It happens: for same mysterious reason your iPhone Simulator has an empty Photo DB.
I cannot find a way to restore, even re-installing the simulator.
But…. If you have a jailbroken iPhone (or iPod Touch, of curse) you can do it.
Follow the steps:
- Identify you iPhone ip address in your local network, usually 192.168.1.6.
- Open a terminal in your mac and go to the following directory:
cd /Users/<UserName>/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/User/Media
Change UserName in your default user. - Now type the following command
scp -r root@192.168.1.6:/private/var/mobile/Media/Photos/*
Done! Have fun!!