Cannot restore iPhoto Library from Time Machine after clean install

I was experiencing various problems with my MBP and wiped the hard drive after meticulously backing up everything with Time Machine, or manually. I reinstalled everything. I was relying on Time Machine to restore my photos and events in iPhoto. When I select "Browse Backups" in iPhoto, I can see all of my backups, but can select none of them. Any ideas to save a decade worth of photos?

Hi a:
Welcome to Apple discussions.
I am preaching, but +"wiping/erasing a HD"+ should be reserved for true disasters. That is a Windows process.
Now, trying to help (I treasure my own photos - a lot), go to your home folder (~pictures). If something called iPhoto library is there, highlight it, open Time Machine, and then restore it.
If that does not fix the problem, try posting in the iPhoto forum. There are some real experts with iPhoto problems that may be able to help.
Barry

Similar Messages

Cannot Restore IPhoto Library from Time Machine

I was an idiot enough to delete IPhoto Library from Previous System, and now i need to restore it.
I tried to restore it from Time Machine (4.05 GB), but i get 0k restored.
What do I need to do?

How are you trying to restore it?
The correct procedure is to click on the Time Machine app in your dock, and navigate back to a point where you know you have a good library then click on Restore.
Regards
TD

Restoring iPhoto library from time machine

How does one restore iPhoto library from time machine. When I attempt to do so time machine downloads 2/3 of the library and then says: operation cannot be completed because you do not have permission to access iPhoto library. Any advice? I am using so 10.8.2

Try the methods pondini gives here.
http://pondini.org/TM/15.html
Look at the specifics for iphoto..
It is not easy as the versions have changed.. if you are trying to restore a version older than the OS.. not sure what willl happen.
You might also need to do a full restore to an external drive and pluck the library out of there.

IPhoto crashed. When reopened, 70 some events were grayed out (no photos). Restored iPhoto library from Time Machine, fewer grayed events. Said yes to a msg on fixing library, 3K more photos. Still wrong. What next to do?

iPhoto crashed. When reopened, 70+ some events were grayed out (no photos). Restored iPhoto library from Time Machine, fewer grayed events. Said yes to a msg on fixing library, 3000 more photos. Still wrong. What next to do?

Do you still have the library that you were using when the crash occurred? If so apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
2 - run Option #4 to rebuild the database.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button and select the library you want to add in the selection window..
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks. I know the data is there but seems unaccessable because I may have changed the Computer or Owner name. Is there any way to fix that now?

Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
Sigi

Permissions Error message trying to restore iPhoto Library from Time Machine

I've tried several times to restore my iPhoto library from Time Machine. After 45 min. when it's almost finished, I get an error "The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access "iPhoto Library". Anyone know how to fix this?

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Connect to the TC via Ethernet cable if at all possible.
Try repairing your backups, per #A5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

HT4927 Restoring iPhoto library from Time Machine backup

Will restoring an iPhoto library from Time Machine overwrite the current library? After I did a backup, I deleted some photos but since then I have added new photos.

It is an option. You can overwrite or keep both when you restore
LN

Trouble restoring iPhoto library from Time Machine in OSX 10.9

i recently got a new iMac and am trying to restore my iPhoto library from time capsule on an external hard drive. my previous macbook with the original library was stolen so the external drive is my only hope of recovering years of photos.
i have tried going into time machine and restoring the iPhoto library. iPhoto shows several of my albums but zero photos. i have tried looking for the masters file but it appears empty. both times, the file size is significant though nothing appears. i am not sure what else to try.

This article should help:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4927
In particular, note this paragraph:
iPhoto may prompt you to repair your library if there are some inconsistencies in your files. If so, please allow it to proceed by clicking the Repair button. If you notice blank thumbnails, reopen iPhoto while holding down the Command and Option keys. When the Rebuild iPhoto Library window appears, enable the "Rebuild all of the photos’ thumbnails" checkbox. This may take a long time, depending on the size of the library.

I need to restore iphoto library from time machine, but have a question

I need to rebuild my library but already have 5 libraries which are taking too much space on my HD to finish a complete rebuild. Is it safe to move those 5 libraries to the trash and restore the one from time machine???
thanks in advance,
Kari

IF nothing goes wrong - hardware - software - human - then you will be fine
Personally my photos are important to me and I'd purchase an external harddrive and backup everything to it first - then do the deletes/rebuild etc
Then I would continue using the new EHD for a second backup using a clone package (Carbon Copy Cloner or SUperDuper)
LN

I cannot retrieve iTunes and iPhoto libraries from Time Machine after re-installing OS X

I havd just re-installed OS X on my Mac, and I cannot retrieve iTunes and iPhoto libraries from Time Machine.

Please confirm that you are running Leopard 10.5.8 on a PPC iMac.

Restore iphoto library from Time machine using external drive

I keep my iPhoto library in an external drive (iomega 1 TB) I use Time Machine (Time Capsule) for my back-up of iphoto. The external drive is failing. I have bought an new external drive and wish to restore my iPhoto library to this new drive. The steps for restoring from Time Machine require me to click on the iphoto library and then enter time machine. I cannot do this as the folder is now unreadable in the drive and I do not wish to restore it to this old drive in any event.
I have accessed the time machine drive and can see the iphoto back up is there.
What is my next step?
Robert

See my answer to your duplicate question
LN

Can't restore iphoto library from time machine

I'm running iphoto 8 on 10.6.8. The iphoto library disappeared and I've tried numerous ways to restore it. Rebuilding the library didn't work. Neither did library manager's rebuild function. When I attempt to restore directly from time machine I get a permissions error. I tried to work around that by creating a disk image and restoring the time machine back up to that. It copies some of it, but then gives me an error 36.
"The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “iPhoto Library” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)"
It did transfer enough data before quitting so that I could get my low res photos from the "data" folder, but I can not get to the originals folder.
Is there any other way to get that folder out of the time machine back up directly. The library on time machine shows over 20 gigs of data, but I can't seem to get to it.
I did upgrade to snow leopard a few months ago.
I appreciate any and all help. :-) shaeri

Thanks so much Terence. I tried some of the fixes from that page, but then discovered the suggestion to compress the Time Machine Back up of the original library and transfer it as a zip back to my computer as detailed here:
http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html
That worked like a charm. I really appreciate it.

Restoring iPhoto Library from Time Machine Backup

Hi,
My iTunes collection and iPhoto library live on an external HD. A week or so ago that external HD failed. Thankfully I have been using TimeMachine to back up to another external HD. Yesterday, I went into TimeMachine, clicked TimeMachine Backups in the TimeMachine Finder and restored my iTunes library to a location on a new external HD. Once the copy was complete, I opened iTunes and all was well. I tried this same process with iPhoto and it didn't not work. iPhoto keeps giving me the message that my iPhoto library is in use by another application or I need to upgrade. I tried holding down the Option key to select the library on my new external HD and that didn't work. I also tried option + command and the option to restore from an automatic backup in iPhoto automatically crashes iPhoto. Then, I launched iPhoto Library Manager and it said my DB file was missing. What's the right process to restore my iPhoto library from a TimeMachine backup (external HD to external HD)?
Thanks!

It is an option. You can overwrite or keep both when you restore
LN

Can't restore iPhoto Library from Time Machine. Faults halfway through.

POSTED EARLIER ON iPHOTO 9 DISCUSSION-recommended checking here.
My wife is running a Mac Mini with iPhoto 9. She has let her hard drive space drop to about 4gigs. This morning, she opened iPhoto and nothing came up. I looked at some of the posts here and did the following 1) ran disk utility to repair permissions 2) removed enough files to get her available hard drive space above 10gigs. Mostly by moving to her external hard drive. 3) Based on what I was reading, I copied her iPhoto library and related files to a folder on her external drive. I then deleted the iPhoto library file itself. 4) I went into TimeMachine and ran it back to the last backup yesterday and asked it to Restore that file.
The process went forward smoothly until it hit about 5.5gigs of the 46.5gig file. At that point it stopped and a dialogue box said "the operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access iPhoto library". I ran it again---essentially it fails after restoring the thumbnails. I checked permissions for iPhoto and it shows 'read and write' as the settings.
Any suggestions? Is using Time Machine for this purpose not workable? Thanks in advance for your help.

Disk utility ran through the REPAIR disk function on the Time Machine drive and came back good. I then ran the VERIFY disk function on the Main disk and it also came back good. I was not offered a REPAIR disk option for the Main Disk.
No errors. Any other suggestions?

HT4927 Not enough room to restore iPhoto library from time machine

my macbook is full. That is why I started trying to transfer files to an external hard drive in the first place. Something happened in the process and I lost my iphoto library. Now when I try to restore from my time machine back i get "not enough room" to restore the library message. Help!!

Why not restore the library to the EHD and run it from there. If you need a smaller library to run on your MB create a new one by launching iPhoto with the Option key held down and select the Create button in the window that appears and create a new library in your Pictures folder.
If you need to move/copy events or albums between your two libraries use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager which can copy between libraries and keep keywords, titles, descriptions, places, etc. intact with the photos.

Cannot restore iPhoto Library from Time Machine after clean install

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