Phoenix Rising: Further Tales of the Photo Library

In mid-November, I experienced catastrophic problems with my photo library. Weighing in at about 2.36 TB, the hefty library did not make it through the Photos update that occurred in my migration to the Mac Catalina operating system.

It happened shortly after our cat Dexter died, and one of the things I feared was that with the demise of my photo library, I'd lost all of my pictures of Dexter. I just couldn't imagine that fate would be so unfair, as to take my cat and then all of the photos I had of him!

I went through a bunch of fruitless attempts to save the library. Around Thanksgiving, I bought a new 5-TB external drive, and I managed to copy onto it the Master file of original pictures out of a photo library backup I made this past March. After that, I made backup copies of THAT Master file onto two different external drives, for safety's sake.

I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but I figured that I could import those original photos into a newly created library, or maybe even more than one library. So on this day, I got out the new personal computer, attached the 5-TB drive, created a new photo library - called, appropriately, PHOENIX, as in, Phoenix rising from the flames! - and began importing the photos.

I don't know what I thought it would be like, but the imports were almost instantaneous. I had to go into the individual files of photos for each day, and import them one set at a time. Some days had more than one uploaded set of photos, so there might be two or three sets for that day.

But in short order, I had imported the photos from January through the point in early March where the backup was made. The baby photo library is just about 16 GB in size. I know: Aww, how cute!

I now understand what the task requires, and I believe I can do it. I'll repeat what I've said before: Apparently, when it comes to annoying, nitpicky, repetitive, high-attention-to-detail tasks, I'm your girl!

And then I opened the new little library for the first time, and THERE WERE MY PICTURES! I scrolled down, and there were photos of Dexter - Dexter, alive again, and in my arms! And his adorable white paws! (Hello there, sweet boy. We love you and miss you so much!) It was a miracle! My memories have been saved!

I know I am only at the beginning of this task, and there is a great deal of work to do. But I feel I am up to it, and shortly, I am going to have lots more free time to mess around with it. I am thinking about making four total photo libraries to replace the single big one that I lost, and here might be their names: Phoenix, Merlin, Gandalf, and Yoda.  :-) Wish me luck!

Here is my soundtrack song: Asia, with I Will Remember You, from their album Phoenix.

P.S. When was the last time YOU backed up your photos? Please please please, if it's been a while, DO IT NOW!!! This has been a public service announcement, from one who's been there. . . .