IPhoto '08 Now Acting Psycho When A Camera Is Connected ...

Question

Hello Folks,
My iPhoto seems to be acting psycho all of a sudden when i have a camera connected that contains digital photos that i'm planning to import. My iPhoto is iPhoto '08 version 7.1.5 (378) & i'm running Mac OS X 10.5.5 (Leopard). In the last couple of days now, when i have a camera connected, iPhoto loads & displays all the photos contained on the memory card in the camera (whether i want it to or not), & then the only button or option that appears to be active is the option to import EVERYTHING from the camera (which is NOT what i want to do). The button that is for importing only selected items from the camera is grayed out. Also, everything in the display seems to be frozen & i can't select anything else to be displayed like any of my libraries or albums.
iPhoto was NOT behaving like this before, & a few days ago it was definitely behaving "normally". i know this for sure because i take photos very frequently & am importing them into iPhoto every couple of days or so. i can't remember for sure, but i downloaded & installed quite a few software updates in the last few days & i'm wondering if this is a new iPhoto update gone awry & causing this psycho behavior (i can't remember if there was an iPhoto update among all those s/w updates that were installed). Before, when i had a camera connected, i could still click on any of the libraries or albums i wanted to, the display was not frozen or locked up like this, & i was able to selectively import what i wanted from the camera.
Can anyone please tell me what is wrong w/iPhoto & how to do to get it to go back to behaving normally? For now, i cannot even import photos from the camera w/iPhoto behaving so abnormally, i have to 1st copy the desired photos to a folder (from outside of iPhoto) & then import the photos into iPhoto from the folder containing the photos but all while the camera is NOT connected. Thanx in advance!

Answer 1

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Close iPhoto, delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your User/Library/Preferences folder, launch iPhoto and see if that helps.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.