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Heartbroken! I’ve lost a years worth of videos and photos of my daughter.

19 replies

SweetTweets · 23/05/2023 09:37

Absolutely devastated…

Ive lost a years worth of pictures and videos of DD from the age of 6 months to 18 months. She’s now 9, and I have loads of videos and photos over those other years but have lost her first steps etc. I’ve reached out to family and have managed to gather some photos of her first birthday which I’m so grateful for.

Unfortunately there is no way of recovering the files (I’ve explored every option).

Has anyone else done similar? I feel awful for DD that I can’t share these memories with her as she grows 😢😢😢

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GeraltsBathtub · 23/05/2023 09:41

Those photos are for you, not for her. How often do you look at baby pictures of yourself?
Do you have any other stuff relating to the memories that you could show her instead, eg tickets for things you did, postcards for places you went?

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SweetTweets · 23/05/2023 09:59

I have lost the pictures of her first holiday, but I have a ceramic plate that we made together there. I have her favourite cuddly toys and some a couple of her nicest outfits from that time too. I’m just so upset about what’s lost, although I know it could be worse.

OP posts:

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Fourcandleforkhandle · 23/05/2023 10:02

OP I know how you feel. My youngest Daughter was born with a cleft lip and palate. I took lots of pictures of her wide clefty smile up until she was 3 Months old. At 3 Months she had lip surgery to close her cleft lip. One day I was just looking through the photos on my mobile and thought I'd delete a few and accidentally deleted all including all the newborn ones.
My Daughter is now 13 yrs old and It still upsets me. Those photos are just in my memory only and no way to show my Daughter.
Anyway since that time I always back up my photos on Google photos.

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Nousername94 · 23/05/2023 10:05

This has happened to me before and I was devastated.
I lost so many photos of my children when they were so little and they are irreplaceable. Now I make sure I get my photos printed every month from the free prints app.

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Magenta65 · 23/05/2023 10:08

the people who say who looks at them other than you are wrong. I’m so sorry you lost them. It happens more often than you think. As a baby I pulled all the negative film out of the cameras and ruined my baby photos. I only have a hand full of pictures as a child now and practically none as a baby. I do look back on these often but it’s no one’s fault, just an accident. Your daughter will understand and as you’ve managed to gather some together from family of her at that age not all is lost! Think of the positive. I’m sure family have some pictures of me somewhere but we don’t talk so I can’t get theses

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ColonelSpondleClagnut · 23/05/2023 10:10

I realised recently that I have no photos (none, absolutely zilch) from the first year of my youngest child's life.

I guess I was too busy!

My mum has a couple but not many. I've just had to make my peace with it as there's nothing I can do about it. Just think about the old family photos where people have just one photo of Aunt Maude and Uncle Harold on their wedding day or whatever.

It's not the end of the world :)

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SeasonFinale · 23/05/2023 10:13

Yes I did. I put a message out on social media and asked friends for any pics they may have and received a decent amount back including a friend who have me a whole set they had taken at their birthday party.

It is surprising what pics others have. Do ask and I hope you have similar success at retrieving some.

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LittlePoBeep · 23/05/2023 10:17

I used to keep all my pics on an external hard drive. Had maybe 3 years worth from when my eldest 2 were born. The drive packed up. I did try to get the files retrieved but the part needed to get the drive working was known to break down and not replaceable. It upset me for years. Fortunately I'd printed some of my favourites. I felt bad about it for so long tho.

Now I have iCloud and that backs up automatically. I also tend to post my fav pics on Facebook (for other family to see).

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fireflyloo · 23/05/2023 10:21

I lost over 200 videos recently when I transferred my phone. Tried everything and can't recover them. It's now out of my control so I've moved on. I know that my dh and family members have videos that I've sent over the years and I'm asking them to send them to me.

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Branster · 23/05/2023 10:25

I can assure you your DD won't care one bit.
Leave it, it really doesn't matter. You've seen them, you were there, you have the lovely memories and you tried every avenue. Let it go and enjoy the now.

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BlooberryBiskits · 23/05/2023 11:00

I’ve had similar happen (my niece not child but bad enough!)

ask friends and family when you meet them and I am sure you will get some back

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EversoDisorganised · 23/05/2023 11:01

Similar happened to me when the hard drive on our computer packed up about 10 years ago. DH had backed it up intermittently with a variety of USB sticks and removable hard drives and we painstakingly managed to retrieve quite a lot of photos, but there are some biggish gaps in the collection. I was EXTREMELY upset and spent probably many hours over months trying to sort and retrieve them, I found myself getting anxious every time I went near the photo app and put in a more robust backup system (now use cloud storage) but I remember how awful it was. The DCs don't know and probably wouldn't care though, it is just me. 10 years later it doesn't feel important.

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BrieAndChilli · 23/05/2023 11:22

do you have social media - face book/whatsapp/instagram etc? have a look through that to see what you may have posted.
Also look through messages/emails to see what you have sent to people over the years.

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Thatladdo · 23/05/2023 11:36

How exactly did you loose them?
Phone? Android or iphone?

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MrsMitford3 · 23/05/2023 11:40

II feel your pain- my FIL took the old VHS tape that had all of DH childhood home movies and taped The Godfather over it.

No footage left at all!

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Patchw0rk · 23/05/2023 11:41

I lost the first 6 months of DC's life and I cried for weeks. I did get a few from family luckily.

A horrible lesson learned. Sorry it's happened to you.

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Otherland · 23/05/2023 11:47

I'm sorry. I sadly understand. I lost a year of my children's photos when they were six and ten. We had loads of adventures that year as we'd just moved to a new amazing area and were coming out of lockdown. I am absolutely devastated.

Also lost loads (99%) of photos of me as a child as my mother left them somewhere where they got wet. Absolutely gutted.

My father (separated from my mother) died recently, we were NC. I know he had some photos of my brothers and me as kids. His sister threw them away. I found out as his second wife (also divorced from him at the time of his death) tried to get them for me but was told they'd been binned.

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TallerThanAverage · 23/05/2023 12:07

We’ve got tons of photos of DC1 and hardly any of DC2 in comparison. I bought albums a few years ago and put everything in the albums, printing out digital photos from memory cards, discs and then getting pictures from phones etc every month to keep the albums updated. I last added anything a couple of years ago, it soon passes. I will go back and carry on with them. My point is, even with all the time and effort that I have put in to those many many albums I couldn’t tell you when any of us looked at them and even if we did we wouldn’t notice what wasn’t there only what was. Don’t beat yourself up.

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aSofaNearYou · 23/05/2023 12:28

I disagree with the "who looks at their baby pics" comments - I did, quite a lot. However, I really doubt she will ever pick up on and be upset by a specific bracket of time being missing. She will just look at all the other ones.

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