Annoyed by iPhoto's lack of event folders

Hey Everyone,
Typical Apple......some things are absolutely amazing, some things are absolutely stupid.
Love iPhoto. Hate iPhoto.
I love the concept of Events, I hate how rigid they are.
I want to make ONE event entitled "Summer Vacation" that encompasses several days, locations, and activities. When I click that event, I want several "sub" events that appear that separate my photo collections logically under the hood of one experience.
Is it a practical method of organization? Absolutely. Is it possible in iPhoto? From what I have attempted and researched, NO!
I can sub-categorize my music collection beautifully in iTunes and access it in any capacity using the browser view. Why can't iPhoto be built the same consistent way?
How hard is it to offer 3 methods of view: 1. All Events 2. All Photos 3. Event Folders (aka Smart Events, Event Playlists, Whatever)
I don't want workarounds, title tricks, album massage, etc. I want simple old fashioned quick and easy drag and drop. X number of related Events into one with the entities sub categorized and preserved.
So simple. Somebody PLEASE tell me this is possible and make me an idiot, I will wear the title with pride.

You can do what you want with the virtual folders that can be created in the left hand pane. Virtual folders can contain albums, smart albums, books, slideshows and other virtual folders like this. The smart albums can be configured to span a specific time line or any other criteria of the photos. You can also use keywords or multiple keywords assigned to a photos to help with your organization.
That's what you'll have to use if you're going to use iPhoto. It's the nature of the beast. if you want to maintain your own, hierarchical folder structure and have that represented in the image management tool you're using you'll need to use something link iView MediaPro which is now Expression Media.
Happy Holidays
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 created 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 and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

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Have latest updates for mac and iPhoto. several of "events" now show as grey squares with a plan tree, no thumbnails when scrolling over as before. Photos show when clicking on icon but not visible as a group. What gives?

Have the latest updates on my iMac and iphoto. Recently several "Event" folders have turned to grey with a palm tree in the corner. Before there was a "key" photo to help identify the event. The event title is still at the bottom of the square but no key photo. When i click on the icon, the photos that it contained show up, but when closed again disappear. How do I correct this annoyance?
Also: One event that contains about 12 photos has a problem---some of the photos when clicked will enlarge and show individually on the screen and print out, while others when clicken on show a black background with an exclamation mark and will not print. Thoughts?

Back up your iPhoto library, Depress and hold the option (alt) and command keys and launch iPhoto - rebuild your iPhoto library database
LN

Events folders in iphoto is not showing in my ipad

Events folders in iphoto is not showing in my ipad, it's showing only in imac and iphone, what can i do to make it in my ipad ?

Probably
do they show in last import? Probably they do - then you have one of two problems
1 - incorrect event sort - correct under the view menu ==> sort events
OR
2 - incorrect date/time setting on the camera - correct using the camera menu to set the correct date/time for future photos and the ones already imported correct by selecting them in the last import and using the adjust time/date command
LN

IPhoto events folders have disappeared...

Hi. Some of my events folders seem to have disappeared from iPhoto (any folder containing photos from before October 2008). Does anyone know how I can retrieve them?? I'm freaking out - I haven't deleted anything, so I'm not sure where they've gone. Thanks!

Hi Terence,
I did a little research and the loss of all my event folders occurred on Oct. 23rd. That must be when I upgraded to iPhoto '11 v 9.2.1. Sounds about right to me as that is about the time we got our iPhone 4S's
If I restore the library from a Time Machine back up before Oct. 23rd in order to reclaim all my event folders, it will be a backup with the earlier version of iPhoto.
Because of that, do/can/should I:
1. First go into Time Machine and confirm I have a previous working version of iPhoto and all my pictures up to Oct. 23rd. (Assume it never hurts to double check these things.)
2. After confirming I have all my pics from before Oct. 23rd and a working previous version of iPhoto, delete iPhoto '11 v 9.2.1 from my MacBook Pro's Application folder and the iPhoto picture library in "Photo" in the Finder. Then bring back the earlier version of iPhoto with its pictures from a Time Machine backup before Oct. 23rd?
3. Upgrade to iPhoto '11 v 9.2.1 again from the Mac App Store (I assume it will cost nothing as I alreay bought it).
4. Hope that this time the upgrade doesn't result in removing all my events as happened the first time I installed iPhoto '11 v 9.2.1
I am thinking my only other option is to keep what I have, go into iPhoto and choose "Autosplit Events" (maybe choose 1 week as the event time span instead of 1 day). Connect my Time Machine backup harddrive to another computer that has the older version of iPhoto. Open my iPhoto library on that second computer and place it side by side with my computer move through the events on that second computer's iPhoto library and copy the event title and tidy up the events based on that second computer. Sounds pretty tedious, but my library goes back 11 years and there is no way I will remember what some of those earlier photos are about without some help.
I hoping, of course, your backup idea, will work despite the different versions of iPhoto I will have to deal with.
Thanks for all your help.
Mr. Luigi

IPhoto Event Folders now have weird encrypted looking titles?

Many of my iPhoto (also Aperture of course) event folders now have these encrypted looking folder titles and some may contain only one or two pictures.
There's a massive amount of them and I don't understand what created this mess? I have used some iphoto duplicate file location software just in case it may have been part of the problem.
Screenshot example enclosed.

I've run tests on the Gemini app and it found all of the duplicates in my test library except those HDR and normal files taken by an iPhone shooting in the HDR mode.
However, I wasn't able to test it's removal capability to see if it did it all within iPhoto and didn't damage the library structure. You can answer that.
OT

Iphoto: Lost 'events' folders-2 weeks work lost?

A family friend asked for photos in folders. I bought UBS Pen drive, then selected 'events' on my iMac and dragged them to a 128 GB USB pen drive.
30,000 photos are now on pen drive but 'events' have disappeared from my Mac
A couple of questions:
1) Is there a way to recover my events on I mac?
2) Is there a way to move the photos in folders onto pen drive?
Having spent two weeks sorting photos (Including scanned photos) into event folders any suggestions on how to recover this work would be appreciated.

What do you see in the iPhoto window? Against the events nothing, against photos my photos are showing,
1) Is there a way to recover my events on I mac?
Do you have a back up? I have an external USB hard drive plugged into my mac.
2) Is there a way to move the photos in folders onto pen drive?
If photos ar ein Folders then they're not in iPhoto, right? So drag and drop. In iphoto there is 'events' this is a feature of iPhoto.
I also have i phone, The events feature and all events still show there. I guess I will be able to retrieve 'event's by plugging phone to mac via USB but slightly worried in case it synchs info from mac instead and wipes those out as well.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Iphoto recent upgrade - all Events gone. Photos there, sorted only by date. No events

Since the recent upgrade, the new iPhoto has eliminated all Events. The photos are there (I think they all are, but not sure) but there are no events, the photos are all just sorted by date (no titles/events). I had just finished organizing all Events days before the upgrade.
Not happy with this upgrade.

KEY WORDS: "until it's resolved"
Rest assured, the new Photos lack of ability to automatically add new photos as "Events" will be resolved in much the same way that many unwanted, unneeded, and for some users, workflow-crippling changes to Apple operating systems and related software are ever resolved:
1. Apple will do nothing. If few people complain through the proper channels via Feedback, the product will remain as is, and users will either eventually adapt to the new organizing schemes, or will find and use another product that better fit our ways of thinking, manipulating, and organizing our digital images, all shaped by our existing libraries of images that were in iPhoto.
-OR-
2. If enough authentic and specific complaints (in the low millions, at least) are sent promptly and directly to Apple via Feedback, and if the complaints are precise and persistent, and continue relentlessly over a period of years, then some similar capability MIGHT be added later, in some future update, in a couple of years. (Think OS X 10.13.1, "Ellis Island" or whatever geographic icon that future iteration might be named after. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to import their digital images directly into "Events" once again…)
(There are of course many other possible scenarios, none of which involve returning iPhoto to the marketplace, nor "fixing" Photos to be like iPhoto was.)
Not complaining*, simply explaining.
*Because registering outrage and frustration by complaining here in Apple Support Communities does absolutely nothing to ever resolve any issue with Apple. This is a only a user community that Apple allows to exist at it's pleasure. Apple does not officially monitor or ever officially respond to feedback here, and the moderators do not tolerate rants.

IPhoto '08 - Moving/merging events causes photos to be lost

Hello,
I'm trying to move my photos from Picasa to my iMac. I have around 20,000 photos and movies organized into folders on my old PC. I am able to import the pictures to iPhoto but when I try to re-organize events (move some photos from one event to another, merge events) the iPhoto library gets corrupted. *When I click on the thumbnail I can see a big exclamation mark instead of a photo*.
I have faced this issue yesterday (after a few hours spent on organizing pictures in iPhoto!). Today, I tried to re-build the iPhoto library by holding option and command keys - rebuilding did not help. I thought maybe starting from scratch will help - I started from the fresh/empty library in iPhoto, things were moving OK for a while, but at some point I have observed the same problem: I merged two events and I no longer can access certain photos (I can see the exclamation mark instead).
I did not open/modify iPhoto package manually. All the operations were executed via iPhoto application.
While moving photos/merging I can see the set of the following errors in the Console:
* Unable to move /Users/Dominika/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2000/Tripto_CT/06_BristolCT06.jpg
to /Users/Dominika/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2000/Mar 6, 2000/06BristolCT06.jpg
There are quite a few of them, but they do not seem to create the problem. I have checked all the photos reported in these messages in the console and I could open them without any issue (no exclamation mark).
*The second type of error seems to be a source of the problem:*
** Couldn't convert path /Users/dominika/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2001/Inne/070_RockyNeckCT14.jpg" to an FSRef to put on the pasteboard.*
*I'm getting these messages in the console after merging two events, and I cannot access my photos under this event any more (getting exclamation mark)*
The third type of error:
* Can't make new movie: -2048 from path ..../Originals/2001/...jpg
When I opened the iPhoto Library package yesterday I confirmed that problematic photos are still available in the library (but under a different relative location then the thumbnails).
There seem to be a few serious issues with iPhoto. Apart from the fact that it easily breaks the consistency of the iPhoto library, it does not report ANY error to the user that bad things are happening behind the scenes.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Marcin

Marcin
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Your issue seems to be with the underlying file system, not with iPhoto.
Some background:
Events in the iPhoto Window correspond exactly with the Folders in the Originals Folder in the iPhoto Library package file (Right click on it in the Pictures Folder -> Show Package Contents).
You can move photos between Events, you can rename Events, edit them, create them, as long as you do it via the iPhoto Window. Check out the Info Pane (wee 'i', lower left) the name and date fields are editable. Edit a Event Name using the Info Pane, the Event Folder in iPhoto Library/Originals will also have the new name.
When you move files between Events they are also moved on the HD.
Couldn't convert path /Users/dominika/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2001/Inne/070_RockyNeckCT14.jpg" to an FSRef to put on the pasteboard.
means that, for some reason, the file system is unable to execute that move. (That's the reference to the FSRef). However, iPhoto thinks the file was moved, hence the !.
I've simply never seen this issue reported here before. Is everything else on your Mac working correctly?
First off:
Check your HD for errors with Disk Utility, see if that reports anything.
Regards
TD

Iphoto library lacks the picture icon

Hi all-
I noticed a few weird things recently with my iphoto-- many video clips lack thumbnails (ie the only way to tell what clip it is is by actually viewing it). Some are just black/ no video. Same with some pictures- they're just black/gone. I tried to recover using time machine- didn't help. I noticed that in finder, the iphoto library lacks the 'picture' icon and is a "package" file (see attached screenshot). But- it's the right size and other than what I describe above it seems to work ok. I made a backup of entire HD with carbon copy cloner. Even when I reboot and select the external HD iphoto library it looks the same (no icon)- and in fact it won't let me select that "package file" as the library. I tried fixing with iphoto (permissions, recreating thumbnails etc) to no avail. At this point I think I should re-load iphoto and see if that helps-- but my concern is that if I delete iphoto and reload that I won't be able to use the library on my external drive since I can't use it currently.
any suggestions?
I'm using OS X and iPhoto '11, both updated.
thanks in advance,
Brad

If rebuilding the database doesn't solve the problem you might have to give this a try:
Starting over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Open the library package like this.
2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.
This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
Note: your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

Out of the blue some of my event folders now fail to show the thumbnails, just empty frames? whats up with that?

for some reason, some of my event folders are blank on the events page and the event folders no longer show the thumbnails, just hash-mark empty frames. This is just a few events all of a sudden out of many events. Any idea whats going on and how to fix it? Thanks

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. Include the option to rebuild the thumbnails. It can take 3 or 4 goes for this to work

Export iPhoto library and retaining events?

Is there a way to export the photos and videos from iPhoto while retaining the events? In my case, I have over 400 events, and I could do this one event at a time to export the photos, but I'd like to avoid having to do that over 400 times. Additionally, that wouldn't export the videos; I'd have to do that separately and manually put those into the right folders.
Since iPhoto already knows which photos belong in which event, how can I have it export everything into folders divided and titled by the events already present in iPhoto?

This is related to my other post ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2128895 ) about sharing the photos and videos with Windows 7 Media Center through a NAS. Since there doesn't seem to be a native way to do so, I was just going to do one large export of all the photos to the NAS and then just manually update it. However, to do the initial large export, I would like to avoid having to export over 400 different events. I also want to avoid having over 9,500 pictures in one giant folder, unorganized.

IPhoto '08 has deleted library folders from my iPhoto - help!

My iphoto '08 has twice deleted library folders and their contents from my iPhoto. I opened iPhoto and saw all the library folders, then the beachball of death popped up and then the folders vanished. Is there any way to get these folders and their contents back?

Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords 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.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new *iPhoto 08* library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD

I have event folders in photo that no longer exist that I cannot unsync. Suggestions please?

I have discovered that I have event folders in photo that no longer exist on my imac so they are not listed in the itunes list, therefore I have no way to uncheck them in order to unsync them. Any suggestions?

I have already tried your suggestion. When I unsync all photo's I am left with event folders that no longer exist in my iphoto program that are still on the ipad (Oddly, they are folders that were condensed into one larger event). So when I go into itunes there are no folder options to check that would allow me to unsync them. Very frustrating.

IPhoto 9.3 - all EVENTS out of order, random key photos, some empty.

Since iPhoto 9.3 update, all Events folders at top of Source List are showing correctly as thumbnails - correct order (manual), key photos - no probs. But they're also further down the S'List, under another EVENTS, this time out of order. When I go to full screen view to access ALBUMS thumbnails, the Events are above them, looking like Albums (stack of white framed photos), in random order, with random key photos, and some are empty. Also, on this view only, scrolling is not working properly.

I have had the same problem... not to mention I made it worse trying to reset my manual settings for iphoto!!!!
Now all of my stuff on my comupter is out of order!! : ( It will take me months to fix this. I often use iphoto on my ipad for work and it looks like that is not going to happen now!
I am very unhappy about this apple people!
DPM

Iphoto, Can you sync EVENTS?

Does anyone know if you can sync the individual events form iphoto? I can only see albums and the rest of the events are all lumped together. Any help?

I have been syncing Events all along with no problems (at least I think I was as I have no albums in iPhoto but could see all my Events folders listed as sub-folders in AppleTV and could choose them independently). Yesterday, when my ability to sync simply vanished and no longer appeared as an option in AppleTV, I was forced into a factory restore and then the Sync option reappeared. Now, I can no longer sync Events either (but haven't tried Albums yet). All I see now is one Photo folder with thousands of pictures that I have no control over.

Annoyed by iPhoto's lack of event folders

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