Help - iPhoto Library mangled

Hi, Any help would be greatly appreciated as I cannot find any answers in other posts.
The situation: I ran out of space on my Macbook Air, so I copied my iPhoto library (65GB) onto an external drive. Then bought a new iMac and, using iPhoto 11, selected the library from the external drive and imported it into iPhoto. It imported overnight, but 1) ALL events were renamed/recreated -- 2) ALL albums and slideshows are gone --- 3) there are crazy amounts of duplicate photos and events with new event names --- 4) there are new photos in the events from cropped faces of people in other pictures.
How can this be fixed?
Should I re-import the library and use some other method of importing?
This is really important because I have many slideshows and albums of family events, deceased relatives, etc.

and, using iPhoto 11, selected the library from the external drive and imported it into iPhoto
Never import one Library to another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.
To move the Library to the new machine simply copy it to the Pictures Folder and open it. That's it.

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Please help iPhoto library problems - faces, facebook etc.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but iPhoto 09 has never worked very well for me. When I first started to use iPhoto 09 I went through my library to tag everyone so they came up in the faces thing. I had to add lots of missing faces because it didn't detect many. Then it merged lots of the faces together under one face name and also lost most of the ones I had tagged. I was really annoyed because this took me ages and I read on the forum that others were having problems so I decided to leave it for a while. I also had a huge problem uploading to facebook. When I made an album to upload it would start but then my internet would go off and then iPhoto just crashed. Whenever I touch any of the facebook albums iPhoto just crashes. After a couple of updates I started to think these features might be working better so I decided to sort out my library. I started to sort out the faces thing where they different people had been merged. I went through and added lots of missing faces. When I went back to check these photos the names I had added disappeared from the photo. I tried about 10 times and each time they disappeared on the same photos. Facebook was still crashing so I deleted all of my facebook albums which took ages because it kept crashing. Now it has duplicated an event and put it under a blank name and a different date. When i try to delete the photos they stay there and when I try to merge the folders that are the same, another event gets put in the folder of the same date, creating different duplicates. I don't understand what i'm doing wrong and I'm so scared of losing photos and all of the things like dates and order etc. Can anyone tell me why i'm having all of these problems? I think i need to rebuild my libary but I don't know how and i'm scared of losing photos or dates, or names or places or faces. Sorry such a long post, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

It's likely that your Library database has been damaged in all the crashing.
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.
Regards
TD

Looking for help with using a NAS to store iphoto library.

I have a Seagate Business Storage 2 bay NAS and wish to move my iphoto library out of my MacBookpro to the NAS so it can be accessed from my iMac or the other user on the MacBook pro (appreciate that this can be done without NAS but need to make space on the MBP). I have partially achieved this but get messages saying that cannot access file (reset permission rights) despite the file not being open by any user. I'm competent but not massively techy and desperately need help.

SImple: You can't do it.
Two reasons: typically a NAS is the wrong disk format. Secondly having an iPhoto Library on a network is not recommended.
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
for more. Note also the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

My iphoto library folder with files of my pictures is missing from the pictures folder, only the application icon remains. I have read through similar discussions but have not managed to fix the problem with the recommended solutions. Can anyone help?

I have a Macbook Pro with iphoto '08 running on Mac OS X version 10.5.8. I used to be able to go to my pictures folder on my HD and access my pictures via that iphoto library folder. There used to be a small arrow next to the iphoto icon with all the albums then listed within the folder (to the right). That arrow is now gone and all I have is the iphoto application icon which just reopens iphoto when I click on it, but I want to be able to access the data files. Somehow I do have files btwn 2008 and 2009 but it hasn't created these since then...Could someone please help me to restore this ability? I have read other similar posts but they seem to be related to lost data all together and I do luckily have all my pictures in iphoto still. I just can't access them in the pictures folder which means I can't access them on my external hard drive. I am now out of start up disc space somehow so I figured I had to delete some albums (I have 12,090 pictures) and do have them backed up but want to make sure I can go back for them when I need them. I did export all the pictures to a folder on the hard drive but it is all 12,090 in one long list with only numbers as names and not in any order, this will be a nightmare to access later! Please help! Thank you!

You can’t open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto.
That indicates that that is your library. Put it in your Pictures folder if it already isn't there and make sure it's named "iPhoto Library". It should look like this:
Now launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and select that library to open. If you get that same message close iPhoto and try the following;
Apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
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.

Terrance Devlin answered a question about iPhoto (4-2012) re:copying iPhoto Library to an ExHD, and losing all the albums. I can't locate the "Choose Library" when I open iPhoto with the opt button. Can anyone help?

I tried to move my images (over 25,000) to an External Hard drive to open up some memory, hoping to make my computer run faster. It took three hours to move the images and I see them all in the mac's menus. However when I try to open them with iPhoto now, none appeared. and when I tried to import them back to the main HD they come in to iPhoto just fine, but not with the albums nor any of the massive organization i'd created in the original. this represents years of images, and I can't imagine that I'd have to recopy them into folders/albums again.
Terrance Devlin answered a similar question back in April of last year. He said to make sure the ExHD is formatted to MAC OS Extended (Journaled) and to move the library to the ExHD and then open iPhoto with the option button and select "Choose Library" from the resulting menu.
Command "I" tells me that the new drive is formatted correctly. I can't locate the "Choose Library" when I open iPhoto with the opt button.
First, I wondered if the application needs to be on the same drive as the Library. I sure would like to know if I can find out how to restore all the folders I had them in. Terrance's advice helped the user that had asked the question.
Here's the url for that archived discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3849933?start=0&tstart=0
Can anyone help? I'm using iPhoto 5. My MAC is an OS X version 10.4.11.
thanks, brokenlom

Here are Apple's instructions:
If you are using iPhoto ’06 or earlier, you will need to follow these steps to tell iPhoto where the Library is now located:
Hold down the Option key on the keyboard and open iPhoto. Keep the Option key held down until you are prompted to create or choose an iPhoto Library.
Click Choose Library.
Locate and select the iPhoto Library in its new location.
(from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229 )
Below (in the link below) is what you should see when holding down the option key and opening iPhoto. Keep holding down the option key until this dialogue comes up. You want to select the Choose Library button.
http://appleclinic.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/change-default-dir-iphoto/

My iphoto library disappeared. i am trying to restore my library from time machine -- from an external drive -- but everytime it tries to copy my library it tells me it can't do it because i don't have access to my iphoto library??!!! help!!

My iphoto library inexplicably disappeared! i am panicked but i do back up by time machine to an external drive and also to JustCloud. I am trying to restore my iphoto library from a back up on feb 28, 2014 and it says it's copying but then gives me a message that it can't do it because i "don't have authorization to access iphoto library"?! what does this mean? i really want to get my library back on my mac. Also if anyone knows why this happened or where my photos might be on my computer, i'd appreciate help with that, too.

Thank you Terence for your help. I was able to restore my backup from my time machine ext drive to a new 1tb seagate ext drive. so i felt sort of ok. but yesterday that older ext drive i used for time machine wouldn't open! i called applecare and they trouble shooted with me and said it's probably a goner and data is probably corrupted. it's only a few years old and i'm very careful with it. my husband accidentally dropped my new drive last night -- i know, unbelievable, i was SO upset, poor guy -- but I'm so stressed with all of this. i have 10 years of photos and videos. so now i only have the one newer drive with a backup. i have to buy another one today to backup again so i at least have two backups. i tried to delete a ton of files last night to free up the 30 gb of space i need to get my full library back on my mac. i have 90gb free and deleted 7 years worth of photos i had on picasa that were in my "pictures" folder and also a ton or random photos and videos i had in that same pictures folder and thought that would give me the 30 gb but it hardly freed up any space at all! do you know why that is? all of this stuff is really a pain and really stressful. thank god i did have a backup in the first place but now i am panicked the one i have left will somehow crash. especially after my husband dropped the drive lastnight! it didn't fall far and fell onto a wood floor and seems fine, but after my older ext drive crashed yesterday -- and i lost my entire iphoto library a fewweeks ago off my mac -- i feel cursed. any answers you have would be great. thank you.

Help! How can I restore iTunes/iPhoto library from Time Capsule to new Mac?

Sorry to trouble you, because it looks like this should be an easy thing, but I can't find an answer anywhere...
I've got an 2008 MacBook Pro that suddenly began to suffer start up problems. Sometimes it boots to a black/grey screen and sometimes the screen/mouse freezes after only a few minutes of use.
I've borrowed my brother's Mac until I can find out how to get mine repaired, so I'd like to copy over my iTunes and iPhoto stuff from a Time Capsule (where I'm hoping it hasn't been damaged) to his Mac. I only want to copy the iTunes and iPhoto stuff, without filling up his computer with all my other junk.
Is there an easy way to do this? Thanks!

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!)

I accidentally ran iPhoto Library Upgrader on my Picture folder and now I have to right click on it to "show contents" instead of looking at it in Finder. Help!

Help! I have 2 problems related to iPhoto:
1: I accidentally ran iPhoto Library Upgrader on my Picture folder and now I have to right click on it to "show contents" instead of double clicking on it and looking at it in Finder. I cannot figure out how to fix my Pictures Folder so that I can click on it and view it in Finder, when I double click on it Terminal opens up with this message "Pictures - Bash 80x24" and
Last login: Mon Nov 3 14:00:05 on ttys000
Christinas-MacBook-Pro:Pictures christinagrierson$
It will not let me replace or delete the folder... I got to my files and backed them up, but trying to avoid reinstalling my OS.
2: When I try to Upgrade my Library.iPhoto file so I can open it in iPhoto it says I need to finish by opening in iPhoto, but then when I do, it tells me it first needs to be upgraded in the iPhoto Library Upgrader... Vicious circle. Please, help! Just trying to recover about 3 years worth of photos...

Hi! Thanks for responding!
I have iPhoto 9.5.1, I am on OS X Version 10.9.5 on a MacBook Pro with 2.66 GHz
My current "iPhoto Library" file is OK (I can open it with iPhoto), however I cannot access the old one from iPhoto 6 titled Library.iPhoto
I tried right clicking and choosing the application, it did not work.
"exactly how did you "I got to my files and backed them up"" - I showed the contents of my Pictures folder, and it opened up the folders in Finder and I copied them to an external hard drive. In my Picture folder I have several folders of Photos plus the iPhoto Library files (old & current)
I do have old back ups, but they are from April, and I recently imported 5 months of photos from my iPhone, so the iPhoto Library I copied after showing contents is the one I need.

Help. Why can't I move an iPhoto library to another Mac.

Help. This should be a simple thing to do but I can't make it work. While on vacation in Europe, I created a new iPhoto library on my MacBook Pro for my son to load his photos into - all worked well, his library is 1.44 Gbytes. We live in different states and now I'm trying to get his iPhoto library to him so he can load it into his computer. Because of it's size (1G limit), I can't use my MobileMe Public folder so I'm trying to put it onto a Flash drive so I can send that to him. (I even split the library into multiples to get under the 1G public folder limit but when I try to upload to the Public folder I always get a Public folder upload error message. Maybe there's a reason that the iPhoto library file can't be moved this way.)
Anyway, I reformatted the Flash drive for Mac Journaled and moved the iPhoto library onto it. Then I plugged the Flash drive into my iMac to make sure all is okay. When I try to open the iPhoto library on my iMac (holding the Option key), I get this error 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."
The error message is incorrect, I have iPhoto '09 Version 8.1.2 (424) on both my MacBook Pro and my IMac.
Anyone know what's happening here and how to make this simple transfer work?

You'll get that message in error with a corrupted database sometimes.
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 Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 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. .
Regards
TD

I have 2 iphoto libraries but one is lost, missing, cannot seem to find it... tried an apple care person - they were no help - we use Time Machine for external backup... but cannot find my older iPhoto library! I desperately need some help!

I have recently had something really odd happen within iphoto. My photos from May-Oct 2013 appeared to be missing from my primary Iphoto library.
last night I was trying to find any additional Iphoto libraries on my Imac... I could not find them... but then somehow the May-Oct 2013 library showed up and now I cannot find the "current" primary Iphoto library. I sought help from apple care today but no solutoin from them after 2 hours trying. I have timemachine that backs up my Imac each day to an external hard drive. When I open Iphoto while holding down the "option" key - it lets me choose which Iphoto library... but only (1) library comes up... I can't figure out what happened - but it seems that I must have more than one Iphoto library because yesterday I was able to see all my photos except the "gap in dates" from May-Oct 2013. Today - I can only open a Library called Iphoto2014... and it contains the photos from the gap in dates. I can't "see" any other options to open photos... but just yesterday there appeared to be a different library available.
Any advice or steps i should take to locate my missing photos - would be soooooo much appreciated.

I have recently had something really odd happen within iphoto. My photos from May-Oct 2013 appeared to be missing from my primary Iphoto library.
last night I was trying to find any additional Iphoto libraries on my Imac... I could not find them... but then somehow the May-Oct 2013 library showed up and now I cannot find the "current" primary Iphoto library. I sought help from apple care today but no solutoin from them after 2 hours trying. I have timemachine that backs up my Imac each day to an external hard drive. When I open Iphoto while holding down the "option" key - it lets me choose which Iphoto library... but only (1) library comes up... I can't figure out what happened - but it seems that I must have more than one Iphoto library because yesterday I was able to see all my photos except the "gap in dates" from May-Oct 2013. Today - I can only open a Library called Iphoto2014... and it contains the photos from the gap in dates. I can't "see" any other options to open photos... but just yesterday there appeared to be a different library available.
Any advice or steps i should take to locate my missing photos - would be soooooo much appreciated.

Help! How do I synchronize iPhoto library mac to mac?

I have an imac and powerbook. one iphoto library has stuff the other doesn't and vice versa. can someone PLEASE tell me the easiest way to synchronize my libraries w/o having to do massive import/exports and re-doing all my photo edits?? thanks!!

Dorothy,
Although you can create a backup scheme and copy the current and entire iPhoto Library between your two Macs, there is no way to synchronize iPhoto between multiple machines.
Sharing iPhoto libraries between Macs works very well but it may not accomplish what you want.
Hope this helped!
Sam

I moved my entire iPhoto Library to an external hard drive, which seems to have worked. But now my Mac Pro shows a backup of the same size in the storage info and has not freed up any space. help!

I moved my entire Iphoto Library from my Macbook Pro to an external hard drive. (Prior to this, I also copied the entire library to a different ehd, plus I have 2 other ehdrives with backups). I was trying to get more space on my hd. It has a capacity of 500GB, but was down to 70GB usable, with about 300GB used up by photos. I moved the library by going to Finder, using Command+Drag+Drop onto the new Seagate ext hard drive icon. The move seems to have worked, as the library shows up on the ehd, plus will open from there. My problem is that now my Macbook Pro shows that I STILL have only 70GB available out of the 500, and that 300GB is used up by "Backups", which it did not indicate before.
I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
Thanks for any and all help!

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

HELP, please! My photos have disappeared from iPhoto library & I can only see them on the screensaver.

Firstly, I should say we haven't updated/installed/deleted anything. I just opened iPhoto yesterday and first it told me it couldn't open up without specifying a library, but then it seemed our library has just disappeared. I then created a new library as, I have to admit, me & my DH are complete tecno dummies, but that didn't help much. The only thing which we have done in the past couple of days is set up the screensaver to play our photos. So now we can only see the photos on that - I'm presuming that means they haven't been completely lost (?) but am in a panic as we've got no back-up (three years worth of photos!).
When I go on 'system preferences' (hope that's the correct translation, our computer's using Italian) and the screensaver, I can see 'picture folder' where all the photos are but I can't find that anywhere else on the computer.
Also, I read other threads about similar probs & tried launching iPhoto pressing down 'option & control' but that didn't help me out either.
We also spent half an hour on the phone to the Apple helpline here in Italy (yes, that's a charged call) to try and understand what's gone wrong and the advisor just kept telling us she didn't know how to help us out 'cause our Mac is an old model
Apologies in advance for my complete ignorance about how to solve this problem but I'd be really grateful if someone out there could shed some light on what's happened.

when you say to go to my Pictures Folder, do you mean to go on Finder, then Pictures, then look at the iPhoto library?
Yes. Is there more than one there?
The material in your screensaver are cached images. They cannot be recovered and soon they will go way.
If you have deleted your Library (and it sounds like you have done this, accidentally) the you have deleted your Photos and you need to restore from your back up.
Regards
TD

HELP... WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?? Did I loose all my pictures?? The iPhoto Library is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have permission to make changes to it.

Everytime I click on my Iphoto icon this is what pops up
The iPhoto Library is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have permission to make changes to it.
I can't get into my library.
I thought I did a back up onto a TAB and I can't unlock it from there either... HELP!! I'm not computer savy enough to figure this out!!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE... HELP ME!!
I've gotten frustrated and I've cried and I'm hoping there is help out there!
Thanks!

re-post in the iPhoto forum where all the people that are very familiar with that software hang out. You are much more likely to get a quicker answer there. Good luck.

HT2488 I imported pictures into iPhoto from my iPhone, when trying to find my pictures by clicking on iPhoto Library it is always empty. I had to create a new folder and copy the same exact pics in the new folder just to be able to access them.. help plea

I imported photos into iPhoto from my iPhone, however i cannot access them. When clicking on iPhoto Library where they should be stored the folder is blank but if i open up iphoto from the dock menu they appear. I had to create a new folder just to access them. help please, because making a new folder takes up unnecessary space.

There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto: You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
There's a similar option in Outlook and many, many other apps. If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running:
For users of 10.6 and later: You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu.
Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and 10.5 Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
File -> Export: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
Show File: a. On iPhoto 09 and earlier: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected. 3.b.
b: On iPhoto 11 and later: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.

Help - iPhoto Library mangled

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