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Mac-Alex Author

Level 1

4 points

photo library deleted on my macbook

Hello,

I am in quite some trouble and don't know what to do.

I have nearly 20 years of photos on my macbook air (2020) and have had the photos synced by icloud to all my other apple devices (iphone, ipad, appleTV).

Now, in a moment of mental absence, I deleted my photo library file and on top of it, I emptied my trash bin.

I was so desperate I spend 100 € to buy the program "EasyUS data recovery wizard", but didn't manage to recover my deleted photo library.

The only positiv side is, that my photos are backed up and I still got them on my hard disk.

I created a new photo library on my macbook but I don't know or understand how I get my new created photo library into/onto icloud and my other devices, since on my other devices I still have all my photos according to my old photo library.

How can I replace my old photo library in the icloud and on my devices with my new library?

Your help is very welcome, thank you very much

Alex

Posted on Dec 31, 2022 7:42 AM

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

210,579 points

Posted on Dec 31, 2022 12:08 PM

Here's how you can get a new library with all of your photos in it as full sized photos.

1 - create a new library in a volume that has enough room for your entire library with full sized files. An external SSD drive is good for that. For a laptop consider this one: 250GB, 500GB or 1TB OWC Envoy Pro mini

2 - make it the System Photo Library.

3 - in Photos iCloud settings pane enable the iCloud Library. Do not enable Optimize Mac Storage.

4 - leave Photos open and in the background until the download of files is complete. Depending on the size of the library it could take several days of even a week or so.

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photo library deleted on my macbook

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