IPhoto Diet Destroys iPhoto

Question

A lot of posters have advised using iPhoto Diet to slim down iPhoto libaries.
I did this, and it took out 3gb out of our 15gb iphoto library. Great. Then we opened iPhoto, and every rotated photo had a thumbnail, but when zoomed in or in edit mode, we get the gray square with exclamation point.
I searched the Pictures folder. The Rotated files are still there. I guess iphoto diet killed the link between the thumbanails and the full rotated versions.
I rebuilt the iphoto library as Help advises, this did not change anything. I have run disk permission repair with disk utility, as well as fsck -y -f in Single User Mode.
The problem here is that there are over 5000 missing rotated photos out of 15,000, so manually finding each photo and reimporting them would take a very, very long time.
What should we do? reinstall iphoto? How can we fix all these broken links?
I think its safe to say that iphoto diet is piece of garbage, and since its free, you get what you pay for.
Other info:
running iphoto 6.05, iphoto diet 3.1, canon elph with autorotate, intel imac.
imac core duo   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   stock

Answer 1

khybro:
I take it you didn't make a backup copy of the library before running Diet. Do so now. Try selecting one of the "bad" apples as a test file (yes, pun intended) and do a revert to original. See if that will bring back the original and then it will create a new rotated file if that file is from a camera with the auto-rotate function. If that works you're home free.
If not you can try to rebuild the library as follows: launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select all the options. I have little hope that this will work but worth a try.
Your last option is as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the rolls from the original.
Move the existing library folder to the desktop.
Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
Drag the Originals folder from the desktop into the open iPhoto window.
This will create a new library with the same rolls as the original library. However dates on the rolls may be different but can be edited as you would the roll title.
In the future I recommend you make a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto file after each import and after doing a lot of editing and organizing in the library. Then if you experience a similar crash all you need to do is replace the damaged database file with the backup copy and you'll be back to the same place in the library as when you make the backup.
Once this is completed you can delete the Originals folder from the desktop and the iPhoto Llibrary folder. If desired, you can keep the older library folder to try other fixes on it.
If you need to cull duplicates in the future I'd try using Duplicate Annihilator after making a temp backup copy of the library folder beforehand.
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.