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Deleted photos during import

I was trying to import photos from my iPhone to my Mac, I clicked "delete after import" assuming that means they would delete off my iPhone and be on my Mac. Now I don't have photos neither on my iPhone or my Mac. HELP! I have over 10 years worth of memories on there.

iPhone 11

Posted on Jan 14, 2022 4:00 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 14, 2022 4:22 AM

Have you been using Photos or Image Capture to import the photos?

If you have been using Photos, check, if you have opened the correct Photos Library on your Mac.

  • Hold down the options key ⌥ while launching Photos.
  • When the Library Chooser dialog appears, select each library in turn, if there are several libraries to choose from.

Does one of the libraries hold your Photos?


If not - what happened, after you imported the photos?

Did Photos give you a message that the photos have been imported successfully, or did Photos quit unexpectedly?


Do not restart the Mac, until you found the photos. They may still be in some caches, that would be cleared when you restart the Mac.



7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 14, 2022 4:22 AM in response to lamis148

Have you been using Photos or Image Capture to import the photos?

If you have been using Photos, check, if you have opened the correct Photos Library on your Mac.

  • Hold down the options key ⌥ while launching Photos.
  • When the Library Chooser dialog appears, select each library in turn, if there are several libraries to choose from.

Does one of the libraries hold your Photos?


If not - what happened, after you imported the photos?

Did Photos give you a message that the photos have been imported successfully, or did Photos quit unexpectedly?


Do not restart the Mac, until you found the photos. They may still be in some caches, that would be cleared when you restart the Mac.



Jan 14, 2022 6:48 AM in response to lamis148

With "While launching Photos" I meant "when starting the Photos.app."


Try again:

  • Hold down the ⌥ key.
  • Keep holding down the ⌥ key while double clicking the Photos.app to start it.
  • When the dialog to select a Photos Library appears, select the largest library from the list. Try all in turn, to find your photos.


Jan 14, 2022 10:28 AM in response to lamis148

You'll have to restore your iPhone from the backup you made prior to importing into your Photos library. Then do an import but WITHOUT deleting the photos after import. There are too many reported unsuccessful imports and a successful deletions to relay on it. I never use that feature.


If one wants to delete lots of photos from an iPhone use the Image Capture app. Much safer.


Deleted photos during import

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