IPhoto '08 - Moving/merging events causes photos to be lost

Hello,
I'm trying to move my photos from Picasa to my iMac. I have around 20,000 photos and movies organized into folders on my old PC. I am able to import the pictures to iPhoto but when I try to re-organize events (move some photos from one event to another, merge events) the iPhoto library gets corrupted. *When I click on the thumbnail I can see a big exclamation mark instead of a photo*.
I have faced this issue yesterday (after a few hours spent on organizing pictures in iPhoto!). Today, I tried to re-build the iPhoto library by holding option and command keys - rebuilding did not help. I thought maybe starting from scratch will help - I started from the fresh/empty library in iPhoto, things were moving OK for a while, but at some point I have observed the same problem: I merged two events and I no longer can access certain photos (I can see the exclamation mark instead).
I did not open/modify iPhoto package manually. All the operations were executed via iPhoto application.
While moving photos/merging I can see the set of the following errors in the Console:
* Unable to move /Users/Dominika/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2000/Tripto_CT/06_BristolCT06.jpg
to /Users/Dominika/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2000/Mar 6, 2000/06BristolCT06.jpg
There are quite a few of them, but they do not seem to create the problem. I have checked all the photos reported in these messages in the console and I could open them without any issue (no exclamation mark).
*The second type of error seems to be a source of the problem:*
** Couldn't convert path /Users/dominika/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2001/Inne/070_RockyNeckCT14.jpg" to an FSRef to put on the pasteboard.*
*I'm getting these messages in the console after merging two events, and I cannot access my photos under this event any more (getting exclamation mark)*
The third type of error:
* Can't make new movie: -2048 from path ..../Originals/2001/...jpg
When I opened the iPhoto Library package yesterday I confirmed that problematic photos are still available in the library (but under a different relative location then the thumbnails).
There seem to be a few serious issues with iPhoto. Apart from the fact that it easily breaks the consistency of the iPhoto library, it does not report ANY error to the user that bad things are happening behind the scenes.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Marcin

Marcin
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Your issue seems to be with the underlying file system, not with iPhoto.
Some background:
Events in the iPhoto Window correspond exactly with the Folders in the Originals Folder in the iPhoto Library package file (Right click on it in the Pictures Folder -> Show Package Contents).
You can move photos between Events, you can rename Events, edit them, create them, as long as you do it via the iPhoto Window. Check out the Info Pane (wee 'i', lower left) the name and date fields are editable. Edit a Event Name using the Info Pane, the Event Folder in iPhoto Library/Originals will also have the new name.
When you move files between Events they are also moved on the HD.
Couldn't convert path /Users/dominika/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2001/Inne/070_RockyNeckCT14.jpg" to an FSRef to put on the pasteboard.
means that, for some reason, the file system is unable to execute that move. (That's the reference to the FSRef). However, iPhoto thinks the file was moved, hence the !.
I've simply never seen this issue reported here before. Is everything else on your Mac working correctly?
First off:
Check your HD for errors with Disk Utility, see if that reports anything.
Regards
TD

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