IPhoto has just said my library is unreadable!?!

I am currently running iPhoto 9.5.1 and OSX 10.9.1. I have followed the prompts of rebooting, holding the option/command keys when opening iPhoto to rebuild but nothing is working. Any ideas?
My library is saved backed up to an external harddrive.
Any help would be appreciated.

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 Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places 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

Similar Messages

Iphoto has just deleted the contents of the last album i uploaded by unexpectedly closing whilst viewing photos. It is also refusing to recognise "flagged" photos. any ideas?

iphoto has just deleted the contents of the last album i uploaded by unexpectedly closing whilst viewing photos. It is also refusing to recognise "flagged" photos. any ideas?

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 Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places 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

My iphoto has disappeared and photo library

I have been looking at similiar problems but nothing seems to be exactly like my problem. My iphoto has disappeared from my doc. There is no "iphoto" in the applications. When i go to my iphoto library I get this message. "There is no application set to open the document "iphoto Library". I do not have back-up for photos. I do not want to lose them if at all possible. I do have my start up disks for my computer.
HELP!

Well put in the applications install Disc. Received this message:
"The installation failed." An unkown installation error occurred.
The installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail.
Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.
I tried this several time and have come up with the same message each time.!

After updating my atv3 to software 6 it has just said "a new update is avaliable"whats going on???

After installing the new update my device has just told me"a new update is avalable" whats going on????

- Reset the iOS device. Nothing will be lost
Reset iOS device: Hold down the On/Off button and the Home button at the same time for at
least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
- Unsync/delete all music and resync
To delete all music go to Settings>General>Usage>Storage>Music>Tap edit in upper right and then tap the minus sign by All Music
- Reset all settings
Go to Settings > General > Reset and tap Reset All Settings.
All your preferences and settings are reset. Information (such as contacts and calendars) and media (such as songs and videos) aren’t affected.
- Restore from backup. See:
iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes
- Restore to factory settings/new iOS device.
Also, go to Bose's support site, they may have suggestions for that problem

When i open iPhoto it says my photo library is unreadable and will not open. How can i fix this without losing my photos?

"Your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable... Shut down and restart your computer, and then open iPhoto again. If the problem persists, try rebuilding your photo library. To do this, quit iPhoto, and then reopen it while keeping the Option and Command keys pressed. You can also try restoring your photo library from a backup."
How do i solve this problem? Dpes rebuilding your photo library delete all your photos? I have thousands of photos with no back up HELP!!

Well if you have no back up you need to make a back up now. It might be too late, but you're not going to know until you fix this.
Most Simple Back Up:
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex: Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.
Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store
Then try:
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 Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places 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

IPhoto has destroyed my external library yet again

I've been using an external firewire HD to contain my expanding photo library because there's (a) not enough room on my MacBook Pro, and (b) I don't want to lose all my photos if my computer is lost/damaged/stolen.
So I've noticed the most infuriating problem...
Should the firewire cable EVER come loose from the machine, iPhoto will wipe out my entire library file, and it can only be rebuilt manually by opening the package and extracting the photo folders, and dragging them back into a new library.
I know, I'm not using Time Machine. Would this have helped? Maybe. But then I'd have to buy yet another external drive.
Interestingly, this never happens with iTunes. Just iPhoto.
What gives??

I wouldn't blame it on iPhoto but on the cable. If you interrupt many applications while writing to a file that file will be closed incorrectly resulting in a damaged file. To make it very easy to recover for that sort of incident in the future see the tip at the end of my signature.
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 and Leopard. 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 has just started showing photos from my camera as blank and I cannot import them. Any advice on this please ?

I have just plugged my camera in to download some photographs and they have come up on iPhoto as blank squares. I cannot download them and most of the commands are greyed out when I go on them. It has been working fine up to now. Any ideas on how I can sort this ?

Launch Image Capture and see if it can recognize those photos and download them to a folder on the Desktop.
What camera do you have and does it have a removable memory card? If it does connect it to your Mac via a card reader (your iMac may have one in its side) and copy the photos from the card to a folder on the Desktop. Once you have the photos there and can confirm that they can be read (user Preview to view them) put the memory card back in the camera and reformat it with the camera. Take some test shots and try importing into iPhoto again.
OT

I purchased lion osx 10.7 and it has just said "installing" where you click to "buy now" for the last 2 hours. There is no progress bar or anything. What is going on?

I purchased lion osx 10.7 and it just says "installing" where you click to "buy it now" and it has been doing nothing for the past 2 hours. There is no progress bar or anything that says its being downloaded. I was sent an email by apple confirming I purchased it but nothing is happening. I tried restarting the internet and clicking on download and the same thing happens. What is going on?

Mine says it's going to take 10 hiurs to download or something daft. I'm guessing the servers are being hit pretty hard right now. Like the poster above said, check in the 'purchased' part of the app store to make sure it's actually ticking along and then just...wait.

IPhoto has lost my photo library?!

iPhoto says I have 6000 photos, which I do, but only 800 appear anywhere on the site. One day they were there and a couple weeks later, the next time I wanted to get to them, they were gone. Help?

I have an aperture library of work photos and 2 of my personal photos. And what's on the cloud. And don't even get me started on Dropbox, which imported every work photo I have two, three, sometimes four times, thereby maxing out my dropbox account--and I had told it no before it took them all. At least it only took the work photos. Trying to get them off is an absolute nightmare.

IPhoto Error Message - access to library?

My hard drive recently crashed and I did not have any back up (yes, yes, I know). I was lucky enough to find someone who could recover everything for me, replace my hard drive and get me running again. The only thing they didn't reinstall was iLife. So, I've reinstalled the iLife software and now iPhoto gives me an Error message that reads:
*"Some recent changes may be lost. Make sure your hard disk has enough space and that iPhoto is able to access the iPhoto Library."*
This means, anything I upload to iPhoto is completely lost and unsaved when I quit iPhoto. My hard drive absolutely has enough space. How do I check/change to make sure that iPhoto has access to my library?

Welcome to Apple Discussions,
- Make sure your software is entirely up to date
- Make sure your iPhoto Library is in the standard location: Home > Pictures > iPhoto Library
- Make sure you have enough available space on your internal HD to accommodate whatever you are importing (I'm assuming that you get this message when you import). To Check available space, click on the Finder icon (blue on blue smiley face) in the dock and look at the bottom of the window that appears.
- You may have a broken iPhoto Library (not surprising if the hard drive failed and you had data recovered). Try creating a new iPhoto Library and adding in the pictures to see if the same error occurs:
1.) Hold down option
2.) Launch iPhoto
3.) Create new library and save
4.) Import pictures
- If the new library works then the issue is with your old library.
Switch back to your old library by holding down option and re-opening iPhoto and choosing the original library. Then follow this article to rebuild your library: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638. I would use the options for Repair permissions and Rebuild database.
If that does not resolve the issue, make a brand new folder on your desktop, and drag the iPhoto Library into that folder.
Click on the folder and go to File > Get Info.
Go down to the bottom of the Get Info window and make sure that your user name is listed with Read/Write access.
Click on the pad lock to unlock it.
Click on the cog and choose "Apply to enclosed"
Once that process completes try opening the Library again.
If that does not resolve the issue you can follow the bottom of this article to perform a manual rebuild http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638. Keep in mind this will not preserve keepsakes like Albums, slideshows, books, etc.
Hope that helps.

When I start my iPhoto it says: "Your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable". I don't have a back-up of my library and I don't know what to do! Thanks

When I start my iPhoto it says: "Your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable". I don't have a back-up of my library and I don't know what to do! Thanks

Try to restart your Mac. If the library is really in use by another application, that can clear it.
Tell us more about your system. Which version of iPhoto are you using? Which version of MacOS X?
Where are you storing your iPhoto Library?
What happened before this problem first started? Did iPhoto crash? Did you move the iPhoto Library somewhere else?
Try Terence Devlin's fix here: Re: IPHOTO LOCKED
Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.
Look there for a file called ‘iPhoto’Lock.data or similar. Drag it to the Desktop. Make no other changes. Start iPhoto. Does that help?

I keep getting the message iPhoto has detected inconsistencies in your library but after repairing it it just quits

i keep getting the msg "iphoto has detected inconsistencies in your library, and after it goes thru a lengthy repair process it just quits. it has done this several times, cant get past this it just keeps doing the same thing.

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

When I open iPhoto this appears- "Your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable" I have not used iPhoto before on this computer. I downloaded iPhoto Library Manager as suggested but nothing happened. What should I do?

When I open iPhoto this appears- "Your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable" I have not used iPhoto before on this computer. I downloaded iPhoto Library Manager as suggested but nothing happened. What should I do?

I think the usual advice is to use the Rebuild command in Library Manager.
Regards
TD

IPhoto won't load my library, it just crashes

If anyone can help me with this I would be very grateful.
I recently backed up my iPhoto folder, which was running version 5. I then nuked my computer, and installed Tiger from scratch. Then I installed iLife, updated it using Software Update. I then moved my the "iPhoto Library" into the Pictures folder, and launched iPhoto. iPhoto told me that it needs to upgrade my library from a previous version. So I've tried that. It processes stuff for about 10 seconds, then iPhoto crashes.
I've tried everything I can think of. Trashed preferences. Deleted iPhoto completely and reinstalled. Tried using as a brand new user. Made a blank iPhoto Library folder and slowly added folders and files to it from the old backed up iPhoto Library. If anyone of you is a super-geek, here's what the crash report says:
http://people.whitman.edu/~sprungde/iPhotoCrash.txt
I'm really stuck. It's taken me a long time to develop my iPhoto library, which I use here at work. I really don't want to lose all that organizational work. Does anybody have any ideas? I read the other "crash" posts and none of them quite fit my situation...
Thanks in adavance,
David

Congrats to Lois.
Meanwhile, I've spent several hours trying some other stuff. For fun, I installed iPhoto 4. That didn't work either... at first. I also tried experimenting with removing the album XML file, as well as the "Albums" folder (this may be a hold over from the iPhoto 4 days?). I got to a point, while messing with these files, that iPhoto would actually load my library, but like Lois, it was full of blank grey squares, and not my photos.
My coworker made a google discovery that if you hold down Command(Apple) + Option in iPhoto 5, you can force iPhoto to try to rebuild your photo library. But then I would still get the "Upgrade or Quit" message, and the Upgrade option would crash iPhoto. My coworker also helped me with this little Unix command, which you run from the Terminal:
sudo fs_usage | grep iPhoto
Make sure iPhoto isn't running before you type this in, and then once you start iPhoto, you'll get a huge list of what iPhoto is trying to do with your system. I've posted my results here: http://people.whitman.edu/~sprungde/Terminal-Output-iPhoto.txt
Note that when it's done, you need to push control + C to quit that Unix process (or whatever it's called).
What this report from the Terminal suggests is that right before it crashes, iPhoto seems to be doing something QuickTime-related. Is that the problem? I don't know, but I'm running Quicktime 7.0.3, and Apple just yesterday released an installer that lets you downgrade from 7.0.3 to 7.0.1, here's that link: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime701reinstallerforquicktime703.ht ml . Why has Apple released this? Don't know. Is it connected to my problem? Don't know yet either.
As it turns out, though, you can try that Library Rebuild trick in iPhoto 4 as well. The key command is Command(Apple) + Option + Shift. Now, I'm positive that on my previous machine, I was running iPhoto 5. But I have been using/upgrading iPhoto since it was first introduced, and a google source suggests that iPhoto 4 was less cranky about corruptions in the Library than iPhoto 5 is...
Anyway, I ran the Library Rebuild trick with iPhoto 4. It worked on it for a long time, then crashed. I relaunched, and... there were all my photos and albums! But wait, it's not time to cheer yet. I then ran iPhoto 5. It actually upgraded my Library, but...
It didn't quite work. It's riddled with problems. Some of my albums are completely empty. Every single picture has been squished into a square shaped thumbnail. A chunk-- I don't know how large yet-- of my pictures are just flat out missing. Pushing the edit button yields... nothing. Just a blank space where the picture should be.
By the way, I also called Apple. The nice tech support guy was sympathetic, but basically said that I would be able to manually drag all of my folders (in all those freakin' folders iPhoto creates in its Library) into iPhoto if I let iPhoto create a brand new, empty library... and of course the key thing is that I would lose all my albums, which for me is the whole point.
So, where does that leave me? Maybe I can experiment with downgrading Quicktime. Other than that, does anybody have any ideas? Thank God I have never fully committed to iPhoto for managing my assets. Let this be a warning to you all.
--David

IPhoto has hidden my iPhoto Library- photos there, but can't locate LIBRARY

*Here's a bit of a strange one!* I have iPhoto 7.1 (not yet 7.1.1) on my PowerBook G4-12" and last week I imported 6700 photos from my Kodak EasyShare Collection (which had a total of 16,000+) - and it all worked great.
*I setup about 20 EVENTS-*- some with 4 photos-- some with 800! I transferred 6098 photos to my iPod Touch (16gb) and SUPER!! +(OK the iTouch puts the first dated photo in each event as the KEY photo-- doesn't accept the "KEY PHOTO" I assigned in iPhoto-- but otherwise super).+
*OK SO TODAY:* I have 132 new photos to import from my digital camera. _FORGOT TO SAY THIS:_ The 29 gb iPhoto Library is located on an *external 48 gb HD (LaCie 300 gb with 3 partitions - on the 48 gb partition).*
So I imported the photos directly to iPhoto and all the events are gone and just the new 132 photos (1 event).
WHAT?!?!?!!!!!!!!!
So I then plug-in the HD to my MacBook and opent iPhoto 7.1.1 with the option key down and choose the iPhoto Library on the External HD and all is there, all OK-- Whew!
I now open iPhoto 7.1 on the PBG4 and the photos are there!! - *but the external HD is not connected!!* Somehow iPhoto has transferred them to the internal 100gb HD on the PBG4-- BUT WHERE?!?!? Even with a SPOTLIGHT or EASY FIND search, _I cannot locate the iPhoto Library!!!_ I even deleted the photos that were similar in the Kodak EasyShare folder thinking it was referencing them, but nope-- it still opened with 132 photos and where they are located, I have no idea!
I would like to transfer these 132 photos to the MAIN iPhoto Library on the 48gb HD - but I don't know where they are! (I've gone to where it should be-- in Users/Steve/Pictures....)
But I see them!
Can I DELETE this single event? But what then, is that "invisible Library" still about?
At this time, I really don't want to connect the HD to the PBG4 since I don't want to risk it corrupting the 6700 photos in that Library.
(((Of course I'll backup that iPhoto Library first-- so if I "wreck" one, I'll have a backup))); and of course I have the photos themselves via the wonderful Kodak EasyShare program which plays videos in slide shows (but without "EVENTS" or the easy ability to transfer to the iTouch)--
Thanks for any comments!
Steve-- Sunday 3 February 2008

Stephen:
Do a search on the PB for a file titles "Library6.iPhoto". Every library has one and you can find the library by finding that file. Once you find the library open it like this and drag out the Originals folder to the desktop.
Now connect the external HD to the PB, launch iPhoto with the Option key depressed and, when asked, select the option to Find Library and open the one on the external HD. Now you can drag the Originals folder from the desktop into the open iPhoto window to get those 132 photos into that library. When done delete the library and originals folder from the PB.
What may have happened is that iPhoto was launched with the external HD disconnected and, not finding the library, created a new one. Using iPhoto Library Manager to manage and open your library will avoid that problem as it will tell you that the library is not available.
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 and Leopard. 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 has just said my library is unreadable!?!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for