I messed up iPhoto library

Running iPhoto on MacBrook Pro with Yosemite. Due to size, my iPhoto library resides on external hard drive.
I'm not sure how it happened but when I open iPhoto only 1 photo shows up. I look at the info for the iPhoto
file on the hard drive and it says the file size is 346 GB so apparently they are still there. Any hope of recovering
the library as it was with the keywords/events. I already had?
Thanks

Any hope of recovering
Yes, but first to confirm that you're opening the library on the EHD and not another library somewhere launch iPhoto with the Option key held down, click on the Other button, navigate to the EHD and select the library there. Does it open and still only show one photo?
Is the EHD formatted OS X Extended (journaled)? How is it connected to your MBP, directly or wirelessly?
What version of iPhoto and system are you using?

Similar Messages

How do I fix a messed-up iPhoto Library?

I have been using iPhoto since version 1. In the early days when iPhoto's performance was severely crippled by large number of photos I used iPhoto Buddy (v1.3) to create separate Libraries. As iPhoto matured and got more efficient at handling large libraries around 2005, I decided to merge my separate (organized by year) Libraries into a single, large Library. I have obviously failed miserably since I now find photos scattered all over my hard drive.
In the Pictures folder I have five iPhoto Libraries: 1) iPhoto Library (7.5 GB, my latest photos) 2) iPhoto Library 2001 (360MB), 3) iPhoto Library 2002 (160MB), 4) iPhoto Library 2003 (202MB) and 5) iPhoto Library Archive (513MB). I understand that the underlying iPhoto Library architecture has changed over time and my earlier Libraries, generated prior to iPhoto '06, are fundamentally different from the more current Libraries (I am now using iPhoto '08 v7.1.5). The first two Libraries in the above list are packages (i.e., newer format) while the others are separate folders with subsequent sub-folders. My most recent photos are so deeply buried in my screwed-up file structure that it practically impossible to find individual original files. For example, here is the path-name to a recent photo: User/kmf/Pictures/iPhoto Library/2003/10/04/iPhoto Library 2004/Data/2008/November 21, 2008!!
How do I restore some order to this mess. My wife is mad at me because she can't find some of her original photo files without needing to drill deep into the file structure. Can a program like iPhoto Library Manager help, although it sounds very much like the iPhoto Buddy application that got me into this mess in the first place? Help.

Karl
Welcome to the Apple user assistance forums
first - you should never be using the finder to look at or move photos
I'd start by launching iPhoto while depressing the option (alt) key and using the select library option and see what libraries you can find that iPhoto likes - open each one and verify it - and then download iPhoto Library manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - and use the paid version to merge the ones you just found into one new library
Once you have a know good library that contains all of the photos from good libraries then back it up and delete the libraries that you merged to create it
Then spotlight "Originals" and see if you find any originals folders from old libraries - if you do take a look at them and see if it looks like you want the photo from them in your "new" library - if you find ones you want drag them (of the folder if you want the entire folder) to iPhoto to import them
Then if you believe there are still photos not in the new library you will have to use spotlight to find JPEGs that are not in the new library and import them
Once you get things like you want my personal suggestion is to keep everything in one big library - and back up often
I only use secondary libraries for projects (books, etc) and testing
Good Luck
LN

Help with messed up iPhoto Library

I fear that I have made a horrendous mistake. I purchased a new Macbook Pro and used the Migration tool. I didn't see where the iPhoto Library transferred over. I found my iPhoto Library on the old Macbook and drug it into Dropbox since it would sync with the new computer. When I opened iPhoto on the new computer all of the events were messed up. None of them are named correctly. A lot of them say they have photos in them but the photos show up as a gray triangle with an exclamation point.
I thought I would check the old computer, but because iPhoto Library is in my Dropbox it simply synced and replicated the "bad" one.
Is there any way to get the "old" iPhoto Library back?

What is your iPhoto version that created the iPhoto Library?
Yes, storing the iPhoto Library in the DropBox probably is the reason, that the library got corrupted. Don't store it on network volumes.
The best way to restore your iPhoto library would be to restore it from your most current backup.
Alternatively you could try to rebuild the library. The procedure differs, depending on your iPhoto version, see: iPhoto 6 and later: Rebuilding the iPhoto library
If that does not help, you could try to rebuild the iPhoto library using iPhoto Library Manager, but that will not be able to restore your book, cards, ..., only the Photos and events.
How to do that is described here by Terence Devlin,
see Option 2: Re: iPhoto thumbnails distorted after every import
Fat Cat Software – iPhoto Library Manager
Regards
Léonie

Moving a totally messed up iPhoto library

Hello,
I hope someone here can provide me with some guidance on this, as I'm about at my wit's end.
I have a client who has recently purchased a new iMac to replace her aging ~2008 iMac. The old iMac had at some point been serviced by a third-party company who for some reason
1.) reinstalled the entire OS (possibly for legitimate reasons... she doesn't know why)
2.) created a new user for the client, but misspelled her name
3.) put all of the previous user data into a directory on the desktop instead of where it should have gone (eg Pictures to Pictures).
Somehow, when they did #3, some of the content of the iPhoto library went into the new library in ~/Pictures, but some of it remained in the directory on the desktop. I realized this when I moved ~/Pictures from the old iMac to the new iMac. When we tried starting iPhoto, it would
1.) complain about permissions because of the misnamed user - repaired using iPhoto's repair permissions function, also reset ACLs for user's home folder via the resetpassword utility.
2.) even with the permissions repaired, it would look for certain files that were located in the directory on the desktop of the old iMac, and crash if you tried to link them (I moved the files to the new machine).
3.) when we could get it to start up properly, none of the photos would display correctly.
None of these issues could be repaired by iPhoto Library First Aid. I tried something like five times, and alternated between copying via the Finder and Carbon Copy Cloner, thinking that maybe one would be better about setting the correct permisions than the other.
None of this stuff worked, and the client has been left without a workable iPhoto library. Has anyone experienced issues like this? Moving an iPhoto library is usually such an easy procedure, but this time it's been an utter nightmare.

The problem sounds like the user (or someone...) has a mixed library - part managed and part referenced.
I would suggest: 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.
The added advantage: it will list all the photos it can't find, so you'll be able to dig them out of the many folders and import them to this new Library.

Messed up iPhoto Library

I used Airport to import photos from another computer into iPhoto ver 6 on my MacBook Pro. Thought this was cool. BUT, now when using iPhoto on Pro. it is always looking for the other computer. I know about moving folders around and how that causes iPhoto to become confused. Reading responses to "Can someone help me start a clean slate?" in topics, will this help iPhoto to forget the other computer. I now experience most of the same problems that this person had. I also deleted all photos on the other computer to provide space on HD. Now they are only in the current iPhoto Library, meaning I can't do much with them.
G4, Sawtooth, 1G mem, airport Mac OS X (10.3.7)

By looking for the other computer are you getting this notification?
Do you Twango?

Iphoto library distorted thumbnails AND links missing

while moving some pictures from my imac (2.1 Gh G5) to my ibook (800 Mh G4) the iphoto program running on my Imac told me it need to "update". Clicking OK resulted in COMPLETE ruin of all my thumbnail photos. They are all distorted and some are missing altogether.
I contacted apple via instant messenger and asked howe to fix this. I was told to rebuild my iphoto library. OK I attempted this, of course iphoto died 1/2 way through the process and now i have NO thumbnails of any of my photos, the entire library is completely disconneted from iphoto. The only good news is that all the pictures are still there.
How can I fix this? Help!!!
Jake

Hi Jakob,
what were the exact steps you took to move pictures from the iMac to the iBook?
If the rebuild didn't work you can create a new library.
Close iPhoto
Rename your messed up iPhoto Library to "iPhoto Library_old"
Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
This is the window you will get
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library
Once this new empty library is open it is time to import the images from your old library
Go to File>add to library
Navigate to the old library on your desktop and highlight it in the window, then click the "open" button.
iPhoto will start importing the images from your old library
This is what to expect:
Your images will be imported in nice dated rolls. (make sure your view is set to sort by rolls to see it) There are a couple of caveats to this. You will get rolls named "Originals" These rolls will contain your video clips and your original images that you had edited. If you had RAW files they would be in those rolls too (I don't do RAW, so I don't know for sure) Delete what you don't want from those rolls. You will also get the jpeg pointer files to your video clips imported. They will just be jpegs and will not point to the video clips anymore as iPhoto made new ones when the clips were imported again. You can delete those. they should be in a roll right next to the newly imported video clips so they are not hard to find. The thumbnail files don't get imported as iPhoto makes new ones when the images are imported.
Once all you images have been imported, check through the library and make sure everything looks ok.
You can now start making your Albums, and do your keywords or any other organizational steps.
You can also delete the old library on the desktop.
It is also a good time to backup this new library to CD/DVD by burning the iPhoto LIbrary folder in the Finder, or copying the iPhoto Library folder to an external drive formatted for Macs, or copying the iPhoto LIbrary folder to an iPod.
Good luck!
Lori

Can't rebuild iPhoto library now

I've had iPhoto problems but throught I had them licked when I broke the library into smaller ones (by year) and began using iPhoto Buddy (very nice). The libraries are about 2000 - 4000 photos in size.
I've noticed that after backing up the libraries using Intego Personal Backup, I am able to open some libraries but not others. I have one for each year since 2000. The application just crashes on open. I've tried using option-open to select a library manually as well as iPhoto Buddy.
I went to rebuild the library using option-apple-iPhoto and iPhoto doesn't even open. Any suggestions? Any thoughts around using backup software? Doesn't make sense that that would have anything to do with it since it presumably is just reading files and not doing anything to them.
I've fixed permissions, trashed preferences file, run the application off a cloned drive, etc.
Thanks in advance.
--David

Hi David,
I don't think your problem is the backup software, but you never know.
To go over your steps..
You used the Option key to switch to another library
The library did not open and iPhoto crashed. any error message?
You used Command Option to launch iPhoto to rebuild the last opened library and nothing happened.
Did iPhoto crash this time to?
-Check and make sure all the libraries are Read/Write for you
iPhoto Library Info
-Clean out all cache files
OnyX
In case you want to create a new library for the ones that don't open...
Close iPhoto
Rename your messed up iPhoto Library to "iPhoto Library_old"
Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
This is the window you will get
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library
Once this new empty library is open it is time to import the images from your old library
Go to File>add to library
Navigate to the old library on your desktop and choose it.
iPhoto will start importing the images from your old library
This is what to expect:
Your images will be imported in nice dated rolls. (make sure your view is set to sort by rolls to see it) There are a couple of caveats to this. You will get rolls named "Originals" These rolls will contain your video clips and your original images that you had edited. If you had RAW files they would be in those rolls too (I don't do RAW, so I don't know for sure) Delete what you don't want from those rolls. You will also get the jpeg pointer files to your video clips imported. They will just be jpegs and will not point to the video clips anymore as iPhoto made new ones when the clips were imported again. You can delete those. they should be in a roll right next to the newly imported video clips so they are not hard to find. The thumbnail files don't get imported as iPhoto makes new ones when the images are imported.
Once all you images have been imported, check through the library and make sure everything looks ok.
You can now start making your Albums, and do your keywords or any other organizational steps.
You can also delete the old library on the desktop.
It is also a good time to backup this new library to CD/DVD by burning the iPhoto LIbrary folder in the Finder, or copying the iPhoto Library folder to an external drive formatted for Macs, or copying the iPhoto LIbrary folder to an iPod.
Good luck!

Messed up my library!!

I'm a fool!
Stupidly, I've messed up my photo heirachy.
I decided to use Backup 3.01 (the .Mac application) and clicked on the iPhoto quick key. It backed up quite fast so I thought I'd check the size. It was only about a Gbt. When I pressed get info on the user/pictures icon it showed about 8Gig.
So. I entered the dreaded user/pictures folder (big mistake) and it had a lot of albums and other weird named stuff, several years and a photo library folder and another photo library_1 folder. (the larger of the two - probably more recent?)
The photolibrary folder was exactly the size of the Backup target.
So. I decided to rearrange everything. I moved everything from the photolibrary into the photolibrary_1 and moved the photolibrary to the trash, then renamed photolibrary_1 as Photolibrary so that the Backup would find the right 'target'
Now I just get the frame outline of the photos and no content.
Is this recoverable?
Thanks.
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

hi Steve,
looks like you have fun in that folder!
First thing to tell you. Don't trust Backup to backup your iPhoto Library. I don't. I manually burn my iPhoto Library folder in the finder to DVD, copy the iPhoto Library folder to my iPod and copy the same library to my iBook. if you have an external drive you would copy the entire iPhoto Library folder to the external. Backup.app does a full backup first, then incremental backups. I am not comfortable with that for some reason.
Backing up your iPhoto Library
1. Burn the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder to a CD or DVD
This method will give you a burned iPhoto Library folder that can be copied back to your computer to replace a damaged library. You can also use this method to backup an old library when you want to create a new Library to use as your current library.
insert a blank CD into your internal or external CD-RW drive and copy the iPhoto library to the CD icon on your desktop. When you drag the CD icon to the Trash/Eject button in the Dock, you are given the option to burn the CD. Click Burn and the CD is created. To burn a DVD backup of your digital images, use iDVD and a SuperDrive-equipped Mac
2. Copy the ENTIRE iPhoto Library to an external drive formated for a Mac. Do not use this as your only back up as the external can also go bad.
3. Copy the ENTIRE iPhoto Library to your iPod in disk mode
4.Creating your own CDs and DVDs for viewing in iPhoto
This method is a great way to back up Albums of older photos or even your entire library if it is small enough to fit on a DVD. This method will give you a library that will mount within iPhoto in the source column to be viewed. To import any images from this library they need to be dragged into your library in the source column.
Second thing, if you go into your Pictures folder there is one iPhoto Library folder there by default. You had to have created another iPhoto Library at some point in time. do you remember doing that? It must have been when using an older version of iPhoto. I think doing a rebuild does that for you and the new rebuilt library has the _1 extension on it.
The Pictures folder you can put any other folders in with images, etc. these do not affect the iPhoto Library folder that iPhoto uses. The only thing you shouldn't touch is the iPhoto Library folder in the Pictures folder. iPhoto has its own way of organizing thing s and changing anything in that folder will, well, give you what you got.
Now to recover...it depends on what you mean by recover.
if you mean to get your library back to the same state it was in before, then that is a maybe. If you can put everything back in the same exact place, then yes, maybe iPhoto will open that library. Most likely not, but it wouldn't hurt to try.
I will post a screen shot online so you can see how it is organized and this will help you try and reconstruct it.
This is a view of how the iPhoto Library looks in the Finder.
It is organized by Year folders. Inside the Year folders are Month folders. Inside the Month folders are the days of the Month. Inside the day folders are the photos you took on that day. If you imported video clips and RAW files on that day they will be in an Originals folder. If you have edited any photo imported on that day, the original will be in that folder also.
Once you reconstruct it, name it iPhoto Library and put it in the Pictures folder.
Launch iPhoto and it will try to open a folder called iPhoto Library by default if there are no other iPhoto Library folders in there.
Like I said, this is a long shot.
The easiest thing to do would bite the bullet and create a new library, then import the images from the messed up library.
Close iPhoto
Rename your messed up iPhoto Library to "iPhoto Library_old"
Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
This is the window you will get
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library
Once this new empty library is open it is time to import the images from your old library
Go to File>add to library
Navigate to the old library on your desktop and choose it.
iPhoto will start importing the images from your old library
This is what to expect:
Your images will be imported in nice dated rolls. (make sure your view is set to sort by rolls to see it) There are a couple of caveats to this. You will get rolls named "Originals" These rolls will contain your video clips and your original images that you had edited. If you had RAW files they would be in those rolls too (I don't do RAW, so I don't know for sure) Delete what you don't want from those rolls. You will also get the jpeg pointer files to your video clips imported. They will just be jpegs and will not point to the video clips anymore as iPhoto made new ones when the clips were imported again. You can delete those. they should be in a roll right next to the newly imported video clips so they are not hard to find. The thumbnail files don't get imported as iPhoto makes new ones when the images are imported.
Once all you images have been imported, check through the library and make sure everything looks ok.
You can now start making your Albums, and do your keywords or any other organizational steps.
You can also delete the old library on the desktop.
It is also a good time to backup this new library to CD/DVD by burning the iPhoto LIbrary folder in the Finder, or copying the iPhoto Library folder to an external drive formatted for Macs, or copying the iPhoto LIbrary folder to an iPod.
Good luck!
Lori

Restore iPhoto library

My iPhoto library somehow is messed. All of the events were combined into one event. I iPhoto closed unexpectedly and I am not able to "undo." I tried to retosre my file from a recent Time Machine backup, but I get a message that there is not enough storage on my drive to copy the iphoto file from TM.
My question is how tdo I safely restore my iphoto file that is now on time machine.

Thank you. I did what you said and was able to copy the iPhoto library to an external hd. I tested it and it works.
I then deleted iPhoto file from Mac hd. Then I tried to restore my iPhoto file from yesterday using tm. This did not work as I keep getting error 36 messages that the restore can not be completed and tm shuts off.
So I have my current messed up iPhoto library on an external drive, no iPhoto library on my Mac hd and time machine files that became corrupted at some point.
My goal is to restore my I photo library to how it was last night.
Any further advice.
Thank you very much. I'm very happy I backed up my file onto an external hd. I'm keeping that safe, for sure.
David

IPhoto Library in a mess....how to organize?

Hi,
I have been putting this off for a couple of years, time to deal with the mess. I have the latest iPhoto 6.0.2, what I need to do is clean out all the doubles, triples and misfiled photos. I have "Modified" "Originals" and I believe they are misfiled. In my Source list I have 17.02GB on the disk, on the "Originals" file I have 8.06 and the "Modified" comes in at 7.71GB.
Pictures>iPhoto Library
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
AlbumData.xml
Data
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Dir.data
Import
iPhoto.ipspot
iPhotoLock.data
iPod Photo Cache
Library.data
Library.iPhoto
Library6.iPhoto
Modified
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Originals
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Thumb32Segment.data
Thumb64Segment.data
ThumbJPGSegment.data
Does all this seem right? Is there a better, cleaner way to organize it all?
I wonder if simply deleating everything other than the originals might clean things up? Everyone has a pack-rat iPhoto problem, only limited my HD space. Deal with it later, later has come.
Thanks for the help, S.

ShakuZen:
It appears you're conversion to V6 possibly did not include all of the originals.
You're iPhoto library folder should look like this. Those year folders outside of the Originals, Modified and Data folders were left over from iPhoto 5. You can move them to the desktop and check to see if they contain any full sized image files. If so then you can assemble them in a new folder and import to get your library back to include all of your photos.
Duplicate Annihilator can cull out duplicates in an iPhoto 6 library (but not those in the carryover folders if there are duplicates in them).
G5 Dual Core 2GHz, 2G RAM, 22 Display, 250G HD, 200G FW HD, QT 7.0.4P Mac OS X (10.4.6) Canon S400, i850 & LIDE 50, Epson R200, 2G Nano

IPhoto library messed up my pictures

One day i open my iPhoto app and i see that half and above my pictures are messed up ... upside down , stretched bigger ...!!!!!
What can i do ... i try rebuild re... re.... all of them but nothing ! I don't have time machine ...

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 Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
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.
Regards
TD

Messed up Iphoto 09 Library

I bought an external hard drive and somehow I messed up my iphoto library. First I bought a seagate and I had so many problems with it I returned it. I think that may have started the problem. Then I bought two WD hard drives one for back up the other exclusively for imovie. I have most of my photos on my iphone can I transfer them back to my iphoto library? A techy friend of mine tried to repair my library but the pictures are all blurry. Also now in each event I have thumbnails of everyones faces!

Best solution is to load your backup from before this happened
It sounds like you have imported an iPhoto library into another iPhoto library - that does not work and creates massive duplication
The photos you have on your iphone are probably very small versions of your photos - essentially only usable for displaying on an iPhone or iPad
ln

Messed up my library IPhoto 2.0.1

I completely messed up my library after reinstalling the operating system a while back. I neglected to read the instructions for restoring the library and everything was in a mess. Today I decided to reinstall IPhoto 2 and its upgrade to 2.01. I cleared out the old library and the pictures folder in my user folder was completely empty. Now as I carefully import the photos one day at a time, I discover that the dates in the new library folder are incorrect. My old library stored on an external hard drive has the dates the photos were taken. The photos display IPhoto in the correct order with the correct dates, but in the pictures folder the new library folder seems to be sorting them by the dates the files were modified. Don't know what's going on here. I'd really like to have them all in the correct order. Any suggestions? Is it time for me to buy the upgrade?

In all my attempts to screw up iPhoto, I don't think I've ever lost a photo that was in the damaged library to begin with. That you can see your pictures in Albums, but not in the Library view is highly irregular. Are the images you see in the albums the full-size images, or are they just thumbnails of the original (that is probably no longer in the library)?
If you've ever enhanced or cropped photos in your old library, that would explain the duplicates. When an image is altered, iPhoto squirrels the original away in case you ever want to revert back to the unaltered version. When the library is rebuilt, depending on the corruption, those originals become orphans. iPhoto treats them as "found" images in your library, and they would show up as duplicates.

Panic - I seem to have messed up a my shared iPhoto library....

I truly hope someone can help me with my issue.
I was following instructions for rebuilding my iphoto library - it is shared between two users and so the library has been moved to the shared folder within the Users directory. I am not sure what happend to cause the mess but when I start iphoto it starts as though it is the first time using it - no pictures just a "to get started" sticky note.
I have started while holding down the option key and confirmed that the library that is being chosen is the one that is in the shared folder. Furthermore when I select the iphoto library that I want to open from within the finder it appears to be 15 gb which is the size I would have normally expected it to be.
Is there some way to fix this data so that I get my photo's back. I do have time machine and so I can go back to a time before I tried to rebuild, but I am really not sure how to do that so if that is the best path I would appreciate any direction to accomplish this.
I have other back ups but at present if I was to have to back to them it would be a year or more of very key photos lost.
Please help and thank you.
Scott

As I continue to try and figure this out I have noticed that even the library that I did not touch or try to update - (an older one that was not shared and that resided in my home directory under Pictures - the default location for iphoto libraries) will not open now. This library is a year or so old but normally would have over 1000 photos. It appears as an available library to open when I start iPhoto while holding down the option key but even after being selected iphoto opens completely empty.
It seems like there is something that is preventing iPhoto from reading these libraries but I am not sure how to correct this. I suspect when I try to restore from time machine I will encounter the same issue. Before I do anything else I am copying the data that was in the Photo Masters folder from within the iPhoto package to an external HD. They are all JPGs and appear to open properly inside Preview so once completed I will be dealing with trying to get iPhoto to work not the more critical issue of recovering 9 years of family photos.
Still will be very appreciative of any guidance on getting back to normal.
sg.

Iphoto library messed up

In some ways, I have similar problems as other posters. In some way, the problems are different.
Last night, I uploaded about 32 of photos to my iPhoto (4.0.3). Then I installed the latest software update. Afterwards, I edited some of the photos in iPhoto (rotate orientation, delete the ugly ones, redeye reduction and cropping). Then, I created a new album, named it, and dropped those photos in (as I've done before). Afterwards, I close my laptop and went to bed. At the time, I didn't quit the computer after the completion of my software update.
Today, I decided to upload those 20 or so photos to Facebook. However, after I uploaded it, some of them are blank, gray, and obviously corrupted. I'd say out of 20-something photos, 7 or 8 are good. I open iPhoto and now ALL my photos are gone.
Then I restart my computer and open iPhotos again. Still, no photos. I then repaired disk permission. I also duplicated my existing iPhoto library folder and backed it up. Then I "shift+option" start iPhoto and try to repair my library. And here's what I found:
1) iPhoto quit unexpectedly last minute. By my estimation, there's less than 5% left. So it's almost done repairing.
2) All my album folders are here. But they're empty.
3) Most (But not all) of the photos I had before last night, is recovered. Though they are no longer in proper chronological order. However, they retained the edits that I've done (ie red eye, cropping).
4) the latest batch of photos, the ones I uploaded last night, are still corrupted. They appeared as blanks on the import page.
HOWEVER, when I look for them in the Finder window, they are present in the folder. The thumbnail shows up fine in Finder preview window. But the super small thumbnail next to the file name is ruined. I didn't open the pictures in Finder. But when I check out the actual "Thumbnail" folder within Folder, the corrupted pictures all have 0kb thumbnails.
5) The title of my photos are all renamed to "Roll 2 - ####" rather than the previous "DSC#######". However, if I look up those pictures in my Finder window, they retained their "DSC######" file name.
I tried renaming my restored library and re-restore it again. And AGAIN, it quit prematurely.
So I don't know what the deal is. The fact that the thumbnail shows up in my Finder preview window makes me think that there an uncorrupted copy of the pictures out there. I don't care even if it's small. I don't plan to print it. But I'd like to know how to find and recover them since they're NOT in the thumbnail folder.
Also, how do I recover some of my old photos and albums? There are picture there that I want to print. So I'd like to get the original version.
Of course, by the sound of my panic, it's obvious that I didn't back up my photos. Trust me, I've learned from my mistakes. Do I need to use 3rd party software to recover my photos? Help!

Let's try it this way...
Assuming the rebuild attempt created another "iPhoto Library_1" folder, move it to the trash again. Move your original iPhoto Library folder temporarily to the desktop. Start iPhoto. You should be prompted to either locate your photo library, or create a new one -- choose "Create New..."
After iPhoto has opened to an empty photo library, quit iPhoto. Find your iPhoto Library folder on the desktop, and drag it to the newly created iPhoto Library folder in your pictures folder. Drop the old iPhoto Library folder into the new one (do not replace; you want it inside).
Now try the rebuild one more time. You'll have no albums (just recreate what you want), but all your photos should now be available again.

I messed up iPhoto library

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