Iphoto corrupting files

Hi,
I have a fairly large library of about 10,100 photo's. First off I wonder if this is a problem, can iphoto handle such a load. Secondly I have been discovering random photo's that will no longer open, the ball spins indefinately on a white screen. When I go the jpg itself in the library it won't open as well, it says, "may be a corrupt file." Photoshop will not open these files either. I pulled out my backup library which I'd saved on a separate firewire drive a few months ago and these same photo's are not corrupt and work fine when I replace the corrupt ones. Has anyone experienced this or know how the files may have been corrupted?
Thanks
G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 2GB Ram

I too have trouble with Iphoto files going corrupt. I don't know why. I will be working and all at once some or all the phot go blank. I just have a series of outlined blank boxes. I have renamed the Ilibrary foler and created new ones and I still get the problem. I've this happen about 4 times. I am extremely frustrated. I'm getting afraid to do new projects for fear of putting all the time in and then not be able to run IMovie or IDVD because Iphot is messed up. Does anyone know why this corruption is happening? It seems like there are a lot of other people out there having similar problems. I use my Mac mostly for photo projects. Although a loyal fan of macs for years I about to the point I want to give up on it. Sorry about the venting but I'm reallyyyyyyyyyy frustrated.

Similar Messages

IPhoto/corrupted files/restore from remote?

HELP! iPhoto has decided overnight that some of my photos are corrupt. is there ANY way to restore them--maybe from the synced off-site iDisk? It seems to be random as to which are corrupted, and it changes from opening to opening. The thumbnails are there, clearly visible. Double clicking does nothing, dumping the plist does nothing.
Please help!
Thanks!

ladyirol's right about the iDisk. I forgot about that. I've not used that capability so don't know if you can bring back from you iDisk but that would be way to go. If the iPhoto Library folder can be brought down intact and placed on your desktop to compare between it and your current library that would allow you to make see which new files in your current library that are OK you want to save to import into the backup library. You can use iPhoto Library Manager to copy photos, rolls and or albums between two libraries. The free version will only copy 20 at a time.

When I open and close iPhoto I get the wheel of death and I have to force quit the program. Can I reinstall the program to fix any corrupted files?

Can I reinstall iPhoto '11 to fix any corrupted files?

You can but it will not fix anything - you have a corrupted library = not an corrupted application
Backup your iPHoto library, depress the option and command keys, launch iPhoto and ftom the resulting first aid window rebuild your database
LN

Every time I open iPhoto (as of today) after a few seconds the coloured wheel appears and the program become unresponsive. I have tried closing my computer. I assume I have a corrupt file but at the moment I cannot access anything in the program?

Every time I try to open Iphoto '11 (as of today) the coloured wheel appears after a few seconds and the program becomes unresponsive. I assume I have a corrupt file but I cant do anything including accessing help. I have tried closing down and restarting but it dosnt help. Any ideas please?

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

Why "Corrupt File or Preview Doesn't Recognize format" msg. after moving the iPhoto folder?

Hello,
I've moved my iPhoto Library from my Mac HD to an external hard drive (WD My Book 1) and now there are no pictures in the iPhoto application when I open it. I have a collection of over 3000. When I click on a .jpg photo within the iPhoto Library I get the message: "Corrupt File or Preview Doesn't Recognize format".
I've been told that this has something to do with moving the iPhoto library from one location to another and that I have to do something to have Tiger recognize iPhoto in its new location.
I moved the iPhoto library from my Mac HD to one of the My Book Ext HDs. But there also was a back up of iPhoto Library on the 150 GB Acomdata Ext HD taken from the Mac HD that wasn't moved. That back up was done on a scheduled backup using Carbon Copy Cloner. However, when I looked for the iPhoto Library on Acomdata, all that was there were the seven item that don't, I think, make up any kind of a library:
Dir.data
iPhoto.db
iPhotoLock.data
Library.iPhoto
Thumb32.data
Thumb64.data
ThumbJPG.data
Could someone please help me with this? I thought I had backup and also that I had moved the library carefully.
In addition, there are other files that I've moved from the Mac HD to the external that aren't opening either, such as movies (.flv "The movie could not be opened), .rtf files ("File does not exist." and .pdfs ("File error. couldn't open the file.")
Thanks,
Rafael

"The backup from Acomdata doesn't appear to be a complete library."
(How do you make a clip of lines you quote that has a different background color — avalible to Apple support discussions?)
I didn't make that clear. The IPhoto Library backup wasn't to the Acomdata. I backed up IPhoto Library to the two 1 TB WD EHDs ("StorageUnit WDnew" and "BU of StorageUnit WDnew") then trashed the one on Mac HD.
The backup you see on Acomdata (clone of Mac HD) isn't a complete library. It's nothing but a new library I started to create and it's to be ignored. I should remove it.
Below is a picture of the back up of IPhoto Library and other items to the first WD "StorageUnit WDnew". The backup on "BU of StorageUnit WDnew" is the same. These two aren't bootable. They only store information. The Acomdata is bootable and that's where I back up my Mac HD. IPhoto used to be on the Mac HD and I moved it to "StorageUnit WDnew". It's the same on "BU of StorageUnit WDnew".
Will "Rebuild IPhoto Library" be able to pull from the external HD?
Why can't I drag and drop folders or files into the volumes in the side bar?
Should I do anything with Ownership and Permissions before I Rebuild IPhoto Library?
Should I press "Apply to enclosed items.” button to set the new read and write settings?
I listed the equipment I use in My Profile in My Products again. I'd done that before. Also, my picture, also in profile, isn't showing up. See what happenns this time.
Thanks. I have so much important stuff in those pictures that I'm very anxious to retrieve everything.
Message was edited by: Rafael Montserrat1

Help! iphoto 4 freezes when finds a corrupt file

Hi all,
on my old pb 12' g4 (10.3.9 1.33) i am trying to make a backup of my iphoto by putting it onto another computer via target mode and small flash drives. this became more timely when we dropped our pb from the kitchen table onto our tile floor (yes, oh how i love magsafe on my mb!!!).
so, here's the thing - i know i have some corrupt files - in iphoto and in itunes - but when i'm moving files, the transfer works...until it hits a corrupt file. then beach ball until i need to manually shut down and start again, ignoring the section of folders that might have included my corrupt file.
why isn't panther (or osx) keen enough to just skip over and transfer everything that is readable? it is very, very time consuming to drag each folder one by one hoping it doesn't contain a corrupt file...
any ideas? my transfer is almost complete. just a few sketchy folders to deal with now...and lots of spinning beach balls!
thanks, paul

thanks for the ideas, bf. i understand that files are stored in packages all over the hard drive, but i would like the os to be able to 'pass' over a sequence of packages that can't be found and move to the next file. i mean, doesn't this sound doable? so a file isn't responding...so move to the next one rather than spinning beach ball until manual shut down...
the transfer of the library is moving photo folders from my home folder on my g4 pb and dragging them into my macbook iphoto. i used target mode and was able to move 3000 of 6000 photos until the spinning beach ball. now i've been going into each folder in my pb home folder and putting it onto a flashdrive so i can move them onto my mb and into iphoto on that computer.
i know my transferring of photos isn't causing the corruption, and i know my flashdrive is fine on both my macs. Yes, i was using firewire via target mode until the beach ball.
so now, i'm almost done my transfer. i have narrowed the corrupt files to about 7 folders--but i don't know how many photos this actually is because my computer beach balls each time i go into those folders. i guess, with corrupt files, that this is as close as i might get to moving my photos. i mean, i know some will be lost - i know i have corrupt files - i'm just trying to get as many as i can off of my old pb and into my mb.
i'll keep you posted, and i'm always loving the wisdom and experience on this posting board!

Frustration - Iphoto corrupting image files during import (?)

To begin with, I'm a recent convert from Windows to the Mac. I'm running a mac mini at home, and a Macbook with Boot Camp at work (in addition to my desktop pc). All of my software is up to date...
I take alot of pictures with my digital camera (canon powershot). Saturday I took about 300 pictures, took the SD card out of the camera, put it into my Sandisk card reader, imported the pictures into iphoto and everything worked great. I chose to not delete the pictures after the import as I wanted to bring the card into work and upload the pictures on my pc.
The next day (Sunday) I took another 70 or so pictures. I was able to view all of the pictures on my camera that I had taken over the past two days.
I go to do an import , taking the exact same procedures that I took on Saturday (and that I always do). The first thing it does is identifies that there are duplicate pictures. I choose the option of "don't import duplicates" and apply this to all of the other duplicate pictures.
At the end of the import, I got an error message saying that some of the files were corrupt. Now, there were pictures from Saturday that were still on there (and readable/viewable). However, every picture that I took on Sunday was "unreadable" and did not show up in iphoto. I put the card back into the camera, and now I can't view the pictures (they show as "corrupted data".
I then pulled the SD card details up in Finder, and the "corrupt" files still show sizes of 2.4mb to 2.8mb, consistant with the good pictures. It shows the file's "Kind" as JPG Image... I double clicked on them and Preview comes up saying something to the extent that the file is corrupt,
I've taken the Sandisk card reader, plugged it into my Macbook (using iphoto in osx) and was able to view one or two of the pictures from Sunday.
Once I got to work this morning, I plugged the sd card into my Windows machine and it too says the files are corrupt. It shows them being on the card, it shows the file sizes, but I can't open the pictures in anything...
If this was a one time deal, I'd be thinking it may be something I've done to cause the problem. However, this is the third instance I've "lost" all of my photos because of them becoming corrupt during an import into iphoto. There definately appears to be a pattern.
I have somewhere around 8,000 pictures inside iphoto that I've taken and had no problems with. I mention this to illustrate that I'm not doing anything differently than I've done before. I have another 14,000 on my old Dell that I need to move over, but I'm questioning if I should do that now.
Does anyone have any ideas on what the problem might be? Is anyone else experiencing (present or past tense) this problem? Where I'm new to the mac, I understand that I might be doing something wrong. However, I've imported photos to the software (what seems like) hundreds of times, the same way each time. This makes me want to rule out user error...
One other question, I'm saving the "corrupt files" with the hope that there's a software program which will "fix" the files. Do you happen to know of such a piece of software? I'm hoping that I can get them fixed at some point.
Where I'm taking pictures of my kids, its extremely frustrating to find out that the pictures (memories) I was hoping to make prints of are now "gone". Its almost like rolling the dice when doing a photo import any more. Most all of the time it takes, but every now and then the pics are lost...
I'm hoping to identify the problem (either user error, procedure or software issue) and fix it as I really like the mac.
Any help/suggestions you might have for me would greatly be appreciated!
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.10) Also running Macbook 10.4.10

The Chainsaw
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
First: the corrupt files: download Graphic Coverter, a shareware which is often successful where other software isn't. But first, if the Mac will let you, copy the files off the card to the Mac.
I'm in this board a while now, and I can't recall an issue of iPhoto corrupting images on import. After all, it's just a simple file copy, at heart. I would be more inclined to suspect the card. DO you have more than one? Does the problem also occur with the other cards?
Try use Image Capture to download the pics to the Mac first, then import them, see does that help. Image Capture is in your Applications folder.
Regards
TD

IPhoto plist file corrupting hard drive

I was having trouble with Time Machine accessing an external HD and discovered that bad iphoto plist files were breaking the directory.
I ran DiskWarrior and discovered that the property list data on the drive "was damaged and could not be repaired." So I dumped all that data to another external HD, wiped the drive clean and started over with an empty disk and a new Time Machine file.
That worked for about 24 hours (TIme Machine did multiple automatic backups successfully). Today I get the same failure notice from Time Machine. Ran DiskWarrior again to find multiple identical Property List errors. Here are the details:
File: "com.apple.iphotomosaic.plist:"
Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired.
XML parser error:
Unexpected character at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected character '0x4' at line 1
Location:"Silver/backups.backupdb/myname PowerBookG4 12"/2008-04-24-192320/Macintosh HD/Users/myname/Library/Preferences/"
I'm runnining iLife 08' and all software is up to date.
Any ideas?

Switching off the iPhoto screen saver and trashing its plist file stopped the directory corruption issue. Even so, backups would not work.
Thinking it might be a WD issue, I went to the Western Digital support site and found a firmware update (designed to eliminate hardware ID conflicts when running two WD external HDs) and a newer "drive manager" (formerly called button manager). Installing the firmware update on my backup destination and the drive manager software seems to have eliminated the problem. I've been backing up over the hub successfully for almost 24 hours. Cross your fingers.

Restored from Time Machine but iPhoto library file corrupted

iMac OSX 10.9.4 crashed mid-use. Would not chime let alone re-start. Restored successfully from Time Machine and apart from Mail sending (hopefully) a few up to four year old emails again, it seemed fine. However, apart from one or two images, iPhoto (9.5.1) library was not visible in its location on an external hard drive. Inspecting Package Contents revealed that the size seemed right and the masters were present so I used Photo Library First Aid (Command Option start) to Repair Permissions and then again to Repair Database. All images and events now ok, as I believe are the locations, but the previously identified Faces are all missing. Is there a way to recover these?
I do have a separate Carbon Copy Cloner back up from the iPhoto external hard drive to another external hard drive and before, throughout and after the iMac crash, this back up process continued to operate normally. So I could try and re-store the iPhoto library from a CCC back. I just wondered if anyone knew another way that I could just repair the Faces part as the rest seems ok now.

Hi Mr D
Still wading through treacle!
I recall I used iPhoto Library Manager and then selected largest file size and most metadata to merge the two libraries. Still not perfect but images are there even if a few face thumbnails are absent.
Using SMART Utility I checked to see what was going on with hard drives as a CCC back up reported some deep system files were on an unreadable block. I should have replaced them from CCC but there were only a few and they were so unusual I hesitated. Whilst searching which replacement hard drive I could fit and whether I could fit it myself, iMac crashed again so another restore from TM. (According to SU my hard drive is failing as it has 6 re-allocated blocks and 1 event error). Back up and restored, I now see that various movies in iMovie '09 cannot access the source files as they are not in the original location. This I think is more to do with me relocating my iPhoto library for space reasons to an external hard drive rather than the crashes and re-builds. I hadn't realised the distinction between imported movies into iMovie '09 (from a movie camera say) and those from iPhoto (from an iPhone say) and what would happen if, for space reasons, I moved the iPhoto library to an external hard drive. Yes, I know now I should have consolidated the movies. There are occasions when a small user guide might help! Also the new iMovie '10 library, which runs as an alternative alongside iMovie '09, is happily located on the external hard drive whereas the iMovie '09 library sits on the iMac's hard drive.. All the still images are ok in all the movies in iMovie '09 (even having moved?) its just the .avi files that it cannot locate. Simples, I thought. I created a folder in iPhoto '09 with all the iPhoto avi files and thought if I exported them and then imported them into a new library in the location (my iMac user pictures folder) it would then be able to 'see' them. Problem is in the iPhoto '09 library on the external hard drive I have many more folders than in the newly created iMovie '09 library on the iMac hard drive. iMovie '09 is looking for /Users/'me'/Pictures/iPhoto library/Originals/'movie file title'/'file name'.avi but the 'Originals' folder is in fact just an alias to point to an adjacent folder in the iMovie library package called 'Masters' and in the new library I only have 'Masters' and not an alias 'Originals' folder.
So iMovie '09 still cannot 'see' the .avi files even though they are now (almost) in the right location on the correct drive (the iMac) as I don't have an 'Originals' folder in this library whereas the legacy library does. Can I get around this? Why does one library have a 'Masters' folder as well as an 'Originals' and 'Modified' aliases and the new library only 'Masters'? As I cannot re-point iMovie I need to have an 'Originals' alias pointing at 'Masters' for this to possibly work. My plan was to resolve the project issues once the files were all accessible in the correct place and then consolidate and move the iMovie '09 library as a working entity to the external hard drive where there is space.
The second issue is that of the c600 .avi files I exported (all of which function in the library from whence they were exported), 129 will not import into the new '09 library I have created on my iMac hard drive. This is odd as they are visible and play in their source library but refuse to be imported into the new one made with the same application. Other than a couple of the ones that do import showing a format in QT as 16 bit little-endian signed integer 44100Hz as opposed to 8 bit unsigend integer 16000HGz for one that didn't, I am at a loss to understand what the new library objects to.
I have now isolated all the exported .avi files that will not import into a folder pending someone hopefully providing a answer....

HT1198 Shared iPhoto library file permissions are corrupted.

I am using the alternative option mentioned in the technote. The iPhoto library is located in /Users/Shared.
When my wife adds photos to iPhoto from her account, the files have a permission set of 640 (rw-------) on the file system.
When I add photos from my account, the files have a 666 (rw-rw-rw-) permission set.
I found that by using the iPhoto 'Examine and repair iPhoto Library file permissions' process it fixes the issue..although I'd really like to find the main cause of her files have a 640 permission set.

It may be too early to be confident, however I changed the permissions as follows: Note: the iPhoto Libray resides on iMac A.
old
iMac A: Users/Shared/Pictures me: Read & Write, staff: Read Only, everyone: no access
new
iMac A: Users/Shared/Pictures me: Read & Write, staff: Read & Write, everyone: Read & Write
I have successfully:
iMac A: Opened the iPhoto Library under my wife's account, then
iMac A: Opened the iPhoto Library under my account, then
iMac B: Opened the iPhoto Library under my account on another Mac on our network and made library modifications, then
iMac A: Opened the iPhoto Library under my wife's account.
In each case, iPhoto did not go into "examining the Library, nor did it need to repair permissions". The Library and iPhoto closed promptly without errors or inconsistencies.
I will keep my fingers crossed since it is hard to confidently trouble shoot without a higher level of understanding of Unix permissions and the details of the iPhoto Library.

External hard drive, error -36, corrupt files and slow transfer speeds

This is a long post but stay with me.
I've got an external 250GB Lacie drive connected to my 24" Intel iMac via Firewire 800. I have approximately 80GB worth of files (including my iPhoto library) on the Lacie that I'm trying to move over to my iMac but have run into some frustrating problems.
Overall, transfer speeds are erratic – fine at times and SUPER SLOW (5 minutes to transfer a 3MB file) at other times. At first I was transferring entire folders, but after always getting errors (error -36 to be exact), I was having to transfer individual files. This works fine as long as the files aren't too big (which makes the transfer speeds SUPER SLOW) and not corrupt (which gets me an error -36). Is my Lacie crashing on me? Is there any hope?
Here's what I've done to try and salvage my sanity with no resolve to my problems (not exactly in this order):
1) Ran Disk Utility to repair Lacie. Everything came back OK
2) Ran Disk Warrior on Lacie. Found a handful of bad items that Disk Warrior was able to repair. Had Disk Warrior replace the old directory of the Lacie with the new directory.
3) Ran Drive Genius: Raired and Rebuilt the directory, did an Integrity Check (came back OK), attempted to Defrag but could not because of errors to the drive, did a Scan for bad blocks (which after running for 3 days! it was only 20% complete and had found over 150 bad blocks, at which point I quit to try something else)
4) Checked that my Firewire cable was properly connected and replaced the older one I was using with a brand new one.
5) Disconnected all peripherals except for keyboard, mouse and Lacie.
6) And at times, even viewing a file on the Lacie has caused my Finder to crash, requiring a restart of my iMac.
I'm sure I've left something off I've tried but you get the idea.
I've read that maybe I can transfer my files using Terminal. Yes/No? Does this bypass any corruption the files may have?
What about creating a second partition on the Lacie and moving files over to the second partition? Does this solve anything? I don't know anything about partitioning so maybe I'm talking crazy.
I've also read that iPhoto tends to corrupt files which makes me hate iPhoto, and myself for not backing up.
And I've read a lot about error -36's and none of it sounds good so I'm just hoping that someone might have other suggestions for me to try and save my files (especially my iPhoto files which include baby pictures that if I lose, my wife will kill me).
So if anyone has any ideas, let me know. Please. I'll try anything.

Hi Aaron Thompson-
I am fairly certain you have a bad power supply brick to the LaCie drive. This is a hard problem to troubleshoot as generally when the bricks go bad they do so slowly and the drive appears to power up and stuff but it just doesn't work.
If the drive is under warranty LaCie will replace the brick at no charge. Otherwise they sell them for around $20US on their website.
Luck-
-DP

IPhoto can't find iPhoto Library files

Hi All,
I have a older iMac running 10.4, 512MB RAM. It was running very slowly and reading other posts figured my large iPhoto library (iPhoto 6) was the culprit. I moved all but 2011 pictures to an external hard drive and deleted files from my iPhoto Library (did this through the Finder, not iPhoto). I can see my .jpg files on the external drive and can see the 2011 .jpg files on my HD in the iPhoto Library. When I launch iPhoto, I have no photos. Within iPhoto I've tried to "import to library" and select my 2011 folder of .jpg's but the file is "unreadable". I've tried changing the location of my iPhoto Library folder and "chose library" but that hasn't worked either.
I think I may have deleted some file or path that allows iphoto to access the iphoto library folder (I copied back a "data folder" from the external HD but that didn't solve my problem) but I can't figure out what it could be. Can anyone help? I am just barely literate and apparently, know just enough to get myself into trouble, so "dumbed down" instructions would be very much appreciated.
Thanks for any help you can lend!
Shannon

believe it or not, but I did do some research before I started... I was just trying to back up files and create space - don't you people advocate for that kind of thing?
I don't think that I did not follow your link... I did not move the entire contents of my original library, just most, I wanted... well it doesn't matter - I was able to solve the problem following a tip posted by "Old Toad" found below.
Thanks for trying to help - I'm just glad I can see my photos again.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto 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.

Iphoto 6 file formats

My photos are organized and stored in the iphoto library. I use photoshop elements for editing. I have been using the jpeg format. When I try to save in jpeg2000, it doesn't make it back into the iphoto library after I save and close. Why? Where does it go?
My thanks to responders.

Using Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) as Your Editor of Choice in iPhoto.
1 - select Photoshop as your editor of choice in iPhoto's General Preference Section's under the "Edit photo:" menu.
2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop. When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done.
3 - however, if you get the navigation window that indicates that PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file. You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.
This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..
NOTE: With Photoshop Elements 6 the Saving File preferences should be configured: "On First Save: Save Over Current File". Also I suggest the Maximize PSD File Compatabilty be set to Always.
If you want to use both iPhoto's editing mode and PS without having to go back and forth to the Preference pane, once you've selected PS as your editor of choice, reset the Preferences back to "Open in main window". That will let you either edit in iPhoto (double click on the thumbnail) or in PS (Control-click on the thumbnail and seledt "Edit in external editor" in the Contextual menu). This way you get the best of both worlds
2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop. When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done.
3 - however, if you get the navigation window that indicates that PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file. You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.
This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..
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.

Should a graphic designer use Iphoto for file management ?

I am a designer who is overwhelmed by too many images from different sources (scan, online, art, photos) that need to be organized by themes (animals, flowers, calligraphy, projects, etc) so I tried transferring all my ps and tif and jpg files into iphoto (hoping to avoid using bridge, which I don't like).
I noticed after I drug some them into iphoto, I reopened them in PS (drug file to the PS software Logo in dock), all the layers were had been flattened and the file went from 600 dpi to 72! EEEEK!
I am a graphic designer and need large files with layers. Is iphoto a bad way to organize images? The orginal reason I like iphoto is because you can just drag out a file, and the original remains. In bridge, the original actually MOVES OUT.
(I posted this in the wrong forum before, so this is a repeat posting)

kidquotes:
I would seriously look into a more robust DAM (digital asset management) application. The one that I use is Media Expression. It allows you to manage your folder system, move image files between folders from within the application, rename files, add metadata and write them to the files so they travel with them.
Go go The DAM Forum where professional photographers discuss the various DAM applications and their relative merits, etc. Expression Media was originally iView MediaPro and, at the time, was consdered one of the very best. EM was bought by Microsoft (ugh) but has evolved into am improved product but is more expensive.
As far as the dpi the resolution didn't change. iPhoto displays all at 72 dpi but if you were to look at the file in Photoshop it's print size would be nearly 9 times larger. It's all relative. SeeThe Myth of DPI.
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.

IPhoto dB File Backup

from Toad's home or whatever....I noted it's compatible with iPhoto 7 but will it back up the 7 library or 6? Do I even have a iPhoto 6 library if I'm now using iPhoto 7? -L

It will backup the database file from iPhoto 7 or 6. The file name is called Library6.iPhoto for both versions which can be confusing.
If you have your library named other than iPhoto Library or located other than in the Pictures folder you'll have to edit the Automator app as described in the Read Me file.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto 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), 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 08 libraries. 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.

Iphoto corrupting files

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