Interesting iPhoto "unrecognized file" issue....

My wife scanned in a bunch of photos on her Intel iMac running 10.6, using an HP scanner and the scanner drivers built into Snow Leopard.
iPhoto refused to recognize about half of them. They would open just fine in Preview and in the quick-look, but iPhoto wanted no part of them.
Photoshop had no problem with them, so I opened them in Photoshop and saved them as JPEGs. iPhoto still would not import them.
Same for JPEG-2000 and PNG.
Saving them as TIFF files worked and iPhoto would import the TIFFs.
Now here's where it gets REALLY odd.
I had iPhoto export the images it (finally) accepted as TIFFs to a folder, in jpeg format.
You guessed it - iPhoto would not re-import the files that iPhoto had created. Returned the same unrecognized file type error.
Totally weird.
Matt

Surfguinea,
I had never used Automator before, and I was amazed just how easy and intuitive it is to set up and use a work flow...
To ensure my original photos are preserved, I decided first to copy them to the desk top, and after Automator has completed the conversion, to manually move them to my iPhoto file library folders...
The steps you need to take are...
Open Automator, select Finder, Applications, Automator, then choose the Workflow template...
Then select the Actions from the library, and drag them to the window to build the workflow sequence...
The actions you need to convert the colour profile are...
Ask for Finder items (select from File & Folders)...
Select Start at: and pick the folder that contains your photos...
Select Type: and select Files, and tick Allow Multiple Selections.
Copy Finder items (select from File and Folders)...
Select To: and select Desktop (or another folder if you wish)
Apply ColorSync Profile to Images (select from Photos)...
Select Profile:, Display, and the pick the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 option.
Select the Run button, and you will be prompted to select multiple photos to convert...
The photos selected will be copied to the Desktop (or your new folder),
and the Colour Profile will be converted to sRGB IEC61966-2.1,
which iPhoto is quite happy to import.
Manually move the converted photos from the DeskTop to wherever you want to keep your Photos, or import directly into iPhoto.
I suggest you select a few photos only for your first Automator Run, have a look at the before and photos, and confirm the conversion.
Right click on the photo file name in Finder,
Select Info, then More info, and
Note the Colour profile.
Have fun...

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IPhoto says it cannot import my photos b/c they may be an unrecognized file or the file may not contain valid data. The operation could not be completed. Error code is: ImageCaptureCoreError-9905.

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Are you using Photos, or iPhoto? Maybe you've got a corrupt file on your camera. I would try using the image capture application to import the bad picture to my desktop. If it works and the picture looks ok, then delete that pic from the camera, then try to import into iphoto again. You can then import the pic it was saying was bad from your desktop.
Or, try downloading all the pics using image capture and then import from the download folder.

Photo will not upload my pictures from the same camera that always worked in IPhoto. Says "could not be imported (may be unrecognized file type or files may not contain valid data). So how do I do it?

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Try image capture or a card reader - after the photos are safely on your Mac then use the camera's format command to reformat the memory card
LN

Unrecognized file in iPhoto

hello.
i've been using iPhoto for a couple of months now. i really enjoy the way it organizes my pictures on a by-date-basis. however, i encountered this problem only now.
i was looking at some pictures that are one month old, and i wanted to duplicate them so as i may be able to edit them without losing the original pics. however, i realize that the pictures aren't duplicating. so, i double-clicked on one pic and iPhoto showed the sign. the thumbnails are still ok, but i get that sign when i try to enlarge the pics for editing. i looked at the folder using the finder and i saw that the original pics are still where they are. i tried to re-import the pics by dragging them to iPhoto but i got this message:
"The following files could not be imported (they may be an unrecognized file type of the files may not contain valid data.)"
by the way, i am using iPhoto 6.0.6.
if someone could help me with this. thanks.
gary

gary
The ! or ? turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.
The most common cause of this is User Activity in the iPhoto Library Folder. Have you altered, moved or renamed anything in the iPhoto Library Folder?
If you haven't, then try rebuilding the database. Hold down the apple and option (or alt) keys and launch iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild.
You cannot import files that are in the iPhoto Library Folder = this is a sensible precaution against accidental duplication.
Also, iPhoto always works on a copy of the Original Pic. In the Photos menu you see the command 'Revert to Original', this allows you to do just that.
Regards
TD

Having problems emailing with iPhoto 9.2.1 on all my devices. Photos either do mot arrive or arrive as an unrecognized file type, or sometimes go straight through. Apple support has been unable to resolve. Does anyone have any suggestions???

Photos either do not arrive at all or arrive as an unrecognized file type, or sometimes go straight through. Apple support has been unable to resolve. Does anyone have any suggestions??? I am experiencing this on all my devices -- MacBookAir, iMac, both running most current version of Lion; iPad v1.0; and iPhone 4S

Turnmerv wrote:
Photos either do not arrive at all or arrive as an unrecognized file type, or sometimes go straight through. Apple support has been unable to resolve. Does anyone have any suggestions??? I am experiencing this on all my devices -- MacBookAir, iMac, both running most current version of Lion; iPad v1.0; and iPhone 4S
If you can not send from any of these devices then it has to be your e-mail service - the e-mail clients for OS X and for IOS 5 are totally different - the only common thread between all of these devices is your e-mail service
LN

IPhoto 6 - Import issue, hangs at end

Folks, any help with this would be much appreciated.
I installed iLife 06 and all went well, other than the "recovered photos" issue which others have mentioned - no biggie as there were only 3.
But I have a problem now when importing from disc (HD or CD) - in that the import goes ahead, but freezes at the end. iPhoto doesn't freeze - you can look at folders / the library etc.. while the import process is hanging - and interestingly the library does include the photos within the import which has hung.
The import will hang for ages (hours, not seconds), and I can't stop it using the stop import button, nor can I quit iPhoto (hoping it will tidy up).
After 30mins+ of waiting, a couple of times, I've force-quit iPhoto. When opening again, the pics aren't in the library - but looking with the finder they do all exist in the originals folder, and the data folder.
A total rebuild of the library fails to include the pics.
Anyone else had this? I'm a pretty vanilla user - I haven't mucked about in my old iPhoto 5 library at all etc...
One related question - the following files are in my iPhoto Library - judging by their dates (I installed iLife on Jan 24) and names, are some old iPhoto 5 files?
Feb 5 22:17 AlbumData.xml
Jan 24 20:37 Albums
Feb 5 19:04 Data
Feb 5 22:20 Dir.data
Jan 24 20:37 Library.data
Jan 24 20:37 Library.iPhoto
Feb 5 22:17 Library6.iPhoto
Feb 5 22:20 Library6.temp
Feb 5 19:05 Modified
Jan 26 21:40 Originals
Feb 5 22:20 Thumb32Segment.data
Feb 5 22:20 Thumb64Segment.data
Feb 5 22:20 ThumbJPGSegment.data
Feb 5 22:17 iPhoto.ipspot
Jan 24 21:15 iPhotoLock.data
Any suggestions appreciated

Jonathan:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The albums folder is a carryover from the V4 days and is no longer useful. You can trash it. Albums are now identified and linked within the AlbumData.xml file with no aliases being used any more.
The Library6.temp is not normally in a library folder. It's probably left over from one of your forced quits and can be deleted.
How much free space do you have on your HD? Have you tried rebuilding the library? Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. I'd select the first three options.

JPG is an unrecognized file format?!?! ***?

I tried to download pics from my Kodak Z812 IS digital camera like have done no less than thirty times without any problems, and for some reason, now iPhoto says there was an error importing the pics because they are an unrecognized file format. They are all .JPG or .MOV! The files aren't corrupted because they downloaded fine onto my wife's PC. Anyone know why iPhoto suddenly doesn't work?

PJ
A good general step for strange issues is to renew the iPhoto preference file - quit iPhoto and go to "your user name" ==> library ==> preferences ==> com.apple.iPhoto.plist and trash it - launch iPhoto which creates a fresh new default preference file and reset any personal preferences you have changed and if you have moved the iPhoto library repoint to it. This may help
This does not affect your photos or any database information (keywords, faces, places, ratings, etc) in any way - they are stored in the iPhoto library - the iPhoto preference file simply controls how iPhoto works - which is why renewing it is a good first step.
LN

Unrecognized file format

I'm using a Fujifilm s1500 to upload photos to iPhoto. I've uploaded with this camera several times now with no issues. After trying to upload my latest pictures several times, I got the same response: "unrecognized file format." 4 pictures uploaded, 45 did not.
I was looking through the discussions, and tried the suggestion of using image capture. It looked as if all the pictures transferred, but when I opened the folder, there's nothing in it.
Does anyone know why this would all of a sudden happen? All the photos are .jpg. Any thoughts on what I could try next?
Thanks

Directory damage...so that doesn't mean the photos are lost, just somewhere the data has gone awry?
Doesn't necessarily mean they are lost...
I'm just wondering because I can see the pictures in iPhoto, just can't import them.
It's probably seeing a jpeg preview that written to most files by the camera
Also, any reason why the camera connected to the computer won't show on the desktop?
Well assuming it has in the past... Directory damage. However, some cameras don't mount in the desktop at all. Canon cameras for instance.
Regards
TD

Iphoto 11 rotation issue.. Please Help..

I'm having an issue with iphoto with the way it's displaying images. For some reason when I view the contents of an event it will rotate and stretch images randomly even when the thumbnails are displayed the correct way round. There seems to be no reason why this is happening,
I have been through all the rebuild options in iphoto and have rebuilt the library using iphoto library manager but it's still happening.
Sometimes when I launch iphoto it isn't an issue straight away, I have to look through several events before it starts rotating images...

One the chance that it might be a preference file in your account that is the culprit first start with this:
1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your
User/Home/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete iPhoto's cache file, Cache.db, that is located in your
User/Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder (Snow Leopard and Earlier).
or with Lion and Mt. Lion from the User/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto/
Data/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder
3 - launch iPhoto and try again.
NOTE 1: If you're moved your library from its default location in your Home/Pictures folder you will have to point iPhoto to its new location when you next open iPhoto by holding down the Option key when launching iPhoto. You'll also have to reset the iPhoto's various preferences.
NOTE 2: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and hit the Enter button - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.
If that doesn't do the job it could be a preference file other than iPhoto's. Here's how to test that:
Trouble Shooting Preferences
NOTE: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and hit the Enter button - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.
1 - close all applications.
2 - open your Home/Library folder and Option-drag (copy) the Preferences folder to the Desktop.
3 - select the contents of your Home/Library/Preferences folder and drag them into the Trash bin in the Dock. You will be asked to provide your Admin password.
4 - reboot.
5 - run the application again and determine if the problems is fixed
6 - If the problem is fixed:
A - open the working Home/Library/Preferences folder.
B - Open the Preferences folder on the Desktop, select all of the contents and drag them into the working Home/Library/Preferences folder.
C - When the Copy window pops up check the "Apply to All" check box and then click on the Don't Replace or Skip button.
D - reboot.
7 - If the problem is NOT fixed, drag the contents of the Preference folder on the Desktop into the Home/Library/Preference folder and replace the entire contents that were created by clicking on Replace.
8 - reboot.

TS4213 Why can't iPhoto, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iTunes Library files and Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iPhoto Library files now that I upgraded to '11?

Why can't iPhoto, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iTunes Library files and Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iPhoto Library files now that I upgraded to '11?
Examples of what is going on:
1. In Pages, Numbers & Keynote, when I go to the media browser the Audio section reads "Open iTunes to populate this list" even after iTunes has been opened, .xml file has been replaced/repaired, etc AND Photo section reads "Open iPhoto to see photos from your iPhoto Library in this list" even after iPhoto Library has been replaced and new default library created.
2. In iMovie, similar thing ... when I go to add photos or music to a movie the iTunes files aren't present and the iPhoto photos are missing with similar messages as in #1.
3. In iPhoto, similar thing ... when I go to add music to a slideshow it says to "Open iTunes to populate this list".
It is shocking to me that Apple would let something as simple as a pathway link to associated library files get this messed up on an upgrade, but what's even more surprising is that with the number of people who seem to be having this particular issue (and I can tell from all the research that I've done for weeks online that there are a lot of them) that there doesn't seem to be a single clear answer to fixing it anywhere on these community support forums. Most of what I've seen is rehashed advice from outdated issues. What I need is a simple answer to how do we get these programs to look for the correct location of the photo and music files because I sure can't seem to find any logical place to do that through the programs' preferences files or the system preferences window?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. Here's the details on the software/hardware:
MacBook Pro
Mac OS X
Version 10.7.5
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
iTunes 11.0.4 (4)
iPhoto '11 9.4.3 (720.91)
iMovie '11 9.0.9 (1795)
Keynote '09 5.3 (1170)
Pages '09 4.3 (1048)
Numbers '09 2.3 (554)

I have the same problem on a new MacBook Pro. I have not been able to access the iTunes library from iPhoto since I got this computer. I looked in the Preferences file and deleted the com.apple.iApps.plist but there was no com.apple.iApps.lockfile so I just deleted the iAPPs.plist and rebooted the computer. Still no iTunes available in iPhoto.
All my music is in iTunes and plays. After reading the above I brought up Pages and I was able to access music and insert a track into a document.
Do you have any suggestions.

IPhoto DB file size discrepancy

I had my macbook pro stolen, but a week before I backed up my iPhoto DB 15.7GB file using Finder to copy/paste the file to an external drive. I copied the backed up iPhoto DB file to my new Macbook Air, but now iPhoto is missing a large amount of pictures. When I launch iPhoto now, it says I have 923x pictures using 4.3GB. I am lost as to how I can recover the remaining 11.4GB and why they're not being displayed. What's interesting is that I used iPhoto Library Manager Rebuild option and it rebuilt my DB to a new file and that DB is only 5.04GB. This makes more sense and proves I'm missing 11GB+ of photos. Any assistance and guidance is greatly appreciated!

Depress teh option key and launch iPhoto - use the select library option to select the library on the EHD and see if iPhoto will open it
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LN

Can't import pictures I once could Unrecognized file type

I recently had to reinstall some system software because my computer wouldn't reboot. When I opened up iPhoto 5 nothing was there. I went to a back up and imported the latest Librarty. When I went to import the rest of the photos I got this error message... "The following files could not be imported (they may be an unrecognized file type or the files may not contain vallid data)." All my pictures are the same file type and size and come from the same camera. They all open in the Preview application.

Diane
Are they in the iPhoto Library Folder? Because iPhoto wont import pics from the iPhoto Library Folder - a precaution against duplication. Drag them to the desktop and try again.
Regards
TD

Missing Recovery Partition and Unrecognized File Systems

So, a long time ago I accidentally deleted my recovery partition and have recently been trying to fix it so that I can upgrade my OS to Mavericks. After browsing around here I found the Recovery Partition Creator 3.7 and used it to create a new recovery partition. Using the diskutil list command everything seemed to be fine and it looked like the partition was successfully created so I tried reinstalling OS X Lion by holding command R at startup. Doing so brought up the internet recovery menu and I selected reinstall Lion which was still unsuccessful because "a recovery partition could not be created". So, I decided to check in disk utility to see what might be wrong and I used the disk utility debug command in order to access disk utility's debug menu and show all the hidden partitions. Now, looking at these partitions I see two hidden partitions: disk0s1 which is an EFI partition, and disk0s3 which is the Apple Boot Partition that was created by Recovery Partition Creator 3.7. After verifying the partitions, disk utility is telling me that both my EFI and apple boot partitions have unrecognized file systems, my Macintosh HD partition is fine. At this point I do not know what to do.
Below are photos of the diskutil list and of what disk utility is showing me for the two hidden partitions.
For reference I am running OSX Lion 10.7.5 (11G63) on a early 2011 13 inch Macbook Pro (Base Model).
Bootrom version: MBP81.0047.B27
SMC Version: 1.68f99
Thank you all in advance for your help, feel free to ask me any questions.

Just an update, I went ahead and installed Lion again over the existing TM restored installation using the Lion Update file and at least File Vault is working. Interestingly, I still do not have a Recover partition so obviously something new for Apple Support to learn.

"Unrecognized file type" message

After importing numerous batches of photos from my camera I discovered the weird, randomly named folders iPhoto had put them into and tried to rearrange them. After discovering the mess I'd made I threw out the existing iPhoto database and preferences and tried to start over. Somewhere in there I got a prompt to update iPhoto (from what older version I can't remember), which I OK'd; it took about half an hour to "convert" to iPhoto 4.0.3. Now I can't import any photos at all: I get the "unrecognized file type" message even though I don't have any trouble opening any pictures in Preview or Photoshop. I've tried both the Import menu and dragging photos from the Finder.
Please help.
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) iPhoto 4.0.3

Dutchie
Here is the simple answers first.
1. You made the most common mistake with iPhoto You tampered with the database trying to change all those weird folders. You can't do that. More on this later.
2. When you get that unrecognizable message your are probably trying to import something that was already in the database. Can't do that either.
Read what follows first and then we can get you back up and working.
iPhoto Terms
iPhoto
The application is designed to do EVERYTHING working in the application with the options available in the window and menus. Basically, once a photo has been imported into iPhoto (file copied to the database) that file is available only through the application. To use it some place else (that is not an iPhoto option) - export, or drag it from the window.
Photo Library
Note: that is "Photo Library", not "iPhoto Library". This is the option you see in the source window to display all the photos imported into iPhoto.
iPhoto Library (Folder)
To avoid grief please read this carefully!. The iPhoto Library is a folder that iPhoto creates and by default puts in your user Pictures Folder. This folder is the database where iPhoto actually stores everything you have done in the application. iPhoto keeps this folder in a special way, with special files, folders and subfolders.
Leave this folder alone. Don't add, delete or change anything in this folder. If you do - the database can collapse like a house of cards. Don't browse through it with other applications, like email, one slip can mean disaster.
iPhoto can work with several databases - iPhoto Library folders - but can only open and work with one at a time. These folders can be renamed and stored anywhere - as long as iPhoto knows the name and location - and is directed to open with the folder you select. If you want to move or backup the iPhoto Library folder - you must work with the ENTIRE folder. Don't try to move or backup pieces of the folder.

Why does the iPhoto library file copy so slowly?

Every few months I back up all the important stuff on my MacBook Pro (Mid 2012, 13", 750GB) to my 3TB external hard drive.
This has worked well for as long as I can remember. I used to have a proper backup program but due to the nature of my work and files, recently I prefer to just manually copy over each individual folder in my parent home folder, so I can have control of what is replaced and what is merged, etc.
However this time backing up, I had to copy every folder and file in 'Pictures' separately. This is because after trying to copy the parent folder in one transfer it didn't seem to be working well. I noticed that around the 11.22GB mark, the transfer would always slow right down from ~35MB/s to ~0.5MB/s. As you can imagine, with a Pictures folder totalling almost 300GB, this isn't something I wanted to put up with.
In the end, I figured out what was causing the issue. I tried copying just the iPhoto library file and discovered the problem occurred again.
Why? Is this a Yosemite bug or is it to do with the way that the file is structured?
It works fine otherwise and does not seem damaged.

no idea
maybe if you provided some information someone could help
What version of iPhoto? Of the OS? Why do you think it is getting larger? what exactly are you doing?
Could it be downloading photos from Your PhotoStream?
LN

Interesting iPhoto "unrecognized file" issue....

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