Missing Photos After macOS Sequoia Update, How to Recover Safely?

Dany updated on Jul 24, 2024 to Mac File Recovery | How-to Articles

Missing photos after the macOS Sequoia update? By following the tutorials in this article, you can recover your missing photos after updating to macOS Sequoia. Maintaining good backup practices and applying reliable data recovery software are essential to safeguard your data.

Discovering issues like missing photos after the macOS Sequoia update or any other significant macOS update can be very upsetting. There are a few actions you can take to attempt to retrieve your lost pictures.

Because of the new features of the Photos app on macOS Sequoia, you may find some of your photos are "missing"; actually, they are not; the photos are just organized in a new way. You can check the Photos app carefully, and if you find the pictures are really missing, reading the following five methods can help you easily restore the missing photos after the macOS 15 update.

Method 1. Recover Missing Photos After macOS Sequoia Update with Mac Recovery Software

If you are unfamiliar with the Mac Photos app, you may fail to find the photos you want. We recommend EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, and this functional recovery tool can help you find both existing and deleted photos on the Mac.

This Sequoia data recovery software can help you recover deleted files on macOS Sequoia and older versions. It can help you find missing photos and support most image formats, including JPG, JPEG, PNG, CR2, GIF, etc.

With this powerful and reliable Mac recovery tool, you can recover deleted photos on a Mac even after emptying the Trash folder.

With EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, you can quickly find and recover photos of disappeared macOS Sequoia on your Mac. Check the following tutorial to restore lost photos now:

Note: You can create a backup by clicking the "Disk Backup" on the left first. When the disk is damaged or the photos on the disk are accidentally lost, you can get the photos back from the backup image.

Step 1. Scan for lost photos

Select the location where your valuable photos were lost and click the "Search for lost files" button.

Step 2. Select wanted photos

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately start a scan on your selected disk volume. Meanwhile, the scanning results will be presented in the left pane. By Path and Type, you can quickly filter the photos you've lost earlier.

Step 3. Recover lost photos

Select the target photos and click the "Recover" button to get them back at once.

Here's a video that may help you learn how to download Sequoia beta and some outstanding new features:

  • 00:30 Back up your Mac
  • 00:54 macOS Sequoia beta compatibility
  • 01:33 Download macOS Sequoia beta
  • 02:29 macOS Sequoia's new features

Don't forget to share our photo recovery tutorial on social media to help more macOS Sequoia users!

 

Method 2. Find Missing Photos After macOS 15 Update in Recently Deleted Album

Photos you delete in the Photos app will not go to the Trash folder on macOS Sequoia, but you can find them in the Recently Deleted album:

Step 1. Open the Photos app from the Dock by clicking the icon.

Step 2. If you cannot see the Recently Deleted album from the left side, you can click "Utilities". Then, you'll see the target album.

Step 3. Enter the password to unlock the album, and you'll see Mac's recently deleted photos here. This album will keep the deleted pictures for 30 days.

Step 4. Select the photos you want to restore after the macOS Sequoia update and choose "Recover".

Method 3. Recover Missing Pictures After Sequoia Update from Trash Folder

The photos or screenshots on the desktop may be accidentally deleted or moved to the Trash, so you cannot find them on the desktop or in the folder. Check the Trash can and put back these photos quickly:

Step 1. Locate the Trash folder from the Dock and click it to open.

Step 2. After opening the Trash folder on macOS Sequoia, you can select the deleted photos you want to restore.

Step 3. Right-click and choose "Put Back". The screenshots or photos will go back to the original location.

You can recover deleted files on Mac from Trash easily, but the file will not be kept in the Trash folder forever; it will automatically delete the files in the Trash folder after 30 days.

When you find the file you want is permanently deleted from Trash, try EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac to restore them.

Method 4. Restore Lost Photos After Sequoia Upgrade with iCloud

When you encounter macOS Sequoia installation failure or the macOS 15 update process gets stuck, you may accidentally lose photos or other files. You may redownload your missing photos from iCloud after upgrading to macOS Sequoia.

Visit the iCloud official website, log in with your Apple ID, click your profile, choose "Data Recovery," and click "Restore Files."

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac can also help you restore your Mac from iCloud. Follow these simple steps to restore missing photos on your macOS Sequoia Mac.

Step 1. Choose iCloud Recovery

Select the iCloud tab from the left list, choose the "Recover data from iCloud account" option to recover your photos, and click "Next" to log in to your iCloud account.

Step 2. Choose the "Photos" category

EaseUS software will quickly scan all the recoverable data from your iCloud account. Check the "Photos" category, and click the "Next" button.

Step 3. Recover photos from iCloud

Select the photos you want to restore, click the eye icon to preview the details, and then click the "Recover" button to get them back.

Step 4. Save recovered photos

Choose a safe storage location on your Mac hard drive to save the recovered photos. You can also save the recovered photos to your cloud drives, such as DropBox, OneDrive, GoogleDrive, etc.

Method 5. Restore Disappeared Photos After macOS Sequoia Update from Time Machine Backup

If you don't have an external hard drive or other backup disks, you may not be able to activate Time Machine's first backup successfully.

If you have backed up your Mac with Time Machine, check the following guide to restore missing photos from Time Machine backup:

Step 1. Enter Time Machine from the menu bar.

Step 2. Filter files with the timeline panel; you can find missing photos by selecting the date before the Sequoia update. Then, select the picture and choose "Restore".

Please share all the five methods to help macOS Sequoia users restore missing photos!

 

Summary

If you've tried every self-help solution and your missing images are really important, contact Apple Support for more help. They can offer advice based on your particular circumstances.

With EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, you can usually restore missing files after a macOS update or other data loss scenarios. Download it now and try it!

Photos Disappeared After macOS Sequoia Update FAQs

Check more information in this part about photos disappearing after the macOS Sequoia update.

1. Why are my photos disappearing from my MacBook after the macOS Sequoia update?

You may encounter photos disappearing from your Mac after the update. Why? It's possible that updating macOS will cause you to lose your iCloud account login, causing your Mac's iCloud photo collection to vanish. Connect back to iCloud and restore your missing photographs to recover them.

2. Why can't I find missing photos in the Photos app after Sequoia update?

If you have checked every album, including the Recently Deleted album, in the Photos app, your images may be deleted from the Mac. Try EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac to restore missing photos after the macOS Sequoia upgrade.

3. Should I downgrade Sequoia to Sonoma to find missing files?

Actually, that may cause data to be overwritten if you choose to downgrade macOS Sequoia to Sonoma. You can try the following methods to retrieve lost files:

  1. 1. Recover missing photos with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac
  2. 2. Find missing images from the Recently Deleted album
  3. 3. Retrieve missing photos from Mac Trash
  4. 4. Restore lost photos with iCloud
  5. 5. Restore disappeared photos from Time Machine backup