"Aperture Library Needs to be Upgraded" after iPhoto 9.3 upgrade

Question

This issue began when iPhoto crashed during a low battery scenario while using latest version of iPhoto before 9.3 upgrade. I could not open iPhoto unless I bought and installed Aperture. I have never owned or installed Aperture.
I am running lion OS
iPhoto became corrupted when battery on mac book pro was nearing 20%
in the middle of the corruption problem, I upgraded to iPhoto 9.3 using Software Update on 6/18/2012 (hoping it would reinstall the needed files)
then iPhoto library wouldn't open because it was expecting . (probably because aperture and iPhoto can now view each others' libraries).
For a while after the initial crash, starting iPhoto would crash entire machine
I reset permissions
ran a tool called Yasu clears a bunch of cashes
started in *safe mode*
tried to rebuild iPhoto library with option/command keys - it never allowed that step
spoke to Tier 2 Apple application support on the phone
he helped me create a new iPhoto library by opening iPhoto using *option* key
imported all 20k photos but lost all albums and descriptions because the mappings to the original files are stored in a single file that does not get updated when you re-import photos. hence, there was no way to update the new album locations
he also told me I could not use my Time Machine backup because that iPhoto library was a different version than current, 9.3 iPhoto library (thankfully, he was guessing wrong)
he warned that even if I installed Aperture it might not solve my problem
visited Genius Bar at Fashion Valley storehe told me there was starting to be some chatter on the discussion boards about similar problems but I should probably wait for an apple update to the problem that must surely be coming soon
The Fix:
I restored iPhoto from last good time machine iPhoto backup
It was dated: sunday June 10, 2012
The Good:
Many photos and folders in iPhoto restored!
Many iPhoto albums recovered!
except...
The Bad:
Time Machine only restored from last *full* time machine backup
*full* those are backups that occur in time machine when the iPhoto app is *closed*
restored items only include items before February 2012 when presumably iPhoto was closed during the backup
imported photos and albums look good, except the last import was 2/2012

Answer 1

UPDATE
i restored a later version of my iphoto (6/18) that included ALL of my photos. that backup was manually made using time machine - AFTER the problems began, so i knew it was risky. however, i wanted to use it because it contained ALL of my photos and albums.
this did not work well.
all of the photo *events* imported (with some small problems).
NONE of *albums* imported.
the thumbnails were all grayed out or black.
i was able to access the "photo library first aid" screen by holding down *option/command* keys to start the first aid process. before i restored from time machine, i was not able to get my corrupt library to get to this step, so this was a pretty big success.
using the available options brought back the thumbnails, but not albums.
using the last ditch "rebuild database" option began to update facebook albums that i had posted using iphoto!
what a pain and embarassment.
i went back to the 6/10 TM backup
this was because one of the upsides to this whole ordeal was that all of my photos were intact in Finder. some photos before 6/10 were in Finder but not in iphoto and none after 6/10 were displaying in iphoto, but i had a base to work with.
the folders in finder resided in the iphoto library area and in the iphoto file structure (Masters/Year/Month/Day/Event).
after the initial restore a few days ago, i used iphoto's "import" feature to pull in those photos and it placed them into an event folder for the DAY i imported them... not picking up the day they were originally taken or where they resided in the iphoto file structure (i was bummed).
after restoring the 6/10 backup, the state was as it was in my initial post.
i used "Repair Database" (again holding down *option/command*) from the Photo Library First Aid screen and iphoto pulled in all the photos - by their correct date - from the file structure in finder. i was able to restore all of the photos and all the albums related to those photos!
woo hoo!
i had to also use the "Repair Thumbnails" to get the thumbnails from those recently imported photos to appear corrrectly in iphoto (small price to pay).
there may be some albums missing, but this is far and away better than what was originally restored.
my next step is to restore photos from TM that were created "after" 6/10. they reside in the file structure and my guess is that i will be able to "repair database" to get them added to iphoto.
Message was edited by: splive