What could possibly have happened to these photos on my computer?

Did you try to sort by date modified? Maybe it will come up under todays date?

Okay, I tried that, there’s nothing from today at the top of the list. BUT, I have unearthed a clue.

Those photos were both in portrait mode, and Windows Photo Viewer, the default program in which I preview my photos, brings them up automatically in landscape mode. While looking through my photos I had been clicking the button to rotate photos 90 degrees so that I could view them rightside up, and it’s only the photos to which I did that that are missing. Lord knows why.

AHA, I am not the only one! I’ll be damned!

Could you have closed them under a new folder? When you were rotating them? Still, the original should be in the old folder??

Oh, ah, interesting. But, you said it was not in your recycle right?

@JLeslie When I double click a JPG in Windows Explorer, it automatically opens up as a preview in Windows Photo Viewer. That program allows me to rotate photos temporarily while viewing them. But for some weird-ass reason it’s apparently hiding people’s photos if they rotate them. Hiding, not deleting, so they’re not going to the recycle bin. There are a few suggestions in that link that I’ll try out, hope they work. If not I have them backed up on my external hard drive, but what a pain!

@Mariah Did you look at the second page of the forum entries that you linked to? It appears that Windows has “hidden” the files/images and you have to go in and enable the viewing of hidden files. These are the steps outlined in someone’s answer and it appears to have allowed the person to find the images. ( I used to know how to do this but don’t use my pc much). Enable hidden files and you should find your missing images.

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Just enable viewing of hidden files.

Steps:

1. In the explorer window click [organize] menu item.
2. Select the [Folder and Serach Option] menu item
3. Click [View] tab.
4. Under hidden files and folder, Select “Show hidden files, folder and drive”
5. Click [Apply] and close the dialog.

You should now be able to see hidden files. Show how the rotated file attribute get changed to hidden.

Now you can right click on the file and set the properties of the file to unhide them.

@dappled_leaves Did this happen because of McAfee? That would explain why it’s never happened to me before. I haven’t had McAfee in the past, but I have it now.

I enabled viewing of hidden files and there they are, though it’s going to be a pain in the ass to unhide each and every one of them. I think I figured out why this happens. When you rotate the picture, it seems they actually have to create a new file of it rotated. But so as to not clog up your folder with doubles of all your photos, they make those files hidden. It seems for some reason the original is getting deleted yet not going to the recycle bin(?), or, more likely, they’re saving over the original, and so the photo seems to disappear. Weird. As. Shit. (Sighs)

EDIT: Oh never mind, seems you unhide as a mass action. Thank goodness. My photos are back!

Thanks all for helping me puzzle this one out!

@Mariah I got in there just a little too late. Oh well. :-)

Ooh, so you may have lost the original if it saved over. Well, you said you have a backup.

@JLeslie Yeah but the original is the same only rotated 90 degrees, so it’s no biggie.

@Mariah, read through all 3 pages on the link you posted – McAfee is somehow interfering with your picture viewer or picture organizer. If you’re looking for a decent free antivirus, I’d recommend MS Security Essentials. I’ve been running it for a while, and it’s very low maintenance.

@dappled_leaves Aha, I just got to the part where people were talking about that. How annoying! McAfee came pre-installed on this computer. Thanks for the suggestion, I think I’m gonna have to switch if McAfee’s pulling shit like this.

Good job finding that link – sometimes you can search forever and not find the answer!

@dappled_leaves Thanks, I had no f***ing clue until I realized that the only photos that were missing were ones that were in portrait mode, that I had therefore rotated upon viewing. D’oh!

@Mariah : Did you try system restore?. I have Windows 7 Home edition on my laptop. It once had a problem. I don’t how that happened, but after starting the laptop the Aero effects were gone. I restored the system and the problem solved.

@9doomedtodie I actually resolved the problem already, but thanks for your suggestion! Does system restore restore personal files, though, or just system files? I’ve always been under the impression that it does the latter.

Just go through this link. It may help to clear your doubt.

You did not say which OS you were using so I am assuming it has to be XP or 7. This is what I would do on XP, which I am running, hopefully 7 is the same or close enough, if that is what you are running.

• Go to start menu and click it.
• Click the search option.
• Click “Pictures, music, and video” from the top of the list.
• Put a check on “Pictures and photos” box.
• Click “search” and them wait to see what all it pulls up.

It should pull up every photo and icon, even those apart of programs. You might have a lot to look through, but if it is there, it should sow up, no matter what folder it ended up in.