IPhoto Library Slow

Hey All
When I load up my iPhoto library it seems to take a good 5-10 minutes to get "warmed up". There doesn't appear to be any errors, its just extremely sluggish. That said after the start up, it seems to run relatively smooth. When doing other work on the computer there seems to be no lag at all. I do understand though that iPhoto likely requires much more juice than anything else I am using. Were it slow all the time I might chalk it up to my computer just getting older and my iPhoto libarary getting larger, however since the lag eventually disappears I wonder if something else is going on.
I've read about "repairing" the iPhoto library. I am wondering if anyone things that will help. My fear is that it runs "ok" now, and I wouldn't want it to be any worse, but if there is a real chance it could speed things up, that would be great.
Thanks

Format of Drive is MS-DOS(FAT32)
iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
for more. Note also the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”
Remember that reformatting a drive will erase it, so back up important data first.

Similar Messages

Will imprting my iPhoto library slow Aperture down?

My current Aperture library is 20GB and my iPhoto library has 11,000 images and is 32 GB. If I bring my iPhoto library into Aperture (and store it in the Aperture Library, i.e. non-referenced), will this cause Aperture to slow down considerably? I know I can always have multipule Aperture libraries, but I'd rather not.
I presume that using Smart Albums would be slower as there are more images to search through, but other than things like that what is your experience?
Thanks!
P.S. I'm looking for first hand experience, not theoretical
24" iMac 2.33 Ghz, Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.7) Aperture 1.5.2

Yes it will slow it down, in my experience the stacks that are created by the iPhoto import for all the iPhoto photos that had modifications applied to them (of which I had a lot (since it did that for all my portrait photos automatically)
will cause major slow downs, so after import first try to reslolve all those stacks, remove duplicates (if you want to keep the master but also the modifications try to mirror the modifications made to the photo in Aperture and then toss the iPhoto edited..)

Issues with using my iPhoto library on my external hard drive. Very slow to open and pictures disappear in thumbnail view.

I have recently transferred my iPhoto Library to my external hard drive (WD MyBook Live) and have some questions. Since I have done this and used the "alt + option" to select it as my default library I have been having some issues. When using the library on the external drive as my default drive it takes a very long time to load compared to when it was on my macbook's hard drive. Is this normal? Also, once it does load the thumbnails are only viewable when scrolling quickly through the photos and they are very blurry. However, if I were to select one randomly (because of this problem I have no way of knowing which one I'm selecting) it brings it up in the edit view and it is a crystal clear picture.
Is there a way to fix these issues? I'd love to be able to use the iPhoto Library off the external drive to free up space on my macbook but if it isn't going to work as streamlined as it would on my macbook hard drive. I have not yet deleted the original iPhoto Library from my macbook because I did not want to do so until I knew the new iPhoto library on the external drive was working properly. Does this make a difference?
Please help!

The problem lies with occasional dropouts that can corrupt the library's database files if they are being written to as the time of dropout. It's the nature of wireless networks. If you have a very strong signal throughout and are willing to take a chance then go for it.
But as for the speed, it must be iPhoto 11 and it's complexity causing the slowness. I had tried using a library on an EHD connected to my iMac from my laptop wirelessly with iPhoto 7 or 8 and it was pretty fast. I think it was 7 before faces and places came into being.
Send a feature request to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html to improve wireless performance, etc.
OT

Slow performance in iPhoto - library is huge

Hello,
I have a huge number of pix in iPhoto (approx 11k) that I have accumulated of my kids over the last three years. The library is about 9.4 GB.
When I open iPhoto, it imports all the pictures every time. I really cannot have any other application open or everything crawls. Even if I just have iPhoto open, the performance is extraordinarily slow. I have about 12 GB of open memory on my hard drive. I moved the iPhoto library to an external drive, but that didnt seem to help the performance issue.
My questions are these:
1) Can I change a setting to have iPhoto only display / bring into memory the last 100 (or 1000) pictures instead of loading all pix every time?
2) Are there any other settings that would reduce the amount of memory it is using to load the pictures every time?
3) Is there something else that I can do to improve speed or performance?
I do run maintenance applications like Onyx occasionally, but it doesnt seem to have much of an impact on iPhoto performance.
Thanks for any help.
- Bob Mallon

We'll probably have other suggestions after you've answered Terence's questions, but for the moment:
1) No, not in iPhoto 4.x or earlier.
2) No. But you can make it operate faster by reducing the size of your thumbnails in Organize view, if they are now large or largish. At a certain size, which depends on your monitor resolution as well as on how you've set iPhoto's zoom slider, iPhoto switches from using the small thumbnail files that it generates internally to loading the whole original image in order to display a bigger thumbnail of it. That slows things way down. Make your thumbnail images as small as you can stand. On most monitors, at least four thumbnails across the window, and more on many monitors, is necessary to assure that only thumbnail files are loaded at startup. Experiment.
3) Dividing a huge library into several smaller libraries is far and away the best speedup option in iPhoto 4.x and earlier. Unfortunately iPhoto doesn't provide a way to do so while retaining all the original metadata for each picture. You have to export all the images you want to place in a new library, then import them into a newly-created library. You can then designate the library you wish to open each time you launch iPhoto, by holding down the Option key while you launch it.

Iphoto library seems to slow down my new MacPro.

so far no one at at the Apple store can have a solution why the new MacPro is RATHER slow.
some did suggest that the iphoto library MAY BE too big...
also, when I work with it ..( it contains over `12000 items) ..it machine works hard and slow.
who can help ?
establish another library ?
safe the pics on an external harddrive ?
appreciate your ideas and help,
heinz

Open the Activity Monitor when iPhoto is slowing down your Mac and see what processes is soaking up all the CPU cycles. Also check the Console for messages during that time. It can also give info as to what's slowing things down.
Do you have any anti virus software installed or have used MacKeeper, CleanMyMac or similar type of software on your Mac?
OT

Lost iPhoto Library and very slow iPhoto

I used to have my library on an external drive and had deleted the library in the pictures subfolder on my ibook. subsequently my external drive is hibernating. however, i appear to have copies on my laptop and am able to import new pictures. however, i can not locate a iPhoto Library or the file names on my photos on my laptop or anything resembling them and my iPhoto runs really slow and drags down the rest of my laptop.
Any idea where i can locate where my photos are stored on my laptop and why my iPhoto is performing so poorly?
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

ok, one more thing to try. By the way, what do you mean by "the external is hybernating"?
The next instructions will help you find where a photo that you see in iPhoto is in the Finder. Once you find that out, tell me the path of the photo.
There is a way to find out where the original photo is that you have in your iPhoto Library. On this page there are iPhoto Applescripts. One of them is "show image file" I tried it and it does work for iPhoto 5. If you click on the image in your library window and then use the applescript it will open up a finder window with the image file, and you can see it's path of where it is.
http://www.apple.com/applescript/iphoto/
Download the scripts from the link
Once downloaded, put the folder "iPhoto Scripts" in ~/Library/Scripts
Now navigate to Applications/Applescript
In that Applescript folder is an icon that says "Install Script menu"
double click that icon to install the Script menu in your menu bar. You might have an item called ScriptMenu.menu instead. follow directions on next link
http://www.appleclub.com.hk/applescript/script_menu/
It will look like a little black scrolled paper.
Or you might have an item named AppleScript Utility.app in the folder. Double click to open it and make sure you have show script menu in menu bar checked.
Now open iPhoto, click on a photo to highlight it
Go to the menu bar and click and hold on the Applescript icon
scroll down to iPhoto Scripts, then scroll to "show image file"
Wait for the Finder top open a finder window showing you where the image is.
OR:
Or you can download Joe's iPhoto Applescripts
He gives instructions on the page for the installation of the scripts.

Iphoto 09 slow in Library photos pane

Here is a challenging one that I cannot figure out.
I upgrade to Iphoto 9. When I am in the Library photos pane, it is very slow and slow to react. It comes to a crawl and the beachball shows up very often. At times it is unusable. When I go to events or anywhere else, it functions ok.
I rebuilt my library, I upgraded my RAM to 2 Gbs and have 50Gbs of free disk space. This does not help.

Scott
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, events 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

Bloated iphoto library file causing slow performance

My iPhoto 6 library contains about 20,000 photos and the library6.iphoto file is 488MB. I find EVERYTHING about iPhoto seems extremely slow -- launching, editing and quitting. From what I've read, the library size is the key factor in iPhoto speed. (I've followed the other tips in this forum, such as viewing by rolls and turning off all but the current roll, turning off outline and shadow, viewing standard size thumbnails, etc. but it's still very slow.)
Does that library6.iphoto file size seem right for just 20,000 photos, or is there a problem there?
I only have about 55 albums and four slideshows. I rebuilt the database twice and it had no effect. I even rebuilt all the thumbnails, which also had no noticeable effect.
I should mention that most of my photos were taken with a Pentax Optio S4, which I understand used to have a problem with excess EXIF data in iPhoto. But I've also read that iPhoto 6 cleared up that problem, so I assume that's not causing my current grief.
Can anybody help???

Tim:
I can't say for sure about the database file as I don't have a library anywhere that size. It's the most important file of the library as it contains ALL of the photo, album, slideshow, keyword, editing, book, etc. information.
How much RAM and free space do you have? Do you have at least 10GB free space? To check out the EXIF issue (it shouldn't be one with iPhoto 6.0.4) you can create a test library and import about 500 files into it and check the database file's size. I have a library of 686 photos with a database file size of 1.4 MB. I don't have a lot of albums, slideshows, etc. about 4 total.
If all else fails you could try rebuilding the library with iPhoto Library Manager. It creates a new library and creates new database files and copies the files and thumbnails it needs to complete the library. You're original library will be untouched. iPLM often succeeds where the iPhoto method does not. Might be worth a try. Here's how:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your User/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File->Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: It may take some time to create the new library if you have a lot of photos. One user reported that with a library of about 5,000 images it took about 2-3 hours so plan ahead.In your case you might want to plan a weekend trip while it's working away.
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 written 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Ever since my iphoto library crashed (ran out of space without warning) my mcbook pro has been slow, unresponsive, freezes in sleep mode and won't restart... please help.

Hi everyone
Ever since my iphoto library crashed (ran out of space without warning) my mcbook pro has been slow, unresponsive, freezes in sleep mode and won't restart...
I've since backed everything up on an external hard drive, removed the corrupt library, even reinstalled the operating software and there is now hardly anything on the hard drive, it still runs painfully slow. If I close the lid which puts it in sleep mode, it either doesn't go into sleep mode but instead the battery just gets drained and I find it completely empty of power (it won't start again unless plugged in), or it goes into sleep mode but just freezes when I try to reopen.
In iphoto (reinstalled) but even other applications it is painfully slow, not like a mac at all!
I am trying to go to genius bar with it but thinking maybe someone in this forum can help...
Many thanks
Andre

Have you tried SMC and PRAM resets?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Ciao.

Slow restore speed for iPhoto library

After iPhoto '11 destroyed my iPhoto library (known bug--do not open iPhoto '11 until you run software update), I am trying to restore from my Time Capsule. My restore speed seems ridiculously slow. I have gotten about 1gb of the 86gb file in the last hour. I am connected via Cat6 ethernet cable from the Time Capsule to my MB Pro. I can download files off the internet at much greater speeds than this is moving. I have rebooted the Time Capsule and the laptop. The original and subsequent backups go much faster.
Any ideas? I don't really have 32 hours to leave this thing hard wired to the Time Capsule.

As an update, after 30 hours of copying the 86gb file, something happened and the process crapped out with a cryptic message about finding "" (double quotation marks). Could not make sense of the message, and I was 77GB into the copy. I think that means at least most of the pics made it across.
I purchased Back-in-Time to try and copy the file to a different machine. I was able to mount the backup sparse bundle (after I deactivated Time Machine on the original host) and see the file with Back-in-Time on another machine. The copy is proceeding with some serious pace more appropriate to a giagbit ethernet link, and it looks like it will only take a couple of hours.

IMovie '11 slow to load at every launch (large iPhoto library to blame?)

I'm running 10.6.7 on a late 2010 13" macbook pro. I have a very large iphoto library (over 200GB) that is full of movies made with various digital cameras. I do have a casio AVI video codec installed into quicktime as a plugin, fyi, but all the movies and clips open fine within iPhoto when I double click them.
The first time I opened up iMovie it said that it needed to scan the iphoto library and then create thumbnails. This took several hours, but finally completed. When it finished, I could see all of my movies as events in the iPhoto Videos section of the Event Library within iMovie.
The problem I'm having is that every time I launch iMovie it takes 5 minutes or more to actually open up. The program launches and then I get the spinning beach ball. Opening activity monitor and shows iMovie as "unresponsive" and there is massive disk read activity for a long time. It seems like it's scanning my drive and looking at a LOT of the files. Gigabytes of data is read. After a while, it finally settles down and I can see all the events. All of my clips appear to play fine within iMovie. But it makes using the program somewhat an awful experience as everytime I open iMovie I have to wait such a long time.
I tried trashing the preference file for iMovie and it asked me to recreate all the iPhoto library thumbnails. But I was back to square one aftewards, the same thing... long, long startup time.
Any thoughts or helpful ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

iMovie remembers which you worked with last time you used it. If this is your iPhoto Library it will load all the thumbnails from iPhoto.
To manage your movie clips yourself you can make "events" for them.
1) Make a new event from the File menu.
2) Drag in the clips from iPhoto to that event.
3) Wait until iMovie has made thumbnails for these clips only.
When you quit iMovie it will remember that you worked with this event the last time and it will only load those thumbnails. Much faster. And you can create a new event for the next batch of raw footage.
The downside of this is that you get some videos duplicated so you have them in both iPhoto and iMovie on your disk.

How do I use an iPhoto library stored on an external HDD (time capsule) on the new photos app?

I have recently upgraded to a MacBook Air with the latest 10.10.3 updates as such it has photos installed, not iPhoto. The MacBook I'm upgrading from still had 10.9 and as such had iPhoto app.
The MacBook air has a smaller SSD (128GB) than the HDD from my 2008 MacBook, and isn't big enough to store my iPhoto library (over 150GB). I want to just keep my library on the external HDD (which is an Apple Time Capsule).
When I follow the steps on Designate a System Photo Library in Photos - Apple Support it seems to want to import all the photos, it took hours to get to just 3% of importing so I left over night. In the morning it said my MacBooks storage isn't big enough, which of course it isn't - I didn't want to import the library on my new MacBook Air !
I just want to change the location that photos looks for the library every time it opens, I don't actually want it to import the whole library which it appears to have tried to do. thanks!

Thanks for getting back to me!
It is connected over wireless. I don't have an RJ45 connection on the MacBook Air (although will purchase an adapter if needed). Even if I do have an RJ45 connection does this mean I can only ever use wired to view my external photo library?
I suppose having the wired connection will give me the time to organise my photos and delete some of the rubbish (which I would have liked to do on my old MacBook first but it was running too slow, especially with such a big photo library - so I treated myself to a new MacBook Air so I did!).
And I guess I could then put my favourite photos on the MacBook Air and have a separate library of older/lesser used photos on the Time Capsule and just access those as and when over RJ45 network cable. I prefer to use wireless as much as possible as the Time Capsule is normally stored in a room I don't use the MacBook or other wireless devices !

I don't know what has happened but I can't open iPhoto. When I try to open it I receive a caution "The iPhoto Library is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have permission to make changes to it." How do I solve this??!!

I don't know what has happened but I now can't open iphoto. I get a caution when I try which says the iphoto library is locked! It was working perfectly fine this afternoon until I tried to upload some photos from my camera and my computer started to run very slow and wasn't recognising my camera. I tried to quit iphoto and then when I came back in to it, this was the message I received. As far as I am aware I didn't alter any settings or put on any locks. Please help!!

What version of iPhoto? Assuming 09 or later...
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

IPhoto 6 slow to open and close

I have a mac mini with an external drive connected via firewire. IPhoto 6 works really fast on the mac mini...no problems. I just got a new MacBook Pro and can mount the external drive...no problem.
When I open iphoto and point to the iPhoto library on the external drive, it takes forever to open. Once it is open, it is a bit sluggish, but works OK. Then it takes forever to close as well.
I didn't think the speed over Airport was that slow....am I wrong? Why the slowdown on the MacBook Pro and the mac mini is really fast? Thought it would be the other way around.
I called Apple Care and they had me reinstall Tiger...nothing changed. Please help. Thanks.

Brent:
From the posts I've read about it accessing large data files like images over Airport is going to be rather slow. Close all of the rolls before closing and then see if that improves the closing and opening process. There's just a lot of data that has to be transferred.
Do check the Airport forum as there may be some tricks available that will help speed up the process.
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.

Can I store an iPhoto library on Time Capsule?

I would like to store my iPhoto library externally. Can I store it on my Time Capsule or do I need an additional, external hard drive?

I would like to store my iPhoto library externally. Can I store it on my Time Capsule
Please do NOT do this.
Access to the library will be very slow, even more so if you are using wireless. More importantly, there is a real danger that any break in communication between iPhoto and the iPhoto library will create a corruption issue that will likely affect the entire library, rendering it useless. Confirm with the experts in the iPhoto support area about this to verify.
iPhoto
In addition, if you move the iPhoto library to the Time Capsule......have you thought about how you will back up the iPhoto library that is on the Time Capsule? Obviously, you will still need another hard drive to backup the "original" iPhoto library on the Time Capsule.
A much better plan would be to connect a USB or FireWire drive directly to your Mac.....and move the iPhoto library to that hard drive. Access to the library will be fast....just as if the library was on your Mac's hard drive.
Then.....Time Machine can be set up to back up both your Mac and the hard drive to the Time Capsule. That would be a minimum backup plan. Many of us who value our images make additional copies of the library on yet another hard drive on a regular basis.

IPhoto Library Slow

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