For the past few days, every one of the photos that I’ve imported from my Nikon into iPhoto have disappeared. They show up in in the file “last import” but then I can’t find them in my photo library. After some troubleshooting, I discovered the problem and the solution.

You see, I recently got my camera back from being repaired.  I glanced at the menus to be sure the camera was set up the way I like it.  I quickly looked at the date, which was the right day and time.  Then after shooting, I’d connect the camera (and then separately the memory card) and imported to my library. Then I went to the bottom of the library where the latest photos should be…and the photos were nowhere in sight.  When I went to import them again, iPhoto knew they had been imported and asked if I wanted to import duplicates.

At some point I thought to look at another date.  And indeed, I found them exactly a year ago.  I hadn’t noticed that the year had been set incorrectly on the camera.  But once a photo has a particular date, you can’t change it in the camera.  You must change each photo.  iPhoto, like many programs allow you to “Batch Change” photos.

Here’s the steps to fix the date on multiple photos in iPhoto:

1. Open iPhoto
2. Click on the Events icon on the left to open Event view, find the event folder of photos that need to be changed. (see above)
3. Double click on the event to open it.
   
4. Choose “select All” from the Edit menu.
   
5. Choose “Adjust Time and Date” from the Photos menu
   
6. Use the up and down arrows to change the date and time. It will show you the date and time of the first photo.  So, if you know that you started shooting pictures at 2pm instead of 7am…once you change the first photo, iPhoto will change the subsequent chosen photos accordingly.
7. Your photos should now take their place in the right date order.