maybe everyone should post their problems and purchasing advice question in the COMMUNITY section.
 
Slow down & relax todd2000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As long as you didn't run 'empty trash' or 'disk repair' after this problem your photos are still on your hard drive ->>>> fact since your hard drive works.

Even if you did do 1 or both of the above odds are they still exist intact. So do some research on how to re-index Spotlight (I don't use 10.4.8 so I can't help you).

Or better still check the following;

Are you logged in under the same UserID as the rest of your photos?
If so, do a manual search of all directories using Finder. In other words learn how to use a MAC!!!!

Your files are okay!!!!!
 
Abstract said:
They're still on your computer. They're just in their old folders. They never moved. The photos you imported through iPhoto are probably being handled directly by iPHoto, so they go in the iPhoto library. You probably told iPhoto not to move the photos from their folder, and so the photos are located exactly where they were when being imported, so they were never moved to the iPhoto library.



That's just plain selfish and inconsiderate. :rolleyes: Maybe everyone should post their problems and purchasing advice question in the COMMUNITY section.
Click to expand...

Well im sorry but any thread I post in any section other then Community never seems to get much attention. As for the photos, iPhoto is set to move them to my Library when importing. And if they were still in their original locations then Spotlight would be able to find them and it can't. Im going to re-index my drive and see what happens.
 
Cube54 said:
Abstract

Please don't be too mean. I'd rather help the person find his/her photos.
Click to expand...

Im almost positive their not ther to find. I just re-indexed, which only took like 20 min and still nothing. I have some of the photos in other locations, but I know there are some missing. Im not sure how many, but for example I had a photo named HPIM0340.jpg, that I happend to upload to photobucket, and now im searching my HD for HPIM0340, and it's not there. Im not really sure how many files were deleated or what happened to them.
 
Relax! Photobucket is an online image sharing site it had nothing to do with it. I just looked on there to get a specific file name to search my HD for.
 
OK if you are sure that the files are gone, and this is important, STOP USING THE MACHINE. Everything you do will be writing to the disk reducing your chances of recovery. Download and then buy some recovery software like FileSalvage. This has saved my ass in the past.
 
robbieduncan said:
OK if you are sure that the files are gone, and this is important, STOP USING THE MACHINE. Everything you do will be writing to the disk reducing your chances of recovery. Download and then buy some recovery software like FileSalvage. This has saved my ass in the past.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention I tried File Salvage, and it found some of the files I was looking for but I don't know if im missing enough to justify the $89.95
 
Well I got some Data recovery software and managed to recover about 2000 images that I took. Some are copies, some are thumbnails (im assuming iPhot must make thumbnails or something) I have to weed through them and find the good files. It found like 8000 .jpgs in total, those 2000 are just the ones that I found in the results that were ones I took, or scanned. Im just trying to figure out what actually happened so it doesn't happen again. I might just re-install my computer to be on the safe side, I don't wan't any more files randomly dissapearing. Mind you Im going to be backing stuff up, I just haven't got it set-up just yet.
 
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