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Hi everybody,
Would be super grateful for some help on this! I have a Mac and basically imported some of my camera files into 'Photos'. I then deleted these images from my camera and, thinking I had already imported them into Lightroom, deleted them from 'Photos' too (and even selected 'Delete All' from the 'Recently Deleted' folder). Thankfully (ish) I realised my mistake straight away and pressed Ctrl+Z to undo immediately and they reappeared (though I don't know if the damage by this point was already done). I then imported them into Lightroom and they appeared in a folder with a ? next to it, which did not allow me to edit the images. After some googling I used the Lightroom script to 'Restore Presets' and all of the images are now available for me to edit, HOWEVER, only about half of them were resurrected as full size (and good quality):
The rest of them appear small (but in decent enough quality at that size), but the moment I try to zoom or increase their size, they become heavily pixelated:
Is there any way that I can restore the smaller preview images so as to make them larger and still good quality?
I would be so grateful for any guidance on this (even if the answer is sadly in the negative).
Many thanks (and merry Christmas)!
Barring any kind of data recovery tools, I'm out of ideas, but the reason you did not see the .photoslibrary extension is that you really should checkmark "Show all filename extensions" in the Finder Preferences.
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I can't answer that, but if you have no Time Machine backup, I'd recommend "Disk Drill Media Recovery" from the Mac App Store.
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Thanks - sadly no Time Machine back up... Disk Drill Media Recovery seems rather expensive considering I don't know what it does or whether it will work. Do you/anyone have any other ideas please?
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The previews of the files that you see in the Library module are JPG files that are used for fast viewing. They come in different sizes. The big ones are only generated if/when LR needs it. This is why you have some "quality" previews and not others.
To do anything useful, you need the original files back. You can do an internet search for "undelete files mac" to see what options are available.
There are some LR plug-ins you can use to pull the images out of the previews. This has varying rates of success based on what previews you actually have.
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Loo for a folder (it actually appears as a File) that ends with .photoslibrary as the extension. Right click on that file and select "Show Package Contents". That will open that package folder and list a whole bunch of other Folders. Look for one called Masters. In the Masters folder you will find your images.
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Thanks and sorry - where do I look for this folder? Do I just search for it?
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You can search for it but the Default settings for Finder and OS X might not show it because it is treated as a System Folder and OS X is set to not show system folders.
It is in your Pictures folder under your User Name folder in a folder called Users in the Root of the Macintosh HD.
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Thanks - it didn't show when I searched for it as you suggested it might not, as for my 'Pictures' folder, there is no User Name or Users folder - could you possibly suggest where else I could search for this file/folder please? Thanks!
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It's in your Pictures folder. This is the file. Right-click and select Show Package Contents.
The Finder then shows you this, and the Masters folder is what you want.
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Thanks! Mine didn't have the .photoslibrary which is why I didn't locate it before, however that folder only contains (folders containing) the good, full size preview images that I have, and none of the smaller pixelated ones I'd like to resurrect is there anything else I can try? Thanks again for your help!
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Barring any kind of data recovery tools, I'm out of ideas, but the reason you did not see the .photoslibrary extension is that you really should checkmark "Show all filename extensions" in the Finder Preferences.
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Ok I will do that, thanks!