Where did my photo library disappear to on MacBook Air up to date.

[Steve Hope]

Not for the first time . I switched from Windows 15 years ago but have had major trouble with apples "photos" ever since. Now I have no photo library ??? Why is that all of a sudden? Third time in all this time the damn library disappears. Why? My MacBook Air is up to date with latest iOS. I had not even added latest pics from iPhone yet and I get this message that there is no photos library. Sounds like I need to get a windows laptop purely for photos and quit using my Mac for photos. NEVER had an issue with Windows in ANY photos library yet here I am with issues for the 3rd time in 15 years. Somewhat a rhetorical question, but any info?

 

[Steve Hope]

Tired of the apple photos ecosystem, my stuff gets lost often. Chat gave me the idea of a Windows based system for pics only. Going on vacay tomorrow but when I return I will buy a Windows laptop purely for pic from my iPhone. I have had enough of apples photo library garbage.

 

[MacsBug]

Read the reply here... https://www.mac-help.com/threads/apple-ecosystem-photos-again.232511/post-1582778

 

[Rodananne]

Essentially if you want all your photos safe and accessible on all your devices they need to sync to iCloud Photo Library, either from a Mac computer or portable device.

That option must be turned on either in the device Settings or iCloud Settings depending on the device.

I have all of my photos in the Photos app on my Mac dating back 20 years. My iPhone, iPad and Mac all sync with iCloud Photos Library. This applies to any new device I may purchase. As soon as I login to iCloud my photos are downloaded to Photos on that device.

If you do not subscribe or activate iCloud Photos Library on all devices then any photos you take on iPhone, iPad will only be stored on that device until you sync it manually to your Mac/PC by USB cable connection.

Alternatively you can simply sync your iPhone/iPad to your Mac/PC by USB cable connection every time you have new photos. This means the only backup of your photos would be local.

Sadly, Apple ended My Photo Stream some years back which automatically transferred new photos to all devices with the same iCloud account but did not store them. This would have prevented your problem but the bottom line here is Windows uses exactly the same system via OneDrive.
A new mac will not have a library until you add photos to it either manually or via cloud sync.