IPhoto missing photo's. rebuild already done

After the recent update of iphoto 9.3.1. I can't work on some photo's anymore. They do appear in the library as thumbnail but if you click on it an exclamation point in a triangle appears. Rebuild the library but the problem remains. It concerns photos recently uploaded, about 25 in total. The filesize seems to be fine (3.4mb) and exporting the corrupted photo doesn't work. Any advice to follow appreciated.
Using a macbook pro 2012 edition.

The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.
Are you running a Managed or a Referenced Library?
A Managed Library, is the default setting, and iPhoto copies files into the iPhoto Library when Importing. The files are then stored in the Library package
A Referenced Library is when iPhoto is NOT copying the files into the iPhoto Library when importing because you made a change at iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced. (You unchecked the option to copy files into the Library on import) The files are then stored where ever you put them and not in the Library package. In this scenario you are responsible for the File Management.

Similar Messages

IPhoto Library Manager hasn't managed to find missing photos after rebuild

I'm trying to repair what I assume is my pal's corrupted iPhoto Library. There are over 8000 images in the Originals folder, which is the number of photos expected to be in iPhoto but he suddenly discovered there were only 1200.
Having tried to rebuild the library with iPhoto Library Manager it is still only showing 1200 photos and I therefore wondered whether anyone can recommend any other solutions for trying to recover the missing photos?
As always, any help most appreciated
Kind Regards
Bernard

Did you try to rebuild with iPhoto with "Find orphans" option selected? If that doesn't work you'll have to start over with a new library as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
1 - Move the existing library folder to the desktop
2 - Open the library package like this.
3 - Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4 - Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.

IPhoto Missing Photos, Unique Situation

Hi everybody,
I am in what I believe to be (after a bit of Googling and forum searching) in a unique position with my iPhoto Library. The library in question used to be maintained without keeping copies in the actual library (by using the relevant option in iPhoto Preferences), as I like to maintain my own folder hierarchy for the actual photo file storage. However, after a hard drive upgrade and the move to iPhoto '08, I decided I'd like to change this. Before moving to '08, though, I needed a way to get all my then-aliased photos into the library itself. So, I used a program called Synk (basically a backup program) which was able to resolve all the aliases to photos elsewhere and replace them with the actual photos in my iPhoto library.
The old system and paths have since been replaced (due in no small part to a hard drive crash), and I'm now having an issue with those photos whose links no longer work. Apparently, said links weren't working during the resolution of the aliases, and so a number of broken links made their way into the new library and are now still there. And, unfortunately, those photos were stored on a drive which no longer exists, meaning anytime I try to click on one of those photos, iPhoto gives me the spinning beach ball of death for a minute or two (per photo) as it tries to connect to that drive. When it finally fails, it brings up the "Could not find this photo" dialogue box and gives me the option to find it, but to do this for all the missing links (as there are quite a few) would be extremely tedious.
So, I'm wondering what ideas people have as to go about restoring my library. I still have all (or at least most) of the missing photos in question on disk; they're just not properly linked. And I'd really like to keep all my tagging, renaming, and comment info for the photos that are there, given I've done extensive work in these areas. Thanks for any help.

CyberMonk:
I hope you didn't use Synk on the entire library package. Because it cannot parse the database file's contents which is the heart and soul of the library. I'm afraid you may not be able to resurrect the library.
Since the links for the alias files are broken unless you can re-link each file you'll have to start over from scratch by creating a new, empty library and importing the photos again. I don't know of any application that can do that.
Do you get a warning window when double clicking on a thumbnail indicating that the original file cannot be found and asks if you'd like to find it? If so, if you can find and re-link one photo in an event it may re-link all of the photos in that event as they are all in the same folder. But you have to be able to get to that warning window.
If the above fails I strongly recommend you setup a "managed" library to prevent this type of problem again.
You could run a managed library of all your photos on the external HD and have a smaller library on the laptop for the most current and those you need. You can use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager to manage the multiple libraries and copy files via albums or event between the two while maintaining the keywords, comments and title.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) 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 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger 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 missing photos, sorta...

A strange thing recently happened with my iPhoto. Yes, my Mac and all
apps are up to date.
I imported some photos from my iPhone. After the import, not all the
photos show up in the "Photos" or "Events" sections. However, they do
show up in "Last Import" and a smart album I set up called "Last 6
Months".
At first I thought it may be a date error, but the metadata is correct
and the photos are not marked as hidden. Please help.
PS: I have Photo Stream enabled, therefore do I even need to be
importing my photos from my iPhone? Does Photo Stream copy my photos
to my library automatically?

have Photo Stream enabled, therefore do I even need to be importing my photos from my iPhone? Does Photo Stream copy my photos to my library automatically?
Make sure you have iPhoto's Photo Stream preference pane set to automatically import the PS photos as shown below:
OT

IPhoto missing photos - do I rebuild or restore or ?

I have read & utilized many of the threads here but haven't found one that's exactly like my situation. Before I do anything that could be irreversible, I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
I opened iPhoto & the majority of my photos are missing. I had been working on iPhoto just a short time earlier & everything was fine. I had not received any error messages but had just restarted my computer.
I have an iMac (2 GHz Intel core 2 duo), use OSx Leopard 10.5.8 and iPhoto '08 (version 7.1.5).
Due to lack of space, in March I relocated my iPhoto library to a second EHD (Seagate) -- my first EHD (MyBook) backs up via Time Machine both my internal HD and the new EHD with iPhoto on it.
When I open iPhoto, it shows all the slideshows/albums but most (not all) are empty. Of the now only 30 events showing, all are populated. It seems all the photos from mid 2008 to now are missing. I checked the trash - it was empty. When I open iPhoto, the 2000 photos are only 6.5GB but my iPhoto Library on the EHD shows 155GB.
I've tried restarting the computer. I've tried ejecting the EHD, deleting the iPhoto plist, reconnecting the EHD, opening iPhoto while holding option (chose "open library"). Still only 2K photos.
I've created enough space so I can try rebuilding or restoring the library. Is that the right step now? Obviously, I'd love to retain the meta-data (is that the correct term for albums, slideshows, etc?) and am confused at which approach is best.
I've used this forum to help me in the past & am hopeful you guys can help me now.

Start with Rebuilding. If that doesn't fix it then restore.
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download <a href="http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/"><b><u>iPhoto Library Manager</b></u></a> 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.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new *iPhoto 08* library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.

IPhoto library missing photos after rebuild

I rebuilt my iphoto library as per instructions from discussion here as a repair for blank previews Now I have only 100 photos instead of 8000 what happened to my pics
When i open iphto all my albums are still there but most of them are empty and my faces are all unnamed

Did you try to rebuild with iPhoto with "Find orphans" option selected? If that doesn't work you'll have to start over with a new library as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
1 - Move the existing library folder to the desktop
2 - Open the library package like this.
3 - Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4 - Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.

IPhoto missing photos

When I open iPhoto I have a lot of pictures that are missing, deleted by accident. Now when in iPhoto, i receive the following message, "The volume for “Christmas 2005-12.JPG” cannot be found." I can cancel but the next photo comes up missing and I cannot opt out of this message. How can I remove this message from reoccuring?

You can't.
If this is the case you have
1. A Referenced Library
2. The files are stored on a different volume than the Library
and now that you have deleted the files via the Finder you have corrupted the LIbrary.
No back up? If not then you're starting over.
Regards
TD

Missing photos post rebuild

After I rebuilt my library, the next time I uploaded photos to my mac after library rebuild, a "new" library seems to have been created. I noticed this just a few weeks ago since there were only 215 photos from the last month or so in it, along with a few dozen blank/grey thumbnails. A few days ago I held down the option key on starting up iPhoto to select another library, but then when I tried to go back and find this "new" library with the 215 photos in it, it was nowhere to be found. I cannot locate any photos with a date past the rebuild date anywhere on my hard drive, and naturally these recent photos had not yet been backed up. Can someone please help me retrieve these photos? Thanks

Did you try to rebuild with iPhoto with "Find orphans" option selected? If that doesn't work you'll have to start over with a new library as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
1 - Move the existing library folder to the desktop
2 - Open the library package like this.
3 - Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4 - Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.

Missing photos in iPhoto 5

Here's what we're working with:
1) iPhoto 5.0.4
2) OS X 10.4.11
3) PowerBook G4
In brief: all photographs from 2006 have simply disappeared. Fired up iPhoto today and -- gone! They don't appear in iPhoto (although their metadata, weirdly, appears to be just fine); and they don't appear in the finder. Fixes tried thus far:
1) Rebuild the iPhoto library. All this did was lose the thumbnails in addition to the actual images already lost.
2) Permissions repair with Disk Utility. Nothing.
3) Rebuild Library with iPhoto Library Manager. Nothing.
4) Forcing the Finder, via Terminal, to show hidden files. Nothing.
5) Checking the permissions on the 2006 photos folder. Nothing.
6) Spotlight search for filenames of missing files. Nothing.
I'm feeling fairly desperate at this point. Why would all our 2006 photos -- and only them -- just disappear from both iPhoto and, apparently, the Finder as well? Any help of any kind is very much appreciated here. Thanks in advance.

Your Photos should be in the iPhoto Library Folder (in your Pictures Folder). Have a look inside and see if you can find them there.
Then to recreate your library, which sounds like the database has been corrupted, follow the instructions in this article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107947
Regards
TD

IPhoto 8.1.2 - Rebuilding Photo Library - Photo Library is unreadable

Hi,
I am using iPhoto 8.1.2 and have had no issues with iPhoto for many years. However, when I tried to access iPhoto yesterday I obtained the following message:
"You can’t open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto.
You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto. QUIT"
I then tried to restart and re-install the iPhoto 8.1.2 update. Afterwards I got the following message:
"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. QUIT"
I backed up my photo library and went ahead and restarted the computer again and then proceeded to try and rebuild my photo library. After looking at several discussion threads in this forum, I hoped for the best and checked the following boxes:
- Rebuild the photos' small thumbnails
- Rebuild all of the photos' thumbnails
- Recover orphaned photos in the iPhoto library folder
- Examine and repair iPhoto library file permissions
- Rebuild the iPhoto library database from automatic backup
It took a long time, however in the end it seems like iPhoto was once again able to access my photos. However, there are 3 things that make me feel concerned:
(1) I don't think all my photos were present. Originally, if I am not mistaken, there were around 22,000 photos and now only 20,000 are present.
(2) During the process of rebuilding the library, iPhoto gobbled up another 5GB of hard disk space. I don't know why, but I think iPhoto might have doubled at least some of my photos.
(3) Afterwards it seemed like iPhoto froze during "building thumbnails" (the blue bar was about 80-90% complete) - possibly because of lack of hard disk space - and after letting it work over night, I decided to force quit iPhoto this morning.
I then decided to throw away the new "rebuilt library" because of the missing photos and the extra 5GB. After throwing the library away, I placed once again my previous backed up photo library in the pictures folder. So, essentially (I think), I am back to square one.
I would appreciate any help and advice on what I should do. I am afraid of doing the wrong thing and irremediably doing damage to my photos and photo library.
Thank you in advance.

Hi TD,
Thank you for your quick reply and support.
My HD has a capacity of about 320GB. When I received the error message I had about 24 GB free space. The actual Photo Library is about 19GB in size.
I did the back up on my hard disk, after duplicating the Photo Library I had about 5 GB left over space during the Photo Library Rebuild.
However, after I did the rebuild, the Photo Library size jumped up to over 24GB! Leaving me with only 100MB of HD space left, at this point the thumbnail rebuild seemed to stall. This is when I decided to eventually force quit iPhoto.
Now that I have thrown away the bloated Photo Library and returned to the original one, I am back at about 25GB free space.
I think I know the source of my issue, I don't know if this will help you in advising me on how to get myself out of this mess. I foolishly did a clean up of my hard disk with a clean up / space freeing program. I think one of the little files that was accidentally cleaned up was linked to / related to my iPhoto library.
Thanks for the link to iPhoto Library Manager. I realize that this is definitely an option, but if possible for me only as a last resort (I would like to keep all the books, and calendars data, etc. if possible).
Are there any other solutions? Why did iPhoto double some photos during the rebuild? Why did my Photo Library bloat up in size during the rebuild?
Did I check too many check boxes? Can I attempt another rebuild and if so, what can I do to do it properly?
Thank you again for your help.

Help: Iphoto 6 photos missing, gray box with exclaimation point

Hi all. I am a terrible manager of my 14K photos. My husband said my system could not process updates because I have so little hard drive space, so I went on this massive effort to purge photos I did not need. I thought I was being virtous by going to the pictures folder from finder, finding the album, and deleting there, but now I have learned that I actually need to delete from the iphoto library. Now, when I go into i photo, there are a lot of big empty gray boxes with an exclaimation point, including for photos I know I did not delete (I can still see the thumbnail in some cases). I am using i photo 6 and would hate to lose these pictures. We have an external hard drive and I was in the process of moving some of the files and videos. Can someone help? I am also wondering what the best way to clean up my library is. Thanks in advance for anyone who can help! I live abroad and so can't go into an Apple store for help. Thanks!

That's an indicagtion the the file path to the original image files has been broken. Make a temporary, backup copy (if you don't already have a backup copy) of the library and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/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: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
Happy Holidays

Missing photos after importing from iPhoto

I have a big iPhoto library that span from 2002 until today.
Launching Photo for the first time started the import of the default iPhoto library, when finished the problem is not everything has been imported.
I have not done photo by photo check, but for instance all 2014 photos are missing and since I see less photo in previous years and in 2015 also photos from other years are missing.
I can't reimport the iPhoto library (I have not been able to find how), so my question is how can I import the whole iPhoto library to Photos?

First off that is a bad practice - never have any computer program delete things - import photos and keep them - after at least one successful backup cycle has taken place and you are sure your photos are safely on the Mac and backed up then use the camera's format command to erase and reformat the card
You can try to backup your iPhoto library and hold down the option and command keys while launching iPhoto - repair permissions and rebuild the database form the resulting first aid window - that may recover your photos - if it does not then photo recover software like media recover is the next step
LN

Migrating iPhoto to Aperture 3 and the case of missing photos

I love the new Aperture 3 and am so excited to migrate from iPhoto. I have used the Aperture feature of importing an entire iPhoto library directly into a new Aperture library. This doesn't produce any errors (except for a handful of missing photos which aren't too important), but when I look at the resultant Aperture library (8 hours later), I am missing a LOT of photos. My iPhoto library has about 24,000 photos and my Aperture library only has about 16,000. Because of the differences in the way Aperture and iPhoto keep track of edits, my Aperture library should have considerably more photos than iPhoto and not less. Please help!

In new iLife 09 (or iPhoto 09), some pics are now black in the Event, simply an outline of dotted lines. Yet, when I cursor fast, they appear, so I know there are still there.
That doesn't mean that they are "still there". It means that a cached version of the image exists.
I recall, when migrating photos it noted that the photos in iPhoto (old system) needed to be formatted to new iPhoto, so I allowed. Makes me wonder if something in a pic title or such is the issue.
That's a standard procedure when you upgraded to the later version of iPhoto. Happens every time to up a version, and to everyone.
With regard to Portrait. When I import from iPhoto to Aperture, any Portrait picture has a 2nd verson next to it, but in the Horizontal. All Horizontal pics, there is only the one version of the pic.
Your camera has an Auto-Rotate feature. However, the camera does not actually rotate any pixels in the file, but instead flags it with an instruction: "Display me this way". iPhoto, seeing the flag, reads the intention and creates a modified version. Hence the second version of the Portrait pics and no second version of the Landscape ones. The landscape ones don't have an auto-rotate tag.
For the dotted line problem, try rebuild your iPhoto Library: 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.
Regards
TD

Project in iPhoto library is missing photos

I am using an iphoto library for photos in both iphoto and Aperture 3.5. My O/S is Mavericks on a MBP Retina laptop.
Sometime after a recent upgrade--not sure it was the Mavericks, iphoto, or Aperture--I noticed that I was unable to edit picture in one of my favorite events/projects. This was a collection of JPEG and RAW files in PEF (Pentax) format. The thumbnails and metadata are present but the photos are missing.
I have already tried all of the options available in rebuilding the iphoto library using the option/command keys with no success.
Any help appreciated!

First of all, try to save at least the previews by dragging the thumbnails from the aperture Browser window to a folder on your Desktop.
Then check, if the original image files are really missing from the library, or Aperture only has lost the connection between thumbnails and original image files.
Select your Aperture lbrary in the Finder and ctrl-click it. Select the option "Show package contents". In the window that will open, select and open the folder "Masters". open the subfolder of the year > month > day you imported the project to Aperture. Are the original images still there?

Missing Photos from my Iphoto library, Please Help!

#1 Woke up yesterday and noticed there are many pictures missing from my Iphoto library.
#2 The folders are still there but there are NO picture in some of them EVEN though my total picture count remains the same. About 25k pics.
#3 I do a google and some forums suggest "rebuilding" the photo album THROUGH my Iphoto Photo Library.
#4 I go ahead and start the rebuilding process which seems conceivably at the rate its going, it might take maybe a full day or more!!
#5 My laptop FREEZES for some mucked up reason at about 5500 photos rebuilt so far. I am forced to force quit Iphoto and RESTART the whole process.
#6 Now during the "rebuild" process. The process stops at and ONLY recognizes up to the 5500 photos.
#7 Now my library ONLY says 5500 photos instead of the 25k
#8 All of my photo FOLDERS still remain.
#9 A little tidbit, I don't know why but my external 2tb hd is somehow connected to my Iphoto, where if my EX HD is not connected I will be missing many photos from my mac laptop Iphoto Library while disconnected.
#10 2 things, I have not backed up my library since Dec 2010, BUT i also have added very little photo since then.
PLEASE HELP ME KIND MAC PEOPLE, What can I do? Where have all my photos in my library gone? Why will it only rebuild now only to 5500 photos. Please shoot my some ideas and help if you can. Thank you very much for your kind advice and help! Humbly "Devastated" for these photos are work and family irreplacable :[

It is unlikely that your problem is a corruped preference file - the correction for that is
A good general step for strange issues is to renew the 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 and reset any personal preferences you have changed and if you have moved the iPhoto library repoint to it. This may help
This does not affect your photos or any database information (keywords, faces, places, ratings, etc) in any way - they are stored in the iPhoto library - the iPhoto preference file simply controls how iPhoto works - which is why renewing it is a good first step.
It is likely that you have a corrupted library - and backups are NOT just to protect against hardware failures
Note - things fail - software - computers - people - and if you do NOT always have a current backup you will lose all of your photos and other data sooner or later
And the managed library has NOTHING to do with the library you have selected - it has to do with iPhoto preferences you have selected -
Were the "missing" photos only missing when the EHD was no tavailable as you implied?
and 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 - if htat option checked or unchecked?
LN

IPhoto missing photo's. rebuild already done

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