HELP! Big Sur Photos Hiding in "Other"

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9 points

HELP! Big Sur Photos Hiding in "Other"

I just updated my 2015 15" MBP from Mojave to Big Sur. Everything went smoothly except all of my photos are missing. I had roughly 500GB of photos stored in a folder "Photos" on the Macintosh HD main folder (along with Applications, Library, System, Users).

Now that Photos folder is missing and spotlight can't find any of my photos. However, under About this Mac / Storage, there is 538GB showing in "Other". Clicking on Manage, the other is only about 500 GB in "Other", with the rest being System and other users.

So it appears that my photos are still on the drive, but hidden. What do I need to do to recover these? They are backed up on an NAS, but I figured it would be easier to restore them. If only I knew how...

Thanks!

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Mar 28, 2022 5:13 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

wolfbbgtn Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 29, 2022 3:54 PM in response to wolfbbgtn

Ah hah! Problem solved. Spotlight finally found some .NEFs hiding in Users>Shared>Previously Relocated Items>Security>PHOTOS>. There was a document in that Security subfolder that said "During the last macOS upgrade or file migration, some of your files couldn’t be moved to their new locations. This folder contains these files."

Thanks!

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Answer 2

justin_900

Community Specialist

Mar 29, 2022 1:28 PM in response to wolfbbgtn

Hello wolfbbgtn,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities!

We'll need to learn more about the photos issue to better assist you.

Are you using the Photos app on your Mac, or are the photos just stored in a folder and opened from there?

What happens when you open the Photos app, are you asked to locate your photos library? Are you using iCloud for your photos at all?

Are any other files or folders missing from the Mac, or only the photos? Are you logged in with the same user account?

The more details you can provide about the situation, the better equipped we are to assist.

We’ll proceed accordingly.

Cheers!

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Answer 3

wolfbbgtn Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 29, 2022 3:40 PM in response to justin_900

I am not using the Photos app. I just had the photos stored in a folder ("Photos") in the root directory on the Macintosh HD.

When I open the Photos app, it doesn't ask to locate my photos library. I don't use iCloud for photos either. The only files missing, that I've noticed so far, is this Photos folder. But according to the storage app, there is 500GB of other hiding somewhere -- and I have right around 500 GB of photos on this laptop. Yes, I am logged in with the same user account. I logged in using the default "admin" account and I still can't see the missing photos.

thanks!

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HELP! Big Sur Photos Hiding in "Other"

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