HT202146 iPhoto won't upgrade old library

I have iPhoto 9.6 (9.10.29) on my Macbook Pro with OS X Yosemite v. 10.10.1. I tried to access an old iPhoto library from 2012 from an external drive. I got the message: The photo library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of iPhoto. I agreed to Upgrade. It unexpectedly quit. 5 times. Help?

What format is the external drive?

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I bought a new MacBookPro moved everything from old MacBookPro, new machine runs 10.6.7 - but iPhoto won't 'upgrade' the library - just hangs up supposedly while writing new library. help. thanks.

i bought a new MacBookPro moved everything from old MacBookPro, new machine runs 10.6.7 - but iPhoto won't 'upgrade' the library - just hangs up supposedly while writing new library. help. thanks.

How did you "move everything" over?
Migration assistance does not handle the iPhoto library well sometimes - the best way is to drag the bad iphoto library from the pictures folder on the new system to the desktop, connect the two systems together (network, firewire target mode, etc) and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity from the old system to the pictures folder of the new system and launch iPhoto on the new system - it will open and convert the iPhoto library as necessary and you will be fine - once you test the iPhoto library you can delete the one on the desktop
LN

New MBP w/lion; upgraded to iLife11 but iPhoto won't open old library?

I bought a new macbook pro in september. After completing a vacation iMovie, I noticed the new MBP didn't have iDVD on it to burn to send discs to family. I purchased iLife11 for this program but it also updated iPhoto. Pretty cool until I tried to open iPhoto11 and it won't open the old version's library... why? More importantly, how do I get around it? I have a Time Capsule so a backup or two exist if necessary... just want to get this project done without killing the hole weekend! Thanks!

As usual... found the answer after I posted this. I updated the upgrade when I installed iLife11 yesterday. It worked but I still had the problem. I thought I would try it again today to see if there were any additional updates... and KAPOW... there was, and problem FIXED! Thanks!

IPhoto won't open my library, it says I made changes with a newer version?

I D/L'ed iPhoto library manager so that I could split my library because my startup disk is overfilling everytime I try to import photos. I tried using iPhoto lib manager to split my library into two. I created a new library. I also created a new album I dumped my pictures from '03-'07 into. After I did this IpHOTO started saying my original library was made by a newer version of iPhoto and couldn't be opened. I opened the library package to make sure I didn't lose 8000 pictures, luckily all of my pictures were still in the library and organized like usual (folders by year, month, and day). I was able to re-import all of my pictures but as you can imagine the dates were messed up, multiple events with only one picture yet there are 10 separate events for the same day and it also imported a bunch of low res thumbnails (AARRRGH!).
The library manager still lets me choose to open my old library in iPhoto but when IpHOTO launches it gives me the error of being made by a newer version. I even bought iLife '09 *$$* to upgrade to the newest version of iPhoto available. I can still see my old albums in the library manager when my old library is selected but when I try to drag them into my new library I get this error message.
"The library "iPhoto Library" needs to be upgraded to work with iPhoto version 8.0.3 before you can copy photos from it. Please open the library and let iPhoto upgrade it, then try the copy again."
However I can't open this library with the newest version of iPhoto because when I do it says ..
"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."!?
What the? I'm using the newest version of iPhoto!! It couldn't have been changed by a newer version of iPhoto because there ISN'T ONE!
This is soooo frustrating. I've dealt with corrupt iTunes folders all mixed up, with unknown errors occurring when I've tried to update to 10.5.6 and I've figured them both out but this is my bane at the current time!
Any help would be greatly appreciated to keep my photos and vids organized. thanks much,
Tim

Duplicate response to your duplicate post
Unless you opened the Library with a later version, then this is sometimes a symptom of database corruption.
And one cause of library corruption is operating without adequate free disk space
You must have a minimum of 10GB of free disk space to safely operate your Mac. Since you are having notices of inadequate space you almost certainly have much less than that - and the problem is exactly that - nothing to do with any program including iPhoto or IPLM
You must free up space now before you can do anything to recover your photos - adding an external drive is the quickest and easiest
LN
LN

Syncing issues, iPhoto won't build new library

I have two macs - an eMac and an iBook G$. Both are running iPhoto 5.0.4. but I wanted to sync the photo libraries. I made a folder on the desktop of the eMac called "iPhoto Library - New" and dragged the contents of the iBook library over to it. Once it was complete, I dragged this folder into the pictures album next to the original iPhoto Library. Since I couldn't remember the short cut for choosing a new library, I renamed the old one knowing that iPhoto would prompt me to select a library when I opened it. I launched iPhoto and went to select the new library but it won't select it. I read through the old posts and wanted to rebuild the library but it won't allow me to do that - it asks me to select one first. Since it won't let me select neither the new library nor the old library, I thought I would build a new library then import the photos into it as on http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=550004&tstart=0
but now it won't let me build a new library either. When I click build new library, the window disappears like it is going to do something but nothing happens, the program stalls with most of the menu selections grayed out.
What I really want to do is get my laptop pics into the desktop comp. I don't care about the keywords but I do want to keep the dates and both the original and edited versions of the photos intact (so I can still revert to original if necessary). Any suggestions on what I need to do from this point? Thanks in advance for any assistance.

I knew there was no reason why it shouldn't have worked the first time! I restarted my mac, opened iPhoto, and was able to select the imported Library as my default. Thanks anyhow!

IPhoto won't load my library, it just crashes

If anyone can help me with this I would be very grateful.
I recently backed up my iPhoto folder, which was running version 5. I then nuked my computer, and installed Tiger from scratch. Then I installed iLife, updated it using Software Update. I then moved my the "iPhoto Library" into the Pictures folder, and launched iPhoto. iPhoto told me that it needs to upgrade my library from a previous version. So I've tried that. It processes stuff for about 10 seconds, then iPhoto crashes.
I've tried everything I can think of. Trashed preferences. Deleted iPhoto completely and reinstalled. Tried using as a brand new user. Made a blank iPhoto Library folder and slowly added folders and files to it from the old backed up iPhoto Library. If anyone of you is a super-geek, here's what the crash report says:
http://people.whitman.edu/~sprungde/iPhotoCrash.txt
I'm really stuck. It's taken me a long time to develop my iPhoto library, which I use here at work. I really don't want to lose all that organizational work. Does anybody have any ideas? I read the other "crash" posts and none of them quite fit my situation...
Thanks in adavance,
David

Congrats to Lois.
Meanwhile, I've spent several hours trying some other stuff. For fun, I installed iPhoto 4. That didn't work either... at first. I also tried experimenting with removing the album XML file, as well as the "Albums" folder (this may be a hold over from the iPhoto 4 days?). I got to a point, while messing with these files, that iPhoto would actually load my library, but like Lois, it was full of blank grey squares, and not my photos.
My coworker made a google discovery that if you hold down Command(Apple) + Option in iPhoto 5, you can force iPhoto to try to rebuild your photo library. But then I would still get the "Upgrade or Quit" message, and the Upgrade option would crash iPhoto. My coworker also helped me with this little Unix command, which you run from the Terminal:
sudo fs_usage | grep iPhoto
Make sure iPhoto isn't running before you type this in, and then once you start iPhoto, you'll get a huge list of what iPhoto is trying to do with your system. I've posted my results here: http://people.whitman.edu/~sprungde/Terminal-Output-iPhoto.txt
Note that when it's done, you need to push control + C to quit that Unix process (or whatever it's called).
What this report from the Terminal suggests is that right before it crashes, iPhoto seems to be doing something QuickTime-related. Is that the problem? I don't know, but I'm running Quicktime 7.0.3, and Apple just yesterday released an installer that lets you downgrade from 7.0.3 to 7.0.1, here's that link: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime701reinstallerforquicktime703.ht ml . Why has Apple released this? Don't know. Is it connected to my problem? Don't know yet either.
As it turns out, though, you can try that Library Rebuild trick in iPhoto 4 as well. The key command is Command(Apple) + Option + Shift. Now, I'm positive that on my previous machine, I was running iPhoto 5. But I have been using/upgrading iPhoto since it was first introduced, and a google source suggests that iPhoto 4 was less cranky about corruptions in the Library than iPhoto 5 is...
Anyway, I ran the Library Rebuild trick with iPhoto 4. It worked on it for a long time, then crashed. I relaunched, and... there were all my photos and albums! But wait, it's not time to cheer yet. I then ran iPhoto 5. It actually upgraded my Library, but...
It didn't quite work. It's riddled with problems. Some of my albums are completely empty. Every single picture has been squished into a square shaped thumbnail. A chunk-- I don't know how large yet-- of my pictures are just flat out missing. Pushing the edit button yields... nothing. Just a blank space where the picture should be.
By the way, I also called Apple. The nice tech support guy was sympathetic, but basically said that I would be able to manually drag all of my folders (in all those freakin' folders iPhoto creates in its Library) into iPhoto if I let iPhoto create a brand new, empty library... and of course the key thing is that I would lose all my albums, which for me is the whole point.
So, where does that leave me? Maybe I can experiment with downgrading Quicktime. Other than that, does anybody have any ideas? Thank God I have never fully committed to iPhoto for managing my assets. Let this be a warning to you all.
--David

Re: iPhoto deleting photos from old library and new library

Hello. I really hope someone can help me. I'm about to tear my hair out. I recently copied my iPhoto library to an external hard drive because I'm seriously out of space on my 24"iMac (2008). I am a photographer and have a mess of an iPhoto library to clean up. It was a VERY large volume, and it ran overnight. It appears that everything transferred fine. I did the transfer exactly as instructed by many forums: Home > Pictures > iPhoto Library, drag and drop to WD My Book 1 TB EHD formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then I opened iPhoto via the icon in the dock while holding down the Option/Alt key and chose the new location on the ext drive to point iPhoto to the new library. My problem is this:   I went into the old library, which I renamed iPhoto Library - Old (after the fact, which I hope didn't cause the problem), and deleted an event that I didn't care about. To my surprise, it deleted the event in BOTH libraries. I have tried repeatedly to point iPhoto to the right library, both using the dock and going through applications. It is as though the 2 libraries are somehow inter-connected, and not separate. At times, I will open the old library through finder, but I can see it highlight the icon for the EHD and it opens that. I am at my wits end, as at any given point in time I don't know which library it has brought up. I am trialling Aperture, and am trying to move photos over to Aperture from iPhoto, but really need to free up space on my internal drive to be able to work with it. I'd eventually like to move the masters to the EHD, etc., but I'm still in the learning curve with all that (I'll be hitting that forum soon, I'm sure). My highest priority right now is to figure out how to separate the 2 iPhoto duplicate libraries so I can delete the photos from the desktop without affecting the photos on the External Hard Drive. I've tried everything I can think of and everything I found while scouring these forums. Here is the information I think you would need:
                                                         - 24" iMac Intel, Snow Leopard (10.6.8), iPhoto '08 (version 7.1.5)
                                                         - 2 TB WD External hard drive running Time Machine, (so everything from the desktop is backed up).
                                                         - 1TB WD My Book that is formatted as I mentioned above, which I copied the iPhoto Library to.
                                                         - 1 soon-to-be-bald photographer.
Thanks very much in advance for any help anyone can give me. I really like my hair, and don't wish to lose it!
Gail
PS - Just a little background. I have been working on this whole space issue for more than a week now. This is the 3rd new external hard drive I've had this week due to "issues." Had a problem with all 3 but finally figured this one out, and it's now working fine. I am so far behind in some photo editing work because of the hard drive space issues, and I cannot seem to resolve them no matter how hard I try. Hence the frustration. Thanks again.

THANK YOU LARRY!! I did not realize that once you switch libraries, it kept you in that library until you switch back using the option key. I thought that the iPhoto icon would take me to the new library, and going through finder to the old library name would take me to the old one. I was actually in the new library the whole time, and all of the images I deleted were deleted from there. I just switched back to the old library and all of the photos were still there. I also tried deleting from the old library, which is what I wanted to do, and then switching to the new library and it did not affect the photos there at all. So, this was indeed the answer.
Whew, what a relief. You're a life saver. I might actually be able to get some work done now.
Thanks again so much.
Gail

Using External HD and iTunes10.iTunes won't recognize old library on ExtHD

All my music is stored on my Lacie Rugged External Drive. In the past when upgrading iTunes, I was always able to just change the location of my media folder (iTunes prefs>Advanced>etc.). However, iTunes 10 doesn't seem to want to read the old library. Any ideas? I was hoping to avoid transferring all the songs on to my new MacBook Pro.

I have a similar problem. Bought an external drive to store music and pictures, followed the instructions on several threads here on how to transfer these from my D drive (the back up drive on the computer itself) to the L drive (the Buffalo Linkstation); changed the location of the library to the correct address where all the music files are (I can see them there) having consolidated them there. It could not find any of them unless I individually located them (there are over 9000 tracks so I have not got time to do that). I changed the location back to the original and it found them again. Next I tried following the thread on the .itl file - using shift and selecting the library on the L drive, but it only found 300 tracks, some bought, some transferred, some full albums, some only part of the album, an apparently random selection. I tried going back to the original .itl file and the same happened - it only found the same small selection of tracks. I know the files are still there - I can see them, but I have no idea how to connect itunes to them. Please help!

Iphoto can't read old library files after backup

Hi there,
after a HD-Crash, a new HD, a new System and iLife5 I thought putting back the backuped iphoto library in the new iphoto 5 library should work. It doesn’t.
Any other usual image editing program is able to open the .jpg Files (which I extracted manually from the old library folder because I didn’t know anything about an extractor) but iphoto says that the files “may be an unrecognized file type or they may not contain valid data“.
I’m talking about 8000 Pictures!
I tried to put them in manually by dragging some of them.
I tried to import them via the menu
I erased the preferences (that spotlight could find and some I remembered)
And I thought about the REV Drive I used for Backup.
I heared about permission issues...
Any Help out there?
You’ll get a nice Pict!
Thanks

OK, Problem solved.
Today I decided to move the Backuped Folders to some other place.
And than I decided to try again to import them by dragging (again) single jpegs into the (virtual) Library in the iphoto Window.
It worked. I was surprized because that was nothing that I haven’t try before.
BUT:
The Problem was that I did all the steps above by still having the Folders (I tried to import) in the new Library Folder.
SO:
It is right what all the other users say: DON’T DO ANYTHING MANUALY WITH THE IPHOTO LIBRARY FOLDER. NOTHING!

Iphoto cannot see my old library or photo files

in fact even finder can't see the jpegs but the old library icon shows 90GBs of content. If I look inside this using "show package content" i can see all the various iphoto folders and all the jpegs thumbnails etc. Really wierd. I've done a disk utility repair and removed and re installed iphoto but iphoto just opens a new library with no photos in. if i use "switch library" and select the library with 90GBs of potos it still just opens a new empty library. Any one got any ideas?

- quit iPhoto
- hold down your "control" key on your keyboard, and you should see a list of iPhoto Libraries, your computer sees. Ensure you are connecting to the correct Library. It's path is displayed under the box. The one that displays as "default" is the one you are currently connected to.
If you are connected to the correct library, yet still have this issue, likely we have a corrupt iPhoto Library. We can attempt to fix this with iPhoto's First Aid.
- quit iPhoto
- hold down your "option + command" keys on the keyboard, and keep them held down while launching iPhoto. This should launch iPhoto with a "first aid" screen over top of it. Do each of these first aid steps, one at a time, until you have completed all the steps.
Let us know how that works

IPhoto 6 Won't Upgrade v5 Library

When I launch iPhoto 6, I get the following error message: "Unable to upgrade this photo library because the current user doesn not have access. If possible, repair permissions for the iPhoto Library folder and try again." It also says that the path of the item that failed is an invisible .DS_Store file.
I've repaired permissions twice, once with Disk Utility and then with Cocktail. Neither solved the problem. Then I removed the folder with the .DS_Store file, but another .DS_Store file stopped the process.
Anyone had this problem and solved it?
TiBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4) 1GB RAM

blloyd:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Try to manually set the ownership and permissions on the iPhoto Library folder as follows:
Setting Permissions for iPhoto Library Folder
1 - Select the iPhoto Library folder and type Command-I.
2 - When the Info window comes up go to the Ownership and Permissions section and make sure You have Read & Write permission and that the Owner and Group have Read & Write also. Others - Read Only.
3 - Then click on the "Apply to enclosed items..." button.
See if that won't help.

HT5037 Upgrader won't upgrade my library?

When I try to open my iPhoto library, it says that it first needs to be prepared by the iPhoto Upgrader. When I use the Upgrader it says the library does not need to be prepared, but it still won't open. How do I resolve this?

By moving your iPhoto library between Macs with Dropbox there's a good chance the library was damaged due to the fact the Dropbox doesn't have servers formatted properly for iPhoto libraries, OS X Extended (journaled).
Try connecting the two Macs together via Firewire (Target Disk Mode, Transferring files between two computers using FireWire), LAN and copy the library directly from the old Mac to your new one. Or use an external HD formatted properly to transfer the library.
Otherwise, if the other suggested fixes fail to get you back up and running try the following with the library that is more likely to hold all of your image files (even if it can't be opened with iPhoto):
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.

Had Mavericks, upgraded to Yosmite 10.10.1, iPhoto won't upgrade.

Had Mavericks running, upgraded to Yosmite 10.10.1, I own iLife 11, iPage & Numbers & other apps updated/crossed over but my iphoto 9.6 has attempted to 'upgrade' my iphoto database for 8 hrs. Running OS 10.10.1, & have used the iphoto 1.1 fix. Still no good. macbook pro dual 2010. here's a screenshot. Shows 2 iPhoto library files? also app not responding.

Force Quit and try again.
If that fails:
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.

Iphoto won't display photo library

I recently upgraded to iPhoto 9.3.2 and to Mountain Lion on my iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
I'm not 100% sure when this problem occured, but now, when I open iPhoto, it won't display any photos. All it shows is a note saying "To get started with iPhoto...etc"
I've tried the following so far:
- repair permissions
- disk repair
- holding down option command when opening iPhoto and choosing repair database and rebuild database (nothing happened on either occasion)
- tried launching earlier versions of iPhoto from my Time Machine back-up: 9.3.1; 9.3; 9.2.3. Got the same problem with each
- tried to import photos. Tried several different ones but always, iPhoto would hang on 'finishing import'
- tried rebuild library in iPhoto Library Manager but I get an error: An error occurred trying to open the database at /Users/MichaelSasha/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Database/apdb/Library.apdb (14)
I also have a Mac Mini and have successfully upgraded to iPhoto 9.3.2 & Mountain Lion and have no problems with photos. I accessed the Mac Mini from the iMac and copied across a photo and tried to import it on the iMac but got the 'finishing import' hanging issue
This is really puzzling me! I've exhausted all the options I can think of. Hoping someone out there has any suggestions.

Did you try restoring an earlier version of you iPhoto Library and see if it would open with iPhoto? If you have with no success then try this: launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some photos and check to see if the same problem persists. If you can create and run a new library then the problem lies with your current library. And, since you've tried all of the repair fixes the only option left is:
Start 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 Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window.
Click to view full size
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.
OT

IPhoto will not upgrade photo library

I upgraded my iphoto from the old version and now every time I go into the program it says it's updating photos then "locks" up and i have to close iphoto because it's not responding. Help!

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.

HT202146 iPhoto won't upgrade old library

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