8 Hours Making a Book and it's GONE

Question

Spent all night last night making a travel book with new "improved" iPhoto 7.0.1 and the whole project just DISAPPEARED on me. Talking to Apple product expert on the phone lead nowhere. The brilliant new architecture which stores everything (raw data + manipulation) in one giant non-parseable file is leaving me completely up the creek, BE WARY OF SPENDING TIME ON A BOOK... I am so seriously frustrated. The only thing to do is back up the entire library frequently, so if this happens to you you can re-load it all. Anyone else having troubles? IF any advice or insight please advise!!
Seems like this product was really not ready for release. Maybe Apple's spending too much time on phones and not enough on software integrity.

Answer 1

If iPhoto is crashing on a regular basis then there's issues that should be fixed before continuing. First try deleting the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, from your User/Library/Preferences folder.
Next boot into Safe Mode and run iPhoto to see if it will or will not crash. If it does crash then the problem looks more like an application issue warranting a reinstall of iPhoto. If the problem doesn't manifest itself in the Safe Mode then your account may be the culprit. In that case try reapplying the 10.4.10 COMBO updater followed by a repair of disk permissions.
If still a problem you can check to see if one of yourother preference files may be at fault:
Trouble Shooting Preferences
Go to HD/Users/Your_name/Library. Move the Preferences folder (in its entirety) to the Desktop and make a second copy of it so you have Copy A and B. Now try the the process again and determine if problem is fixed.
If the problem IS fixed, then go to the new Prefs folder that the OS will have created and open it up.
Open Copy B on the Desktop and select all of the items inside. Drag them into the open new library folder. When the Copy window comes up check the Apply to All check box and then click on the Don't Replace button as seen here. That will keep the new files created and bring back all of the others.
If the problem is NOT fixed, trash the new Prefs folder and move the intact Copy A folder back to the Library folder .
If you make a backup copy of the library's database file, library6.iPhoto, on a regular basis you can regain your library, book and other organizational efforts by replacing the damaged file with the last backup copy. See the tip at the end of my signature for a way to conveniently making that backup frequently as you're working in iPhoto.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've written an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.