IPhoto 9.5 extremely slow

Question

Hey there,
I use my iPhoto with the iPhoto Library file on an external HDD (Mac OS Journaled). During a whole year there wasn't any problem with iPhoto. But now when I open iPhoto, the spinning beachball appears and nothing happens.
After seeing my log files, a friend of mine told me to put the external HDD to "Privacy" tab in Spotloght settings, because the Spotlight wants to use my picture files, and does not let iPhoto use them.
After this - and doing all the things that appears after pressing Option + Command when opening iPhoto -, now I can open iPhoto actually, but it's so slow that it's absloutely useless. Just the spinning ball after every click.
Unfortunately I haven't got any backups of my photos, so I don't want to loose them.
Please let me know if you have ena ideas what is the origin of the problem, and how solve it.
Please ask if any more detailed info is neeed.
(Using Mavericks 10.9 and iPhoto 9.5.1, bought from Mac App Store, updated just right now.)
Thanks a lot, Marton

Answer 1

Do yo have a labtop that you disconnect the EHD prequently? That could trigger a reindex of the EHD (although it shouldn't).
Try the following:
1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your
    Home/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete iPhoto's cache folder(s):
Home/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto
and, if there is one, the
Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder
3 - reboot, launch iPhoto and try again.
NOTE: For Mavericks, 10.9,  go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Options menu to bring the this window:
where you can check the Show Library Folder checkbox.