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Recent photos NOT saved or unavailable

carloslijeron
Contributor

Hi all !

 

Something very bizarre happened to me yesterday, 11/24/19.   I used my 5D Mark IV camera with a CF card that has information from early this year.  The memory card is only at 10% capacity, so I started shooting my son's birthday.   I shot another event 3 days ago in my son's school

 

When attemptint to use LIghtroom to import new files, the software did not find any new photos.  I went to the file system and indeed verified that this was the case.   Where did the photos go? I saw them and share some of them with the kids on both events, so I know there were captured.

 

I am now running  a recovery software to see if I can recover those images.

 

Has anyone has had any similar situation?

 

 

BTW: Bitdefender was scanning the memory in the background when I was also attempting to import into Lightroom, but I doubt this has anything to do with this.

 

Any ideas fellow photographers?

 

 

Thanks.

 

CL

11 REPLIES 11

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

On a Windows machine use Explorer to see if the photos are really there. I am sure Mac has some equivalent.  It is possible to see a image in the LCD and not be saved. If the photos are not there, there is no recovery possible.

 

"I used my 5D Mark IV camera with a CF card that has information from early this year."

 

Never use a CF card for photo storage.  Always format it before a big shoot.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

Thanks for your message.  My workflow is to take photos and right away import them into Lightroom. I happen to have several shoots on my current CF Card, all which appear intact until 11/20/19.  The 2 entire shoots after that are gone.


I tried recovery tools which can preview the images and restore the files, but they cannot open in either Windows or MAC  using multiple applications.

 

This is bizarre beyond belief ... how can older images be fine and just the last 2  photo sessions get corrupted?   They could be seen in the camera when the photos were taken, but not after the atempt to transfer.

 

I'm really sad, these were for my son's birthday.   I used 3 paid products for a total of over $100  US and still could not read the recovered files.

 

2019-11-25_19-37-51.png

shadowsports
Legend
Legend

Greetings,

Easy to rule out Bit Defender..  Open the console, check for quarantined items.  If no pictures are listed, Bit Defender is not your issue and you have another problem.

 

Pictures do not delete themselves from memory cards on their own.

 

Formatting, deleting, having the "write to" set to the SD instead of the CF card comes to mind. (Unlikely this could even happen).  Changing a save to folder destination, or the file naming convention, numbering scheme during a shoot is also possible.  

 

A good recovery software should be able to recover deleted files as long as they were not overwritten.  If found, you did something, even if unintentional.  Hope you find them.      

~Rick
Bay Area - CA


~R5 C (1.0.6.1) ~RF Trinity, ~RF 100 Macro, ~RF 100~400, ~RF 100~500, +RF 1.4x TC, +Canon Control Ring, BG-R10, 430EX III-RT ~DxO PhotoLab Elite ~DaVinci Resolve ~Windows11 Pro ~ImageClass MF644Cdw/MF656Cdw ~Pixel 8
~CarePaks Are Worth It

Thanks for your reply.  None of the 3 software packages I used were able to recover files that are readable.  All 3 recovered all files, but the files themselves are corrupted.   I can't explain this !!

 

I work in IT for 25 years and never seen any data loss as bizarre as this.  It's either ALL or NONE ...  specially with portable storage devices.

 

2019-11-25_19-37-51.png

Waddizzle
Legend
Legend
“I saw them and share some of them with the kids on both events, so I know there were captured.“

This might be a clue as to what happened.
--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."

I just previewed the images on the LCD Screen for the kids to see ... I was just verifying the images were there and not over/under exposed.

 

I wanted to make a point that I did take the shots and they were in the camera.

 

"I just previewed the images on the LCD Screen for the kids to see ..."

 

Are you saying you can still see the photos on the camera's LCD screen?

 

Try a different, new, high quality card reader. If it is a SD card make sure you didn't move the protect tab to protect. It should be in the read/write position. In Explorer enable see hidden files. Don't try to use PS or LR to copy them.  Use a card reader and Windows Explorer or the This computer (My computer, etc.) icon.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

Thank you for the great suggestions.  Believe me, I tried them all, including checking for hidden files, etc. I used Windows 10, MAC OS Catalina and an Ubuntu desktop to see if could read the files.

 

I bought the software RecoverIT and this is what brought back the images.  Somehow, all images had a timestamp of 12/31/1969 !!!   Anyhow, this is the only way I could recover all the files form my son's birthday.

 

What worries me is that I don't know what caused this.  While shooting, I was able to see the photos in the LCD camera, but after the failed import attempt in Lightroom, I was not able to see them again ANYWHERE.   The only way to get to them was using a recovery software.

 

RecoverIT.png

 

RecoverIT2.png

OK great you got'em.  Smiley Happy

First never use your camera's SD or CF card for storage.  Get the photos off as soon as possible. Second LR will not re-import photos it thinks it already imported. Next discard that SD/CF card, never use it again.  Personally I would never use a Mac either always use a Windows machine. Maybe they work but I know Windows does and I know Mac's are screwy.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!
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