Iphoto deleted it's own library

today I tried to open my iphoto library and noticed that all the pictures in iphoto were from Aperature. I thought this a bit odd as I use iphoto only for pictures taken from my iphone and I never import my professional work into iphoto. Then I couldn't open Aperature and got this error message:
So I figured that somehow iphoto had randomly switched libraries and all I needed to do was go into the File > switch to library > and then select the iphoto library. but when I got there this is what I saw:
Now, I have two appereture libraries because one came from my old computer and a much older version of apereture. Neither one has any pitcures from my iphoto library. Upon further inestigation I have found that my iphoto library has completly deleted itself. I did not delete anything from my computer today or yesterday, and it was there yesterday, so somehow it deleted itself. Furthermore I cannot find the iphoto library on my external harddrives that I use to back up my computer. it is as if I never used iphoto. Does anyone have any guesses as to what happened? I have been doing some research on this and have seen numerous reports of iphoto deleting the contents of the library, and even the library itself, but no answers have yet been given to explain what happened in the first place or if it is possible to get those pictures back. Ideas?

How are you searching for your iPhoto library? You may have renamed it.
I'd search with Spotlight for files with the extension "photolibrary" or for files named "Library6.iPhoto" - each iPhoto library contains an item with that name. Make sure Spotlight is set in the system preferences to search everywhere.
If Spotlight finds an item like this, use "Show all in Finder" to find its location.

Similar Messages

Re: iPhoto deleting photos from old library and new library

Hello. I really hope someone can help me. I'm about to tear my hair out. I recently copied my iPhoto library to an external hard drive because I'm seriously out of space on my 24"iMac (2008). I am a photographer and have a mess of an iPhoto library to clean up. It was a VERY large volume, and it ran overnight. It appears that everything transferred fine. I did the transfer exactly as instructed by many forums: Home > Pictures > iPhoto Library, drag and drop to WD My Book 1 TB EHD formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then I opened iPhoto via the icon in the dock while holding down the Option/Alt key and chose the new location on the ext drive to point iPhoto to the new library. My problem is this:   I went into the old library, which I renamed iPhoto Library - Old (after the fact, which I hope didn't cause the problem), and deleted an event that I didn't care about. To my surprise, it deleted the event in BOTH libraries. I have tried repeatedly to point iPhoto to the right library, both using the dock and going through applications. It is as though the 2 libraries are somehow inter-connected, and not separate. At times, I will open the old library through finder, but I can see it highlight the icon for the EHD and it opens that. I am at my wits end, as at any given point in time I don't know which library it has brought up. I am trialling Aperture, and am trying to move photos over to Aperture from iPhoto, but really need to free up space on my internal drive to be able to work with it. I'd eventually like to move the masters to the EHD, etc., but I'm still in the learning curve with all that (I'll be hitting that forum soon, I'm sure). My highest priority right now is to figure out how to separate the 2 iPhoto duplicate libraries so I can delete the photos from the desktop without affecting the photos on the External Hard Drive. I've tried everything I can think of and everything I found while scouring these forums. Here is the information I think you would need:
                                                         - 24" iMac Intel, Snow Leopard (10.6.8), iPhoto '08 (version 7.1.5)
                                                         - 2 TB WD External hard drive running Time Machine, (so everything from the desktop is backed up).
                                                         - 1TB WD My Book that is formatted as I mentioned above, which I copied the iPhoto Library to.
                                                         - 1 soon-to-be-bald photographer.
Thanks very much in advance for any help anyone can give me. I really like my hair, and don't wish to lose it!
Gail
PS - Just a little background. I have been working on this whole space issue for more than a week now. This is the 3rd new external hard drive I've had this week due to "issues." Had a problem with all 3 but finally figured this one out, and it's now working fine. I am so far behind in some photo editing work because of the hard drive space issues, and I cannot seem to resolve them no matter how hard I try. Hence the frustration. Thanks again.

THANK YOU LARRY!! I did not realize that once you switch libraries, it kept you in that library until you switch back using the option key. I thought that the iPhoto icon would take me to the new library, and going through finder to the old library name would take me to the old one. I was actually in the new library the whole time, and all of the images I deleted were deleted from there. I just switched back to the old library and all of the photos were still there. I also tried deleting from the old library, which is what I wanted to do, and then switching to the new library and it did not affect the photos there at all. So, this was indeed the answer.
Whew, what a relief. You're a life saver. I might actually be able to get some work done now.
Thanks again so much.
Gail

Is it possible to allow iphoto to delete fotos from the finder? (when iphoto doesnt copy the fotos into an own library)

Is it possible to allow iphoto to delete fotos from the finder? (when iphoto doesnt copy the fotos into an own library)

No -- iPhoto does not ever touch an photo file that is not within its database
THis is one (of the minior) resaons that it is very strongly advised not to uncheck the preference to copy imported items to the iPhoto library - it makes importing and deleting more difficult and makes upgrading or replacing defective hardware much, much more difficult
LN

What do i do when iPhoto Deletes my recent pic's all the way to 2010????? i opened the program and it said i needed to update my library otherwise i wouldn't be able to view the images that were not updated-- and now they are gone!!!!!! WHat do i do!!!!!!

what do i do when iPhoto Deletes my recent pic's all the way to 2010????? i opened the program and it said i needed to update my library otherwise i wouldn't be able to view the images that were not updated…… and now they are gone!!!!!! WHat do i do!!!!!! Is this some type a virus???? my mac is protected!!!!! tried to chat with an IT person but they keep asking if its like a tech problem and it is just iphoto

You should get your keyboard checked as it's repeating on a lot of keys and makes you look silly.
There are 9 different versions of iPhoto and they run on 9 different versions of the Operating System. The tricks and tips for dealing with issues vary depending on the version of iPhoto and the version of the OS. So to get help you need to give as much information as you can. Include things like:
- What version of iPhoto.
- What version of the Operating System.
- Details. As full a description of the problem as you can. For example, if you have a problem with exporting, then explain by describing how you are trying to export, and so on.
- History: Is this going on long? Has anything been installed or deleted? - Are there error messages?
- What steps have you tried already to solve the issue.
- Anything unusual about your set up? Or how you use iPhoto?
Anything else you can think of that might help someone understand the problem you have.

Please help needed os x lion I wish to transfer photos from the iPhoto library to a album or folder then delete them from the Library but when I do this it also deletes them from the album ? how do I do this please.

Please help needed os x lion I wish to transfer photos from the iPhoto library to a album or folder then delete them from the Library but when I do this it also deletes them from the album ? how do I do this please.

Albums are not places to store photos, they're more like "labels" you can apply to photos to better organize them. A single image file can be in multiple albums... they are not copies, it's simply been labelled as being in all those albums. So what you're trying to do doesn't make sense, because it's based on incorrect assumptions.
The iPhoto library will always show all photos that you have added to iPhoto.

I inadvertently imported all of my iPhoto videos to my iMovie library. I have tried everything possible to delete them. I still want to keep them in iPhoto however. What can I do?

I inadvertently imported all of my iPhoto videos to my iMovie library. I have been unable to delete them. How can I delete them from the iMovie library without deleting them fro iPhoto?

Did you import them into an Event Folder? Or are they still just showin up under the iPhoto Videos folder? Anything inside of the iPhoto Videos folder cannot be deleted, because it is under the full control and jurisdiction of iPhoto and is merely 'shared' from iPhoto and made visible to iMovie. Everything else can first be deleted, then moved to the Trash. To find the items that have been marked for deletion under iMovie '11 go to the pull-down tab at the bottom of the iMovie window frame labeled Show: and choose 'Rejected Only'. Then when you see all the clips with red stripes on them Select All (⌘ Command key + a). Then click on the button labeled Move rejected to Trash.

Cannot export from iPhoto after deleting photos in its library

... because it says it cannot find the original. It asks if I want to search for it myself, but I think it means searching for the ones I've deleted or something. I don't even want to upload those! Help!
I've read this somewhere else on this forum: "The ! or ? turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents."
That's exactly what's happening! Why?

create a new deafult iPhoto preference file - quit iPhoto and go to "your user name" ==> library ==> preferences ==> com.apple.iPhoto.plist and trash it - launch iPhoto which creates a fresh new default preference file . If you make any changes to it make a note of what chane syou have made.
Do NOT change the preference to copy imported items to the iPhoto library
depress the option key and laynch iPhoto and create a new library
Do not ever make any change to its content or structue using the finder or anyother program other than iPhoto
in iPhoto under the hlep menu go to the iPhoto help videos and watch them
Import a few photos and practice with iPhoto and ask specific question as you find things you do not understand
Most important is to never go directly into the iPhoto library - there is no need to and ther are no user servicable parts in it
LN

Iphoto deleting photos

I have been having trouble with iPhoto deleting files from my photo library. I don't notice any rhyme or reason to this. Sometimes they are photos in photo stream, and other times they are ones that I had imported myself. Since iPhoto copies the file again to it's own database, I import them to iPhoto and then delete the file from where I originally uploaded them from. This has not been an issue on thousands of other photos, but randomly I get the following error message:
The volume for “IMG_2545.JPG” cannot be found.
Any help would be appreciated. I have to back all of my photos up and organize them by folders on an external hard drive so I can re-import them when this happens. I was really hoping that I could depend on Apple's program iPhoto to organize my photos but it doesn't seem trustworthy. Please let me know if anyone else is experiencing this and what the solution if any is. Thanks in advance.

do you have a default "managed" library (the iPhoto preference to "copy imported items to the iPhoto library is in its checked state) or a referenced library (you have unchecked that preference)
LN

Delete file from iTunes Library and Computer

I convert a lot of my own TV shows for playback on iPad/iPod touch. Once I have watched the show I delete it from my library.
It used to be that when I deleted from my library, I would get a message asking if I wanted to delete from library only or from library AND computer. It does not ask me this anymore.
I went into preferences and clicked on "reset all warnings" but that didn't fix the problem. Any tips on how to restore this functionality?

What I mean is I don't want an extra copy of the file made when I add something to my library. I already have the file where I want it.
I did try your suggestion, and just as I suspected, it made an extra copy in a different location on my computer, then when I deleted it, yes, it asked me if I wanted to move it to the recycle bin, but it only deleted the copy, not the original.
I'm marking your response as helpful, as I can use it as a workaround if I can't find a better solution, but I have never done it this way before. I've always had full control over which folders my shows were in, and only one copy. And when I've deleted, it has deleted the original file, not just a copy of it.

How do I delete photo ALBUMS from my iPHONE 4? I sync via icloud and I can not see any folders selected in itunes. I searched the internet and basically there is no one who has the answer to how you delete the iphone photo library and misc albums

how do I delete photo ALBUMS from my iPHONE 4?
I sync via icloud and I can not see any folders selected in itunes.
I searched the internet and basically there is no one who has the answer (so far)
to how you delete the iphone photo library and misc albums
I have also had every iphone and I am not stupid.
charles altman

Replying to my own post - heh. I downloaded iExplorer (http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/) which allowed me access to the files on the phone and there was the phantom movie in the DCIM folder. Deleted it, and all is well - although I still have 0.65gb of Other in iTunes.....

Library can't upgrade to iPhoto '11, can't rebuild Library either.

After recently installing iLife '11, my iPhoto Library became unusable. When I OK'd iPhoto to "upgrade" my library, it started the process and then presented an error message "iPhoto is unable to open this Library".
I couldn't rebuild the Library either. So I was able to "downgrade" back to iPhoto '09 and restored my Library from an older backup (a couple days old). I simply moved iPhoto '11 to the desktop, deleted iPhoto prefs, and reinstalled iPhoto '09 from disc. My intention was to use iPhoto '09 to rebuild the library and then upgrade again. After reinstalling iPhoto '09, I can open my iPhoto library just fine. Appears to be normal. However, when I try to "rebuild" the library, iPhoto instantly quits. No error messages or anything. Just quits.
I downloaded iPhoto Library Manager hoping that it may allow me to rebuild the library. When I try to do that, it prompts me to use iPhoto 9.0 ('11) to upgrade the library before I rebuild. It appears that my Mac (at least iPhoto Library Manager) still thinks iPhoto 9.0 ('11) is installed. I'm positive that iPhoto 8.1 is installed, and that's what's in my Applications folder. That's what is successfully opening my iPhoto library. Any ideas on how I can rebuild this Library in '09 so that I can try to "upgrade" again?
Running on new iMac with 10.6.4 installed.

Just wanted to chime in to this as I ran into the same issue, and these boards have been a great resource in the past.
Here's what I attempted to do that didn't fix the issue;
- Tried to rebuild the library from iPhoto '11 (CMD+Option) when opening the program, which failed with the exact same error as OSO - Mac was mentioning above.
- Reverted back to iPhoto '09 (deleted iPhoto '11 from /Applications/, as well as deleted any reference to iPhoto in /Library/Receipts; I saw no references but took that suggestions from a previous thread here), then reinstalled iPhoto '09 via original discs. I was able to open the library as I wanted (pulled a library from a few days ago in a Time Machine backup to be safe), then attempted to rebuild in hopes that would help issue. Reinstalled iPhoto '11, but the same issue occurred.
Here's what I attempted to do that somewhat fixed the issue;
- Option-clicked to open iPhoto '11, then chose to create a new library. Created a new library (I named mine iPhoto2) in the ~/Pictures/ folder. Closed iPhoto. Then I navigated to the ~/Pictures/ folder, right-clicked on the original iPhoto library that won't open, as well as the newly created iPhoto library that does open (but lacks any content), and choose to Show Contents. I manually copied all the contents of the original iPhoto library to the new iPhoto library (some folders and files overwrote, some did not; note that the structure of the iPhoto '11 library is radically different than that of the iPhoto '09 library) and then re-opened iPhoto. iPhoto prompted me to upgrade the library again (peculiar since the library technically was created in iPhoto '11, but I guess it saw elements of the iPhoto '09 structure) and successfully upgraded the library. The only downside was that, for whatever reason, certain photos did not come back and were blatantly missing thumbnails and originals. But my album structure, faces, etc. remained intact.
What I did that finally fixed the issue;
- Brought back my good library from a Time Machine backup, then right-clicked on it within ~/Pictures/ and chose Get Info. I manually set permissions for everyone on my machine (admin, staff, everyone, and myself) to Read & Write. Option-clicked when opening iPhoto, forced it to look for my newly-permissioned library, and viola, upgraded without issue and no lost photos.
Not sure if my solution will work for all, and my apologies for providing such information that isn't so concrete, but since these are user-to-user forums, I thought I'd offer my experience as I was not able to locate any other solutions without entirely losing my album structure, faces data, etc.

IPhoto not properly sharing same library between different accounts

I have my iPhoto library installed on a 4GB thunderbird external hard drive, brand LaCie in case that matters. I made sure to select the drive and adjust the permissions as recommended in the Apple tech support article - basically you have to select the option to "ignore ownership on this drive" which I did. I also made sure to indicate that both user accounts could read and write to this drive.
Now, I'm trying to make it so that my wife and I, who each have our own accounts on the same iMac, can share the same iPhoto library and import to the same iPhoto library. The problems seem to be occurring mostly on my wife's side. These are as follows:
1) Many times when she loads up iPhoto, it starts off with the default iPhoto library in her directory and we have to keep manually selecting the iPhoto library on the external hard drive.
2) Some of the pictures in the library viewed through her account have wrong thumbnails - that is to say, pictures within a given event show one set of thumbnails but when clicking you get completely different pictures. The same problem is not seen with the same pictures viewed in my account.
3) When syncing iOS devices through her account, iTunes sometimes fails to see the correct iPhoto library, requiring us to again go into iPhoto and select the correct library on the external hard drive.
I would really appreciate some feedback as to how to fix these problems. I thought I did everything correctly but placing the library file on a shared external hard drive and fixing the permissions, but still this problem is ongoing. How can I get iPhoto to only use the library on the external HD as default in her account as well as mine? And how to fix the thumbnail problem?

I would trash the cache and the plist files in the affected account.
The cache file is here
/Users/Your Name/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto/Data/Library/Caches
Try trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file from the HD/Users/ Your Name / library / preferences folder.
(On 10.7 or later: Hold the option (or alt) key while clicking on the Go menu in Finder to access the User Library)
(Remember you'll need to reset your User options afterwards. These include minor settings like the window colour and so on. Note: If you've moved your library you'll need to point iPhoto at it again.)
What's the plist file?
For new users: Every application on your Mac has an accompanying plist file. It records certain User choices. For instance, in your favourite Word Processor it remembers your choice of Default Font, on your Web Browser is remembers things like your choice of Home Page. It even recalls what windows you had open last if your app allows you to pick up from where you left off last. The iPhoto plist file remembers things like the location of the Library, your choice of background colour, whether you are running a Referenced or Managed Library, what preferences you have for autosplitting events and so on. Trashing the plist file forces the app to generate a new one on the next launch, and this restores things to the Factory Defaults. Hence, if you've changed any of these things you'll need to reset them. If you haven't, then no bother. Trashing the plist file is Mac troubleshooting 101.

Deleting photos from the Library and Disk

When I delete photos from my iPhoto 5 library because I don't want the photo anymore and would like to free up disk space, it is easy enough to do. However when I look in my Library folders, the image still exists in the Month/Day folders. I had to review all of those folder to find the photos I just deleted and delete them again, at that point I gained the disk space I was hoping for. Is there a more straight forward way to delete the photo from the disk at the same time you are deleting it from the library? Ideally some fancy keyboard combo.

hi Blake,
images you delete in the iPhoto library are not deleted from hard drive UNTIL you empty iPhoto's trash bin. iPhoto keeps the image from your view in the library but it is still sitting safely in the dated folder in the finder, just in case you change your mind. When you are absolutely sure you want to delete the image go to the menu bar and hit iPhoto/Empty trash (there is also a keyboard shortcut listed there. I think it is shift command Delete.)
The trash bin is all the way on the bottom of the source column.
You can control click on the trash icon and empty the trash that way too.
Make sure you empty the trash often and don't let too many images pile up there. iPhoto has been known to choke on trying to trash too many images at a time.

Merge two iPhoto libraries into an Aperture library for my Macbook Air

Hey,
I've searched around a bit for this but can't seem to figure out how to to it.
I'm trying to manage my ~140GB photo library on my Macbook Air which has 128GB of HDD. On top of that, you can imagine that most of that 128GB is filled with system stuff.
My objective is to keep most of my library offline from the Macbook Air, but still keep it all together.
I kinda went "all-in" with iPhoto a few years back to organize my photos so gave up on Aperture. I'd always wanted to move to Aperture or Lighroom but the migration appeared to be a complete disaster. Now with "transparent" compatibility it seems like a no brainer to get the best of both worlds.
I thought that Aperture allowed you store files on external hard drives but still have "thumbnail" access to them even when the drive wasn't connected. Or did I misread that? (Is that Lightroom?)
Anyway with the new update I thought that I could merge my available iPhoto libraries into one Aperture library that I could always have access to, while offloading the actual photos somehow to an external HDD.
This would be a real winner for me. It seems tho that an iPhoto library stays an iPhoto library. So while merging might be helpful for someone with a big hard drive, it's completely useless for me as if anything, I need to split. Or create more. Or some other form of adding complexity.
Any ideas here?

Figured this out on my own.
Make a backup of everything - Aperture seems to require rebuilds and stuff and stories abound of "things going a bit wrong."
Did you make a backup? If you don't want to or can't, I wouldn't do this. After all, it's your photos!
Setup your Aperture library on a USB drive.
Update iphoto to the newest version. Open all your libraries in iPhoto to update them. This may take awhile depending on library size.
Import whatever iphoto libraries you have to Aperture. This make take awhile (hours!) - if your stuff is more than say 25 gigs I'd recommend setting it up for overnight.
Once everything is in Aperture - check its all working right. Then go ahead and maybe make another backup
Then migrate your photos out of the library. This takes all the originals and stores them elsewhere, called "offline". Once they're there, you can't move them around, so pick a good spot!! This also takes forever.
Once this is done your Aperture library should be smaller and just copy it to your MacbookAir
I'm still working on this as it looks like something went funky and I have to rebuild my thumbnails, another overnight processing thing. Like I said, keep a backup But I have a slimmed down Library on my Macbook Air now which is what I wanted.
This whole thing is kinda a mess and while it's feasible Apple hasn't made it easy. There's also some crazy stuff Aperture does with thumbnails and "previews" so that they take a bunch of space up (in my case almost as much as my photos), so you might have to work with that.
The guy at Apertureexpert.com is a genius.
Check out this post for more on slimming your Aperture Library:
http://www.apertureexpert.com/tips/2010/1/20/reducing-library-sizedramatically.h tml
Edit:As a side-note I put some HTML in my message and it looks like it isn't used in the forum - why does Apple bother having the formatting tools if they don't work? Kinda like the close-door button on an elevator?
Edit2: Haha it shows up in the answer but not in the normal thread. Strange, eh?

Splitting event into its own library

My main iPhoto library is growing to the point where it will barely fit on a DVD.
I'd like to split out the larger of the two events in this library into its own library.
I do have iPhoto Library Manager...
I'd like to know how to do this as I really should get around to making my periodic DVD backups.

Yeah, I did just that - but as for the actual move, I was momentarily stumped until I realized I just had to click and drag the event in question into the new library.
Done and done, now am "starting over" by moving all the pics previously tagged with keywords into new events.
I said it before and I'll say it again - I simply do not know why I was so hesitant to use iPhoto in the first place! It's far better than my old "folder tree" system.
Thanks for the big hint.
Message was edited by: Dave Dahle

Iphoto deleted it's own library

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