Summary: Can’t find your photos on Mac? This article describes where are photos stored on mac and how to find missing photos.
One of the biggest conveniences that you can have in a MacBook or iMac, is using a clear and crisp webcam for different occasions. Such as, making video calls with friends or even with colleagues from work. Or, you can even just use it for taking photos to create memories.
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Questions you might also ask
Perhaps that last mentioned reason is what you would do more. And you are wondering how to find photo files or albums on Mac. Well, you are not alone. We found the questions similar likes yours: where are photos stored on Mac High Sierra, El Capitan, on MacBook Air, etc.
Some others also ask, how do I find all the photo files on my Mac? Where is my pictures folder on mac? Where are imported photos stored on mac?
If you have questions like these, please read on and get ideas on how to.
How do I find all the Photos on My Mac?
To be honest, finding the photo files themselves can be quite the trick in Mac. For managing photos that you even have imported from an iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad, you will most likely find it in Photos app. But as for the image files themselves, you can not find them in this app, will you?
These image files are compiled into one file (or you can even call it a library or folder with a different format) readable through certain apps and platforms such as the Photos app and the iCloud Photo Library. You will need to follow some steps to visit Mac photos file location. Ready?
Find Mac Photos file Folder
- Open Finder and go to Home Directory.
- Open Pictures folder.
- Right click on “Photos Library.photoslibrary” and click “Show Package Contents”.
- Open “Masters” folder.
Did you see what just happened?
As you might figure out, Mac does not intend to let users access the folder directly. That’s why you can’t find pictures folder on Mac, but using this method, you will see your photos in their respective image files, organized in subfolders according to the creation or saved time.
When you find the folder, you can freely do with the photos as you please. Just note that any deleted files in these folders will also stop appearing in the Photos app.
In addition to that, there are other people also asking how to organize photos on Mac without iPhoto. Well here’s the answer. With access to this folder, you can make a folder on Mac, and put photos into that folder.
How to Find Missing Photos on Mac
You may also encounter the problem that there are no pictures on the folder on Mac, or at least the pictures that you are looking for. The folder itself could be missing altogether. The files and folders that you are looking for could be missing due to deletion or some error made by your computer.
Where did my photos go on my Mac? Don’t panic. You still have a chance of finding those files and recovering them. All you would need is a third-party software called a data recovery software.
A data recovery software scans your whole Mac hard drive for files (yes, even those that were deleted in the past and those that are missing). For deleted files, this is still very possible as long as the data in them are still not overwritten with new files. Let’s hope they are not.
First, you need to install Bitwar Data Recovery for Mac. This is one of the best and easiest to use data recovery software today, having only three simple steps in recovering your files.
Once you have downloaded and installed Bitwar Data Recovery and have created an account, you can start to recover photos with the three-step data recovery process.
Download for PCDownload for Mac
Step 1: Select Drive or Partition
After launching the software, the software will detect all of your devices or drives and shows them in the list, such as Mac hard drive, external hard drive, Thunderbolt, SD card, etc. Choose your hard drive and click Next to move to the next step.
Step 2: Select Scan Mode
There are three possible scan modes for Bitwar Data Recovery. The first mode you should go for is the Quick Scan. Using this scan mode, you can hopefully get back your files in their original version.
If you cannot find your files using Quick Scan, you may try Deep Scan. This one performs a more thorough search of the hard drive, but you will see that the files are not in their original file names, but rather generic ones.
Last but not least, the Formatted Recovery scan mode can scan lost files after formatting.
Read More: How to Recover Data from Formatted Hard Drive on Windows OS.
Click which scan mode you are choosing then click Next in order to proceed.
Step 3: Choose File Type
To filter your scan and therefore make it faster, you can tick the box for photos (or videos too, if you’re looking for videos as well). Or if you want to find all types of files on your computer, just choose to click Select All Types.
After selecting the file type, click “Scan” to proceed.
As the scan proceeds, you will see the files showing up one by one. Turn to Preview Tab, you will find all of the files with thumbnails that are easy for previewing. Simply check each file whether functional or not.
Corrupted files will not be able to preview, while files that are intact will have a very solid preview.
Once confirmed the file after preview, you can click Recover and save the file. NOTE: Do NOT save the file into the drive where contains your missing photos.
Conclusion
There you have it—Where are photos stored on Mac isn’t a big problem anymore, with the above-explained tutorial, I believe you have the clear ideas on how to find all photos in Mac and how to recover it just in case the one you are looking for goes missing. Want to give it a shot? Free Download Bitwar Data Recovery for Mac to try!
Download for PCDownload for Mac
