IPhoto ate my albums!

I recently installed iLife '06 on our laptop. iPhoto crashed in the middle of converting our iLife '04 albums. After some fiddling I got it to open, but all of the photos are blank (they just show up as an empty grey dashed box), and if I try to open any of them iPhoto crashes. Tech support suggested I start a new album and re-import my photos from backup, and that didn't crash, but instead lost track of all our albums and keywords!
I'm dreading re-entering all of that data for 2500 pictures. Any other ideas, or am I just up a creek here?
Thanks!

scottgifford:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. First manually set the ownership and permissions on the iPhoto Library folder and it contents as follows:
Setting Permissions for iPhoto Library Folder
1 - Select the iPhoto Library folder and type Command-I.
2 - When the Info window comes up go to the Ownership and Permissions section and make sure You have Read & Write permission and that the Owner and Group have Read & Write also. Others - Read Only.
3 - Then click on the "Apply to enclosed items..." button.
No launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed andrebuild the library. Select all the options except the last regarding orphaned files. See if that won't help.

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Is it possible to copy the iphoto library and albums from a G5 to a macpro

I would like to copy my iphoto library and albums from a G5 10.5.8 iphoto 8 to a macpro 10.6.2 with iphoto 9. I would like all the photos and albums to appear in the macpro just as they were in the G5. I have vantecs ezshare adapter that allows you to drag files between two computers mac or windows. Copying photos should not be a problem but its the albums I want to go with the photos and appear in iphoto 9 on the macpro.

iPhoto '09 will open and convert any previous version of the iphoto library - if it is working correctly on the old system it should convert
Firewire target mode is a good way to transfer the iPhoto library - make the connection and drag the entire iPhoto library at one intact as a single entity to the new computer (put it on the desktop or somewhere so as not to mess up what you have done - depress the option key and launch iPhoto on the new system and select the library you just copies (be sure not to select the one on the old computer - you do not want to convert it - conversion is a one way operation) - it should open and convert and be ready to use - then you can quit iPhoto and place it where you want and do the option launch again to tell iPhoto where it is - and do the option launch any time you want to switch between multiple libraries
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I have lost my entire IPhoto Library and albums

IMac OS X V 10.6.8
I have lost my entire IPhoto Library and albums.
How do I restore?

Your only other option is to stop using your Mac as soon as possible to minimize precious data being overwritten to, purchase a high quality, fast external hard drive, preferably a FIreWire external hard drive such as these
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
using an OS X Snow Leopard install disc, format this external drive as a Mac OS extended (journaled) formatted hard drive with a GUID partition scheme and then, using a install disc of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, install a fresh copy of OS X Snow Leopard and boot your Mac to that external hard drive by using the Startup Disc icon in the OS X System Preferences Panel to boot your Mac to the external hard drive. Once your Mac is booted and running from this hard drive, then use the OS X Software Update feature to update that version of OS X Snow Leopard to OS X 10.6.8.
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If this seems all too complicated and complex to you, you need to stop using your Mac ASAP and either contact an Apple Store or Apple Authorised reseller/service/repair center to find out how much it will cost for them to recover your data and bring your Mac in for a more professional data recovery.
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can anyone explain or point me in the direction of the reaoning behind iphotos behaviour with Albums and Smart Albums in 2 situations.
the first, is when using Airpics App and Server, the second when viewing a shared library.
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in situation 1, when my iPad views my Minis library via thr Airpics apps, it says it only views Albums and Smart Albums, not Events but i can see an item that is an event. it consequently is the last full import i do so is the last import considered an album or smart album?
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thank you again Terence.
you see ma bit of an iPhoto Guru, Terence and i dont know how else to contact you and i know its niot right to change a thread half way through but do you have any knowledge on the best way to handle this situation:
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If photos are deleted from events will they remain in the albums I created. I copied and pasted the pics from events into albums, and now want to delete the events so we don't have duplicates...

If photos are deleted from events will they remain in the albums I created.
No.
iPhoto works on a similar Library based principle to iTunes. Every Photo is in the Library, each Album (like a playlist in iTunes) is a subset of the Library.
Events are the Library. They broadly correspond to the actual folders on the HD that contain the pics. Trash a pic from an Album, you remove it from the Album, but it's still in the Library. Trash a pic from an Event and it's gone from the Library and all the albums too.
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First off: don't copy and paste. Drag and drop is more reliable way to move photos around in the iPhoto Window.
Second: There are no duplicates. Albums simply reference the photos in the Library. A pic can be in 50 Albums with no duplication required, no extra disk space used. A photo in more than one Event requires a duplicate.
For the benefit of nequetech
This is not true:
Events in iPhoto are actually Albums.
This is incorrect:
They mean the same thing,
As is this:
unless you have older versions.
This
If you were to delete the duplicates, I suggest you drag every picture from one event to a folder in your desktop.
is data destructive. You only get the current version of your photo, not the Original, you lose a lot of metadata as well.
This may be your preferred way to deal with duplicates, but Duplicate Annihilator is at least non-destructive - and I'm not at all sure that the OP actually has a duplicates issue at all.
Regards
TD

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Some iPhoto tutorials show how to first create a folders, and then create albums in these folders.
Why do you need folders. Can you simply create albums of photos??

Actually the question is totally in the context of using iPhoto
iPhoto folders vs albums
His later comment is trying to understand how iPhoeo works - and yoru suggestion is not at all helpful and as I pointed out may lead to an inexperianced user destroying their iPhoto library
Your answer is confusing and dangerous
the answer for using iPhoto as the OP requested is
That is NOT using iPhoto and at best has no effect on iPhoto and at worst would lead one to move photos around within the iPhoto library thereby destroying their library
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GraceT:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. FWIW I create a book for each of my grandchildren chronicling their first year. In previous versions I've used the Story Book theme but it's no longer available. I now use the Snapshots theme. It's informal and allows me to tell a story along with the photos.
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IPhoto ate my albums!

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