All My Pictures in iPhoto Disappeared! How to Safely Get Them Back

iPhoto is so good at protecting your precious photos that in those very rare times when something actually does go wrong, it’s hard not to just freak out and think you really have lost all of your photos!

Luckily, in situations like this, you are able to recall some clues that could make you realize your photos are actually still on your computer. It’s just that you can’t figure out how to get them to show up again in iPhoto.

This is exactly what happened to Abdullah, who wrote me about his iPhoto collection:

Doing the Detective Work

Abdullah did a wonderful job of handling this stressful situation.

In a time like this, it’s very important that you try to stay calm and visualize all of the steps you just went through that took your computer from working perfectly to whatever state it’s in now.

All of these fairly detailed steps provided me with enough information that after reading his question, I was about 95% sure I knew what had happened.

Clue #1 — New Library Created

Abdullah mentioned he recalled that a message popped up in iPhoto and asked him to pick one of three choices. And he believes he chose the wrong one.

Apple keeps it simple, so there really aren’t that many windows that pop up in iPhoto. So that really narrows down what window he must have seen.

Additionally, he said some magic words that made me hear “bingo!” inside of my head —  “iPhoto created a new library.”

Let me take a second to point out that both iPhoto and Aperture work by accessing what Apple calls “photo library” files.

If it makes it easier to visualize, think of them like a big hall closet where you can safely and neatly store boxes (Events) full of photographs. The only thing is, in their current versions, both applications can only access one “closet” at a time. If you are looking inside of one “closet,” you can’t look at another at the same time.

Clue #2 — Photo Library Contents Intact

Abdullah also told me that he was able to poke around in the “package contents” of the iPhoto “photo library” file. And after some time, he was able to find all of his photos inside.

Excellent! That’s relieves most of the tension from the situation because we now know:

1. His iPhoto photo library file wasn’t deleted or overwritten.
2. His master photos weren’t deleted or overwritten.

What Are the iPhoto Library Package Contents?

In case you are a bit confused by what Abdullah was talking about when he said he was still able to see all of his old photos in folders labeled by the years, let me briefly give you an idea.

iPhoto, by default, stores your master photo files deep within the “photo library” file. (Really it’s like a folder).

Have you heard how people with messy desks say it may look messy, but they could easily find anything on it if they wanted had to?

iPhoto feels the same way about its library file. It may look messy and confusing to you inside of there, but it’s very efficient for the software.

And if you were to step inside and delete — or even simply move something out of its original place, iPhoto may no longer be able to find anything — or work at all!

It’s delicate. It would be like setting a hat full of hamsters loose under a house of cards.

You laugh, but it’s true!

So, I am just giving you a friendly warning to be extremely careful if you dare go in there. What I mean is, if you don’t know what you are doing in there, it’s like not being a mechanic and taking a part out of an automobile engine. You will have to know how and where to put that part back, or you may have serious problems — like your engine won’t start again!

Apple puts a kind of “child-proof” like step in between you and the contents of your library file so that the majority of their users won’t accidentally go poking around in there.

PLEASE KNOW:  I am not suggesting the solution for 99% of you is to manually go into your iPhoto library file, and into the contents folders, and manually extract your photos — should you find them. That would be an absolute last resort option for 1% of you that cannot find any other way to get your library file loading correctly on its own again. And that is your goal, to get your original library file working again without having to start over again with your found images by re-importing.

If you re-import them back into iPhoto, you will be starting over from the beginning with each one, and you most likely will lose ALL of your editing done to each one — captions, titles, color corrections, event organization etc.

This step of carefully investigating the package “contents” is just meant to prove to you your photos could still exist in your library file. 

For Abdullah, these clues that we just uncovered tells us that iPhoto apparently didn’t accidentally delete any photos. It’s just no longer showing his photos.

Which means our next question should be what could have happened that would cause this?

Here’s What Went Wrong in iPhoto

Whether he meant to or not, I was 95% sure Abdullah was holding down the “option” key on his keyboard when he clicked and loaded up the iPhoto application one day, or he clicked on “Switch to Library” under the “File” menu at the top of the application. 

When you do this, a “photo library” chooser window pops up and asks you to select one of three options. Abdullah said he didn’t recognize any of the choices, and in his case, he inadvertently pressed the wrong one.

For the record, the correct button would have been the round red “x” button at the top left corner of the first window or the “Quit” button from the second. This would have safely returned him back to the desktop, closing out the window, without any additional action being executed.

Instead, I believe what happened was he chose the button “Create New” / “Create Library.” iPhoto then constructed a whole new photo library (“closet”) for him to start storing a new collection of photographs in.

No harm done, though! There’s certainly nothing wrong with creating a new library — even if you don’t plan on using it.

It’s just scary if you don’t know what you just did. Abdullah probably thought all of his photos in his “closet” were thrown out to the virtual curb for the garbage person to pick up because all he saw was an empty photo library!

Instead, iPhoto had just switched from his old photo library full or photos over to the new one that starts off completely empty until you import your first set of photos.

The Solution: How to Safely Fix All This

The way to fix this is really quite simple. It’s just a matter of telling iPhoto that you would like to switch back to your original photo library file.

So, you basically want to redo the same step that got you in this situation in the first place. And you can do this in one of two ways.

1

Switch to Library

If you are using iPhoto v.9 or later, with iPhoto loaded and active, go up and click on “File” and then click on “Switch to Library” from the list that comes down.

After either of these methods, the “Library Chooser” window will pop up.

The software now asks you, “Which photo library do you want iPhoto to use?”

Click on your original iPhoto photo library from the list of libraries that have already been created, and then click on the “Choose” button below.

That’s it!

iPhoto will briefly close and then relaunch with your original library file.

Additionally, it will now return as being the “default” iPhoto photo library. So with subsequent times loading iPhoto, your original library will continue to load.

If you would like to delete your new, empty and unneeded photo library, you are now free to.

Problems?

If more than one library has the same name, the way to tell the difference between them is to click on each one, and note the library name and path where the file is stored that shows up below the list.

The library marked “(default)” is the library file that will load when you launch iPhoto the next time. So, if you have 2 libraries in the list called “iPhoto Library,” and the wrong one keeps loading, then it’s probably safe to say the one that isn’t marked “(default)” is more than likely your original library.

If your original library isn’t in the list, click the “Other Library” button at the bottom and go through the Finder application paths and look through your hard drive(s) and folders until you find your old library file.

Or, if you are on an older version of iPhoto that doesn’t show a list in the window, you will need to click on the “Choose Library” button and locate your original photo library file.

I’m not always right — my wife will attest to that. But, in this case, I’m happy to share this message I later received from Abdullah:

If, after applying these techniques I used to help Abdullah, you still have problems restoring your iPhoto library, I’ve created a couple of resource pages with additional steps I recommend you try. Check them out through the buttons in the box below.

Did the solution above solve your specific problem with iPhoto? Are you still having a problem?

Your Problem:

Is iPhoto Not Opening Up Your Original Photo Library File With All of Your Photos? Are 100% of Your Images Still Missing?

If this is possibly your issue, check out my article: How to Locate Your Missing Original iPhoto Library File On Your Computer

Your Problem:

Are you sure all or some of your photos are saved inside your iPhoto library file, but just not showing up when you launch the iPhoto application?

If this is possibly your issue, check out my article: How to Repair and Rebuild iPhoto Photo Library File Database