IPhoto Library Directory shaded

Hello All,
First of all, I finally found how to browse the iPhoto Library directory without having to open iPhoto. This feature I'm hoping to be able to disable.
Is there a way to browse the directory for when attaching files to an e-mail through gmail? When I was in gmail and went to select pictures, I was not able to get to the pictures because the directory was shaded. I had to manually transfer the selected pictures to an accessible directory and select from there.
I do not wish to get into the details of why I was using gmail and not Mail to send the pictures.
Thank you.

There are lots and lots of ways starting with exporting the photos and using the exported photos or looking under the media section toward the bottom of the source pane on the left in the attach window
click here for a discussion of the many ways to correctly access your photos -- note that going directly into the iPhoto library is not one of them.
LN

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I backed up my iPhoto library manually to an external hard drive. How do I restore it?

I backed up select portions of my hard drive to an external hard drive. At the time, I didn't realize that it was going to be so hard to recover the original photos from the iPhoto library. The backup is basically just a command-line "cp" of the iPhoto Library directory. What's the best way to either recover the original photos or restore the iPhoto library to a new computer?

OK, sorry for the delay. Holidays and whatnot.
Sooooo... the backup was basically a command line "cp -r", however the partition that I backed up to on the external drive was FAT32. So that explains why it's no longer a package. Clearly a mistake on my part, but still need to find a way to recover.
I tried to rebuild the library DB, but it just bails out with the same exact message ("You can't open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto. You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto.").
So crap. Should I keep trying to find a way to get iPhoto to recognize my backed up library, or should I give up on that approach and just try to manually get my photos out of the backup? If the latter, what's the best way to do that? I see an "Originals" subfolder, does that have all my photos in it (I only care about originals, don't care about edits)? What about the "Data" subfolder, which also seems to have some photos?

After importing from iPhoto, Originals are still in the iPhoto Library

I have imported my iPhoto library in the Aperture but when I look to see where the originals actually reside I see that they are still saved in the iPhoto Library directory structure.
How can I make sure that all the previous iPhoto pictures have the master copy in the Aperture?
Please advise. Thanks.
G5 Dual 2Ghz (June 2004 model), MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Be careful about deleting the iPhoto library. iPhoto supports videos and several image formats Aperture does not support. If you delete the library you will lose them. Aperture will tell you that there are items it could not import, but it will not tell you what they are!

IPhoto 08: why Finder search does not include pictures in `iPhoto Library`?

If I try and search with Finder for all the images in my HD, there is apparently no way to make it show the pictures contained in the iPhoto Library directory...why?
Of course, if I start search INSIDE the iPhoto Library it will show them.......
It seems like the iPhoto Library directory is somehow 'different' and kept hidden, forcing you to use iPhoto directly.
Any hint on this and possibile workaround in finder?
thank you
Panoma

Just got my new MacPro a week ago and had not yet launched iPhoto 08, so I just now did that, authorized it to update the iPhoto stuff already in my account, then dinked around with some things. Changed one photo, deleted some stuff, and so on. Then quit the program. I just did a Spotlight seach on the photo I had altered and it showed up just fine. A command click on the title in the Spotlight results opened up the folder the photo is now in:
"/Users/francine/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2007/Pine Lake Resort/titlePLRF_2.psd"
Must admit I was a bit startled by the fact that the iPhoto Library is no longer showing as a folder. Nonetheless its contents do seem to be updated--I imported two photos from an external drive, and they immediately showed up in Spotlight as being in the iPhoto Library.
So the only thing I can suggest is that you try to get Spotlight to re-index your iPhoto Library. You do this by opening the Spotlight pane in System Preferences. Make sure there is a check mark in front of Images, the click the Privacy tab and add your iPhoto Library to the list, you can just drag and drop it into the list. Wait a minute, then select it in the Privacy list and click the minus button to remove it. Spotlight should start re-indexing it.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Image importer fails to import images under iPhoto library folder

If a JPEG image is located in the default iPhoto library directory (i.e. ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/...), mdimporter isn't able to import all the metadata from the image. The error message (when -d2 flag is used) is "Importer indicated failure" (full output attached below). When mdls is used to list all the metadata of that image, a lot of metadata is skipped (e.g. kMDItemAcquisitionMake and kMDItemAcquisitionModel). Naturally, mdfind or Spotlight search menu item doesn't see that metadata either.
However, if the same file is moved to another location or if iPhoto library is located in some other path than ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library then mdimport succeeds and mdls lists all available metadata normally, so mdfind and Spotlight search menu item are able to find that image based on full metadata.
IMHO, this is clearly a bug (and I'll report it via bugreporter), but I would still like to hear any workarounds to this issue.
mdimporter output:
mdimport -d2 ~/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/Originals/2007/Roll\ 43/09012007019.jpg
2007-02-20 16:48:23.173 mdimport[545] Import '/Users/nzhuk/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2007/Roll 43/09012007019.jpg' type 'public.jpeg' using 'file://localhost/System/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter/'
2007-02-20 16:48:23.173 mdimport[545] Importer indicated failure for file '/Users/nzhuk/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2007/Roll 43/09012007019.jpg'
2007-02-20 16:48:23.173 mdimport[545] Sending attributes of '/Users/nzhuk/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2007/Roll 43/09012007019.jpg' to server. Attributes: '{
"comapple_metadatamodtime" = 190044947;
kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2007-01-09 16:15:47 +0200;
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2007-01-09 16:15:47 +0200;
kMDItemContentType = "public.jpeg";
kMDItemContentTypeTree = ("public.jpeg", "public.image", "public.data", "public.item", "public.content");
kMDItemDisplayName = {"" = "09012007019.jpg"; };
kMDItemKind = {"" = "JPEG Image"; };
MacBookPro 2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8) iPhoto 6.0.5 (316)
MacBookPro 2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8) iPhoto 6.0.5 (316)

I can drag an image from, for example, the desktop, but if I delete that file on the desktop I won't be able to open that image in iPhoto, even if I've imported it
That's an indication that you may have your library set up as a referenced library:
Check the Advanced preferences in iPhoto to see if that checkbox is selected or not. If it isn't checkec, check it and try importing agan.
To make sure all Photo Stream photos are automatically imported into your library set up iPhoto's PS preferences like this:
You should read this User Tip by Terence Devlin which is the best treatise on how to access photos (for use outside of iPhoto): How to Access Files in iPhoto
OT

Problems with iphoto library

I'm having problems with duplicate photo's showing up in my iphoto library. first of all how do i get rid of them. can i just go through them all and delete the dupes without them returning. second what caused them? i also have a few questions in how to use iphoto in general. how do i import existing photos to my iphoto library. if i have a folder of pictures and add it to my library, iphoto makes a copy of them in the iphoto library folder right? does that mean that after they get imported i can delete the original folder to avoid duplicates? also, say i have a folder named my pictures or imported into the iphoto library, if i add a few pictures to that my pictures folder, how do i add only those new pictures to the iphoto library? do i just add the whole folder again, and iphoto will know which ones are already there and which are new? oh and by the way, i messed up and moved stuff around in my iphoto library directory before knowing any better.

--First thing to know and remember is this...Do not drag any images, folder of images into the iPhoto Library in the Finder. Images have to be imported into iPhoto within the application. Do not scan images and save them into the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder. Save them to another location such as the Pictures folder or even the desktop. You can then import them into iPhoto.
--All images that you import are sown in the library view. You can choose how you want to view, by rolls, by date, by rating, etc. When you put images in an Album, slideshow, book, etc, you are actually just putting pointers to those images in the library. You are not adding more images. If you delete an image from the Album it will still be in the library. If you delete an image from the library it is deleted from iPhoto's database and your hard drive (unless you have it backed up somewhere else)
--You have a folder of images on your hard drive and want to import them into iPhoto. Drag the folder of images into an open iPhoto Library window and the folder of photos will be copied into the library, resulting in a new roll with the name of the folder. You now have two copies of those photos, the ones in iPhoto's database and the ones on your desktop. You can keep the ones on your desktop that you just imported as backup or you can delete that folder.
-- you scan a picture/pictures and save it in a folder. You cannot scan directly into iPhoto or the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder.
You want all your photos in iPhoto so you import them into iPhoto.
Now you have two copies of that picture/pictures, so you can delete the originals that were in the scanned folder and keep the one/ones that were imported into iPhoto.
-- You download pictures from your camera into iPhoto.
There is now one copy of each of the pictures.
You want to change something about a picture you imported, such as
cropping it or changing the size, or changing the orientation.
Once you do that to a picture, you now have two copies of the picture
in iPhoto, the original and the edited one. The edited one will be in the library organize view. The original is packed away in an Original folder in your iPhoto Library folder under the date of the roll. You can always revert to the original by control clicking on the photo and choose "revert to orginal" You will not have this choice if you used iPhoto Diet to get rid of the Originals.
(a quick note on cropping within iPhoto...when you are in edit mode, you automatically will be in the crop mode with cross hairs to highlight the crop area. To finish cropping you must click the crop button and then go back to library view and your cropped picture will be there.
3.You want to use Photoshop or another graphic program to edit a picture in your iPhoto library.
You can open up prefs for iPhoto and choose "when double clicking on
photo ..do" choose "other" and select Photoshop. Now you can edit all
pictures in your iPhoto library in PhotoShop by double clicking. If you save the photo with the same name and as a flattened file it will be saved right into iPhoto and you will see the changes. If you don't want to save it into iPhoto then do a "save as" and save to the desktop. You will then have the original photo still in iPhoto and your new edited photo on the desktop.
Or, with iPhoto open, you can drag a picture from the library window
to your desktop (you see a + sign on the pic you are dragging). You now
have two of the same picture, one in the iPhoto library and one on your desktop. You can open up the one on your desktop in any graphic program and work on it. The one in iPhoto stays the same. You can also share/export the picture/pictures to your desktop or folder to work on them or do batch processing, etc. You will still have the originals in your iPhoto Library.
Or, you can open up the ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/folders and option drag any
picture out of the folder to your desktop.

Unable to write to library iPhoto library Check that you have permission to write to the library directory

I think my iPhoto memory is full. I cannot get in to delete photos. When I open it I get the Unable to write to library iPhoto libraryCheck that you have permission to write to the library directory" and i can't do anything else. I tried alt/cmd first aid and it didn't work.
I want to get in and move pics over to a USB stick drive but cannot get past the Unable to write to library..message.

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

"Check that you have permission to write to the library directory." I had this error pop up when trying to access a iPhoto Library from Finder.

The error, "Check that you have permission to write to the library directory." Displayed after trying to access a iPhoto Library from finder. The file is located on the local hard drive and was accessed not 5 minutes before the error displayed. Upon searching the forums I found a similar problem and the instructions said to check a permission box in the "Get Info" tab. There was no box visible and after clicking the arrow to open the "Open With" tab, the rainbow wheel started to spin and I could no longer access Finder or the desktop. I was deleting files trying to make space on my hard drive and noticed as I was deleting files more data was being added to the iPhoto Library. My question is how can I fix this and how can I prevent this in the future, thank you very much for any help, I would really like to keep these pictures.

I found a similar problem and the instructions said to check a permission box in the "Get Info" tab.
This applies only when the Library is on an external drive. You cannot ignore permissions on the system drive.
I was deleting files trying to make space on my hard drive
What were you deleting?
and noticed as I was deleting files more data was being added to the iPhoto Library.
Hard to see how deleting files can add data to the iPhoto Library. Can you explain why you thought this?
I would really like to keep these pictures.
Make a back up now.
Most Simple Back Up:
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex: Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.
Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store

IPhoto: Unable to write to library. Check that you have permission to write to the library directory

I have been asked to submit a new thread regarding iPhoto's recent inability to write to library.
The original thread can be found here.
SPECS:
Mac Mini (Mid 2011)
OSX 10.10.2
Seagate 4TB External HDD, formatted to Mac OS External (Journaled) (purchased 8 Feb 2015)
Previously, "Ignore ownership on this volume" was not ticked. Now it has been selected.
Before 30 March, iPhoto Library located on the Seagate external HDD worked fine with no errors. It was previous copied from Carbon Copy Cloner from one of my Samsung internal HDD in my Mac Mini that had a S.M.A.R.T. failure. There were errors with particular thumbnails and files (I assume had corrupted due to the internal HDD failing) but CCC did as directed and copied the entire iPhoto Library to the new Seagate external HDD.
It seems that after installing the latest iPhoto update:
iPhoto version 9.6.1 from the App Store (installed March 30, 2015), iPhoto no longer has "permission" to write to library when opened:
(Could this be a program with the latest software update?)
Upon accessing the Photo Library First Aid control panel (holding Option+Command keys and selecting iPhoto):
And selecting the first option, "Repair Permission,"
I still receive the error message (doesn't even start repairing photo library permissions):
What else should I do? It won't let me "Rebuild Database" either. I have restarted the Mac Mini. I haven't tried disconnecting the external HDD. And I do not have another HDD big enough to transfer the entire iPhoto Library to see if it is my iPhoto Library that has corrupted, or the new Seagate external HDD that has decided not to play nice. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

OK. I've been trying to workshop this some more.
AFTER restarting my Mac Mini, I selected "Get Info" on this Seagate external HDD, and low and behold, "everyone" sharing & permissions was reset back to "Read Only." I attempted to move a folder into this external HDD and was as to "Authenticate" the move. So entering my Administrator password, the folder can be moved.
I went into Disk Utility to "Verify Disk" and I now get the green text "This volume appears to be OK."
But I am UNABLE to "Ignore ownership on this volume."
I receive the following error message:
The operation can't be completed. "An unexpected error occurred (error code -8076)."
I am pulling my hair out!

IPhoto won't open and has an error that says "Unable to write to iPhoto Library, check that you have permission to write to the iPhoto directory. Please help.

It will not open my photos as well. I see this question asked in 2010 but I don't have the files it says that are there.

Where are you storing your iPhoto library? In your Pictures folder or on an external drive? Or are you trying to open an iPhoto library on a CD? If you save your iPhoto library to a CD, or DVD you need to copy it to a writable disk, before you can open it in iPhoto.
ANd what is your iPhoto version and your MacOS X version? What happened, directly, before the problem occured?

When I click on iPhoto a box appears saying unable to write to library"iPhoto library" next in smaller print it says check that you have permission to write to the library directory

How do I correct this?

Where are you storing your iPhoto library? In your Pictures folder or on an external drive? Or are you trying to open an iPhoto library on a CD? If you save your iPhoto library to a CD, or DVD you need to copy it to a writable disk, before you can open it in iPhoto.
ANd what is your iPhoto version and your MacOS X version? What happened, directly, before the problem occured?

IPhoto Library: explanation of directory structure for purposes of backup

I am sure this has been addressed elsewhere, but my search attemps were not particularly fruitful.
I am about ready to replace the hardrive in my MacBook (after doing a Migration Assistant maneuver from a PowerBook) with a 120 GB drive.
Since I no longer have a Mac with which to do a Migration Assistant, I'm going to manually reinstall various files and applications after instilling the OS on the new drive.
I've copied my iPhoto Library to my back up firewire drive. I am confused, though, which of the enclosed files and folders are necessary to copy to iPhoto once I'm up and running with the new drive.
In iPhoto Library, there are a series of Folders with year dates from 1998-2005 -- but no 2006.
I see that my 2006 photos are found in two different subfolders: "Modified" and "Originals" and "Data" (each of which contain subfolders with years 1998-2006).
Finally, within the main iPhoto Library folder there are the following files: AlbumData.xml, iPhoto.ipsopt, i PhotoLock.data, Library.data, Library.iPhoto, Library6.iphoto (and several Thumb...segment.data files.
So, can someone tell me, assuming I have no need to revert to any origial (unmodified) files, which of these files/folders do I actually need to repopulate iPhoto once I reinstall the OS on the new drive?
Thanks to anyone who has actually read to the bottom of this!

Argelius:
If you want to backup your iPhoto library so you can reinstall it on a new HD then copy the entire iPhoto Library folder intact. Then copy it back to the Pictures folder once you've installed a system on the new HD. It's got to be the entire, unchanged iPhoto Library folder.
If you remove any folders containing image files from the library, like in the Modified folder, you'll get blank spaces in the library when you try to use them. It's not worth the small savings in space to try to mess with it. If you're worried about the modified versions, do a Revert to Original and then backup the iPhoto Library folder to your external HD.

My iPhoto library is not opening, it said check that you have the permission to write the library directory

My iPhoto library is not opening, it said check that you have the permission to write the library directory

Hey Tam50,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
iPhoto '11: If you see a message that iPhoto can’t access one or more photo files
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph2512
To correct a permissions issue:
Quit iPhoto, if it’s open.
Hold down the Command and Option keys as you click the iPhoto icon.The Photo Library First Aid window opens.
Click Repair Permissions to repair permissions and unlock necessary files and folders.For information about the remaining checkboxes, visit the iPhoto Support website.
Click Repair.
Have a nice day,
Mario

Can't import iphoto library into Lightroom

Lightroom does not appear to recognise my pics in the Mac iphoto library. I can import from other folders/files but not directory from iphoto. Likewise I can't export a photo back into iphoto once it has been "developed" in Lightroom.
Do I have to change some preferences or something?

I recently changed my pc for a mac and all my old photo files were transferred across into iphoto and any new photos from my camera were imported straight into iphoto. I have since started a course where we use Lightroom but find I can't import any photos stored in iphoto into Lightroom. iphoto is always "shaded out" in the list when I try to import into Lightroom.
What do you suggest I do in order to import these photos into Lightroom?

How can I restore an iPhoto library from Time Machine (ML) - when I TM doesn't see the backup??

Hi,
I recently did a Time Machine backup of my MacBook Pro (Mountain Lion) onto an external HDD. Around the time of the last backup, my system was behaving funny so I decided to rebuild the OS X.
Because the last TM backup was of a system that as mentioned, was somewhat 'unstable', and I only had a few backups available (didn't have TM running too long beforehand) - I decided not to use TM to 'restore' my system. I just did a clean install of ML and planned on pulling files over manually. I'd done this before and it worked a treat.
This time ran into a snag. The backup disk TM used was an external HDD which I wanted to upgrade (suffice to say it works fine). So, I needed to move the backup.backupdb directory to my other HDD. The copy seemed to work fine ... so far so good.
I installed the new ML OS on my MacBook Pro and that was fine too. I was able to pull most of my files over by going into the TM backup and copying what I needed.
BUT, for some reason, this didn't work for the iPhoto library?
Alas, I found that you need to do a 'restore' iPhoto library file from whithin TM. So I fired up TM and noticed that it didn't recognise the old backup file located on the HDD. I.e. when I turned on TM, pointed it to the external HDD (where I copied the previous backup to), it started a fresh backup.
So ... my question is - "How do I restore the iPhoto library if I can't get to it from TM?"
Thanks in advance to anyone that can help! The last 15 years of photos are stored in this library!

Hi ...
I've found a solution to my problem.
Time Machine locates extenal HDD backups differently depending if they were done via a network or via a USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt connection.
My initial backup was done via a direct Thunderbolt connection. I ran into the above issue b/c the second time when I tried looking for the backup file the HDD was conencted to my iMac and I was accessing it via a network conenction.
I simply connected the drive directly to my MacBook pro and ... voila. I was able to see the backup, select the iPhoto library and begin the restore.
Hope this helps.
BTW - I found this out by reading the 'blue box' selection on this page: http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html
(Thanks goes to Pondini!)

IPhoto Library Directory shaded

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