IPhoto Library is gone, gone, gone ... but ...

Here's a chronology of what happened...
I've kept my photos on an external hard drive for the past two years because there were so many of them. Everything was fine.
Three things happened sort of simultaneously, so I don't know which might have been the original culprit: I bought the new iPod (w/ video), which is my first with any kind of image capabilities, I had to do an erase and install of my OS (Tiger), and I imported photos from my friend's Yahoo photo account. I was able to import all of my photos to the iPod, but not the ones from my friend.
After downloading my friend's photos and reinstalling the OS (in that order), I copied all of my photos to the new iPod. A few days later, I opened iPhoto to find all of the keywords there, but the albums and the photos were missing (although all 2900 photos showed up by shape and keyword, but no images). I tried to import a few manually, and I got a message that the files types were unrecognizable.
I upgraded to iLife '05 and tried again. Same exact thing happened.
I went to the discussion boards, which usually helps me, but this time, I did myself in, I fear. I found a couple of discussions that mapped out moving the library to the hard drive and then restarting iPhoto with the command + option buttons and rebuilding, etc.
I moved the library to the hard drive and (here's where I'm stupid, I know) erased the library from the external hard drive. I then opened iPhoto with the option key held down and chose the library on my hard drive. 0 photos. 0 albums. Default keywords. I then tried the command + option restart to rebuild and rebuilt from the library on my hard drive.
Now, when I look in the folders on my hard drive, all of my photos are gone.
After collecting myself, I looked on my iPod and the photos are still on it. I don't know if the quality was altered when they were copied to the iPod, but I'm hoping I can get them off of there. I've used third party software to get my music libraries back and I'm wondering if there's anything like that for photos.
Any advice from anyone? Please help.

Michael,
There is data-recovery software, but it can get very expensive depending on the number of files you need to recover. This is one others have had success with.
Virtual Lab
Do a search in Google for data or Image recovery and you will see many more.
here is the first one that came up in Google
http://www.mediarecover.com/
I suggest you make a new post asking about data recovery. some here might have good suggestion on what to use from personal experience.
Good luck!

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I'm a new Mac user. I imported photos from my PC they ended up in iphoto library on the hard drive, but when I open iphoto from my dock its empty. How do I import those photos to the dock file?

I'm a new Mac user. I imported photos from my PC through a jump drive and they ended up in my iphoto library on the hard drive but when I open iphoto from the dock its empty. How do I import those photos to the dock file from the iphoto library?

Paragon Software has the most reliable NTFS driver for Mac
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I want to copy my iPhoto library to an external drive but I cannot find the folder on my Mac Air. When I open Finder there is no Picture folder showing so I cannot find the iPhoto library.

I want to copy my iPhoto library to an external drive but I cannot find the folder on my Mac Air. When I open Finder there is no Picture folder showing so I cannot find the iPhoto library.

Choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu and provide ~/Pictures/ as the path. If that doesn't work, control-click a photo in iPhoto, show it in the Finder, and Command-click the folder's name in the window's title bar to find the path.
(112151)

Updating iPhoto library memory full, photos gone!!

Similar to the problem indicated in the response from: Muhamad Abdulkadir
in this thread: Pictures disappeared after installing Yosemite and new Iphoto. Why
When my iPhoto library (very large >1TB) was updating, it ran out of memory. Unfortunately, something happened and on rebuild, all my photos were gone.
Looking in the "Old Masters" that Muhammad mentioned, I see the folder structure, but no photos.
Now under my "iPhoto Library Recovered Photos" folder, I have >1TB of data in that folder. All the photos have a number appended to it (e.g. IMG_1469_14.JPG) in the example, the appended number is _14.
It sounds like this is all my photos, and would love to restore these photos, but can't seem to do it. I do have a backup, but its offsite at the moment. Any ideas?

Thanks Larry!
You bring up a great point.. Based on your comment "..assure that you have adequate disk space available..." It sounds like the upgrade copies the library and tries to upgrade it? When not enough memory is available, it would generate the "memory full" message? Somehow, when I saw it said memory full, I assumed it was RAM related and not storage.. If it is storage, then that makes sense, because I have just under 1TB available.

I recently updated iphoto 11 and now I can't view my photos in the iphoto library. Screen is blank, but photos will show if played as slide show. What's going on? ? ?

On Friday, October 28th I updated my iphoto 11 because I received notice from Apple that I should do so for better stability in the program.    Today I opened I photo and found that although all my events show they are present and the number of photos in the library appears correct, when I click on an event to view the contents, I get a black screen.   I am told there are no photos in the event.   When I return to the iphoto page it again shows all my events with pictures of the photos in the event thumbnails and the number of pictures in each event.    I can not actually view these photos individually.      Now here's the strange part, when I select an event thumbnail and right click, I can choose to view the event as a slide show, complete with music and special effects and it will play normally.   But no way can I view the event photos individually.     I have one event that claims to be empty, no photos in it, yet when I click on that event all 346 pictures pop up for individual viewing, but will not play as a slide show.    I am totally confused and want my iphoto put back to normal.
Has anyone else had this problem?
How do I uninstall the update, or failing that how do I get my photos back? ?

Hi Liz,
Sorry to hear you are having a similar problem. Last night I went to the tool bar at the top of iphoto, clicked on "File", then clicked "Browse Backups" in the drop down menu.    I have an external hard drive that is set up to Time Machine.   The Browse Backups opened the iphoto pages in the Time Machine. I selected a date one day ahead of the day I performed the now infamous update, and it showed my iphoto library as it had existed that day.   I then clicked "Restore Library" at the bottom right corner of the Time Machine screen.   Roughly 2 hours later my iphoto was back to normal.   When I opened iphoto there was a message saying I need to upgrade my program to be compatible with the new version of iphoto(version 9.2.1). I clicked "Upgrade" and within seconds it had done whatever upgrading it needed to do.
The only glitch in the restoration was that it restored the library as it appeared last week, so I no longer had photos I had imported this past weekend.   I simply went back to the Browse Backups in the drop down menu, when Time Machine opened I selected the page showing my pictures from this weekend and again said to Restore Library.   Roughly 45 minutes later the library was restored including the most recent photos.
I am now a happy camper.
I don't know if any of this will be of help to you because your email says you are having trouble with photos imported after the upgrade was performed.   Have you had any pop up notices when you first open iphoto, that tell you you need an upgrade to be compatible with the new iphoto?     If so have you clicked "upgrade"?
Good luck Liz, if you have Time Machine running as a back up to your library, maybe you wil be able to get help there, by following my instructions above.   Otherwise,   good luck with your investigations.   I'd be interested in hearing how you make out.
Karen

Deleted iPhoto library and folders containing photos but hard drive still show 32GB of photos?

I have a new MacBook Pro Retina. Was having all sorts of problems setting up with Time Machine/Time Capsule back-ups. To cut a long story short I moved to trash a whole lot of photos I had imported, including the iphoto library. Have emptied trash - normal and within both iphoto and aperture - but About this Mac is still showing 32GB of photos. Where are they? And if I wanted to reconnect them to iphoto, how do I do that?

Open a Finder Window and go to your Username then to the Pictures folder. In there you will find a file, actually a folder but I won't get into that, called "iPhoto Library.photolibrary". It is that files (Folder listed as a Package) you need to Copy to your external drive.

IPhoto library still 20GB in size, but only shows 500 photos in iPhoto

HELP!
My iPhoto library (which is placed on an external HDD) is about 20GB in size. Unfortunately, everytime I open iPhoto now it has forgotten about 9,500 photos. I know that they are still there due to the size of the file, but iPhoto will not read all of them. If I create a new library and import the old one in to the program all photos are recovered but I lose all of my albums both on the computer and online. Any suggestions?!!?

John:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. It sounds like there was an interruption of some sort, maybe between the external HD and the computer, when accessing the library and the library's database file, Library6.iPhoto, has been damaged.
You can try rebuilding the library as follows: launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select the first three options.
If that doesn't resurrect the library you may have to start over with a new library and import just the Originals folder from the old library as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
Move the existing library folder to the desktop.
Open the library package like this.
Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.
This will create a new library with the same Events as the original library if you have the Finder checkbox unchecked in the Events preference pane.
To recover from similar problems in the future see the tip at the end of my signature below.
Happy Holidays
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 library contains lots of gb but will not open pictures after upgrade to iPhoto ´11

Upgraded from iPhoto ´08 to iPhoto ´11 (9.5.1) and to OS Maverick (10.9.1).
In "Finder" the library still seem to contain lots of gigabytes of data, but when iPhoto open the library it reads 0 photos. I have tried rebuilt (option+cmd key when opening iPhoto), iPhoto library manager, I have purchased aperture which acts just like iPhoto. Quite a few pictures missing, starting to become desperate - anyone with other ideas? Any help appreciated!
Thomas

Give this a try:
Starting over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Open the library package like this.
2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.
This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
Note: your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.
OT

I restored the iPhoto Library from yesterday's backup but the photos end in August 2013. Help!

Hi,
my iPhoto library is located on an external hard drive.
Each time I import photos to the Library I perform a complete Time Machine BackUp with the external drive and iPhoto Library mounted before deleting them from the camera or iPhone.
Yesterday I did just that but something happened that corrupted my iPhoto library.
I opened Time Machine and scrolled back to the last backup, selected the iPhoto Library file and clicked restore.
After it completed. I opened iPhoto. The most recent photo in iPhoto is from August 2013.
It looks like all of the photos between August 2013 and yesterday are missing.
Is there any way to restore the complete library back to the most recent version?
Note, each time I ran the Time Machine backup the external drive with the iPhoto Library was connected to the Macbook Pro and included in the locations to be backed up.
What, if anything, can I do to recover the photos from August '13 to the last backup of the iPhoto Library file from a couple of days ago?

It's says that file does not exist. How come? And why does it still show the image info.?
Where can i find those files (i have a daily backup)
The original image files are missing form your iPhoto library or iPhoto cannot find them, because the link to the originals has been broken. The image info is stored in the internal libraries, independent of the original files. That is, why you are still seeing them.
I restored the whole library from my backup.
Try restoring from an older backup, from before you first noticed the problem.
How large is the library, that you restored? Is the file size large enough to hold all your photos, or has the size been reduced? If the library is still large, the photos may still be inside, even if iPhoto cannot find them.
It's says that file does not exist. How come?
What happened, before your iPhoto library got deleted? Which applications have you been running, or which new software have installed or upgraded? Have you moved the library to a different disk or tried to use it from different user account or access it over the network?

IPhoto library shows 500mb of data, but finder shows 2.2G of data

Hi all,
I'm not a newbie and I read a lot of threads already, this is something really new.
iPhoto says that my library has xxx number of files totalling up to 500mb of photo's. But if I use finder and look at the properties of the iPhoto library folder, it shows that the folder is 2,2Gig large. Upon inspection, I found photo's that should've been deleted a long time ago and worse is, they don't show up on iPhoto!!! So now I can't remove these photo's and I dunno what to do.
I can't burn a back up and start from scratch, because when I want to burn with iPhoto, it also burns these images on the DVD.

Tensai,
the fastest way would be to highlight library in the source column
share> export. They are exported in one lump sum. Kind of messy if you ask me. I tried it once and was shocked...ha
I also have no idea how that lump sum of images will import back into iPhoto either. They will probably be imported as one large roll....messy messy!
Let me tell you what i do in case you want to do this in the future.
When iPhoto 5 first came out I really think it was programmed to import the smaller 30 sec video clips that cameras were taking at the time. Since then, digital cameras, at least my Canon S2 can take clips as large as your memory card can hold. The first time I tried to download my images and movie clips with my new camera, iPhoto stalled at the movie clips. I wasn't going to take any chances messing up my iPhoto Library so I started using Image Capture to download all my images and Movie clips. I actually like doing it this way a lot better. My movie clips are downloaded into my Movies folder where I then put them in a dated folder.
My photos are downloaded into my Pictures folder, where I then put them in a dated folder. I import the dated folder into iPhoto. I also keep all dated folders from photo downloads in the Pictures folder till I get enough Movie folders and Photo folders to fill a DVD. I burn them and then delete them from the hard drive.
This way I have the photos in iPhoto and I also have just the photos backed up to DVD in nice dated folders.
The Movies I keep on the hard drive in their dated folders until I use all the clips for my iMovie projects for the Year. I then make sure they are all burned to DVD, then I delete those from my hard drive.
Using Image Capture to download images and video clips:
Open up Image Capture which is found in the Applications folder.
When it is opened, go to Image Capture/Preferences
Under the General button choose
Camera: When a camera is connected, open Image Capture.
The next time you connect your camera Image Capture will open.
In the window that opens you will see an Options button. Click on that button to set your options.
To find out more about Image Capture (it can do a lot more) Click on Help in the menu bar when Image Capture is open.
iPhoto: How to Change the "Open Automatically" Preference
If you find you can't change any of Image Captures preferences or can't access any drop down menus or they are greyed out, check to make sure Image Capture is loose in the Applications folder and not within a sub folder.

Cannot open iPhoto after update to 9.5.1 from App-Store. I use OSX 10.9.5. Note:"to prepare library use iPhoto Library Upgrader available at Apple, but I cannot find it. On button "more info" comes: "we cannot find this page". Who can help? Thanks

iPhoto Library Upgrader

There is a download link on this page: iPhoto '11 or later: About the Library Upgrader - Apple Support
iPhoto Library Upgrader 1.1

I have my iphoto library on an external drive, but it filled up. Can I have another library in another external drive and use them both?

I have old pictures in my external drive that I filled up. I would like to make another iphoto library in a new external drive and have this one for new pictures. Can I do that? And how will I be able to see my old pictures on my older external drive? My iphoto is 9.5.1.

Yes. Another way to switch between libraries is with this menu in iPhoto:

Burned iPhoto Library to CD, said 'Successful' but CD empty??

Just burned my iPhoto Library to a CD-RW (finally)...burn showed as successful, however, the new Library does not show in the list as a disk? moved the disk icon from the desktop to the library list & shows as 'empty'...did I miss a step? wanted to move the library to a disk to just keep 'active' photos (things I'm working with) in iPhoto instead of 'everything'...maybe there's a better way to do this? didn't want to waste space storing on the HD...;) thanks!

Hi,
Did you do this from within iPhoto? And with the internal disk?

Iphoto Library moved to Time cpsule but wont let me select. Help?

I have found that my HD is almost full and I have over 14k photos in my library. I copied the library to my TC wireless ( took overnight) and now Iphoto will not allow me to select from new location on my TC.Any ideas how to wirelessly do this or is it futile with a wireless TC, and I need to be wired to it?
Kind of thought the wireless part was the sell on being able to store things with multiple computers being able to grab data from it in the house.
Thanks
LPM

Ya, I would like to edit and organize as well however if i do not need them, i can just leave them in my TC. The problem is that when I open i photo and hold the (Alt button) i go to select the file in my TC and it is grayed out. it wont let me?
I have no problem starting a new library on my HD or even on my other wired External drive ( Almost full though)
Just a ton of pics and videos.

Iphoto library gone - no back up

Somehow my iphoto library is gone. No back up.
what happened to it? why did it just disappear? its not in trash. there is no file or folder in its place. just gone.
can i retrieve without bring my mac to a memory recovery place?
I"m trying virtual lab but it seems to only show 540mbs worht of iphoto files when i know i had a lot more photos.
i just did a security update. could that have erased? i believe after i did this update - my shortcut icons in my finder window were all gone also.
i also installed flip4mac wmv recently.
btw - i've done a search for iphoto everything and have not found it on any drives. it doesn't exist anywhere on my system.

Jonathan
Have you looked in your Pictures folder? This is where the iPhoto Library Folder - which contains your photos and the library files - is meant to be. Look manually, many people have problems with Spotlight.
Assuming that the iPhoto Library Folder is actually gone:
1. Download a file recovery app like FileSalvage: http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
2. Don't Save things on your mac, it increases the chance of overwriting the files.
3. I"m trying virtual lab but it seems to only show 540mbs worht of iphoto files when i know i had a lot more photos.
I don't understand this reference - but why is it showing 540 MB;s of "iPhoto Files" when you say they are missing?
Regards
TD

IMac 20-inch on OSX 10.7.4 running iphoto 11, my photos from my iphoto library have been deleted. I have time machine but the iphoto library file is missing when I access time machine, help please.

I have an imac 20-inch Late 2006 model on OSX 10.7.4 running iphoto 11, somehow the application ccleaner has deleted my photos from my iphoto library. I have time machine but the iphoto library file is missing when I access time machine.
To restore photos I have followed the steps below
Quit iPhoto.
Connect your Time Machine drive.
In the Finder, open the folder containing your iPhoto Library. Unless you've moved your iPhoto Library, it can be found in Home/Pictures/iPhoto Library.
Enter Time Machine. (Time Machine can be found in the Dock or in the /Applications folder.)
Choose your desired backup. The timeline on the right side of the screen displays a purple tick mark for each of the backups stored on your Time Machine drive.
Select the iPhoto library you would like to restore, and click the Restore button.
I dont get the option in step 6 as I dont have an iphoto library file to choose? Does anyone know why?

Hi Barry
Thanks but as mentioned all is intact, even at step 3 I can see the current library in Home/Pictures/iPhoto Library which has no photos, but when I access time machine any point before the NOW option the iphoto library in Home/Pictures/iPhoto Library is missing from the finder window.
As you can see here it is
and now its gone. I have no explanantion.
How do I go about moving this question as you suggested.

IPhoto Library is gone, gone, gone ... but ...

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